Professionals Tamborine Mountain 
It hasn’t even been open a year yet and yet Main St. Provedore has dinner bookings months in advance, and its coffee is talk of the town. Brenden Schutz, owner and chef, shares just what makes Tamborine Mountain’s newest eatery such a popular destination at all times of the day.
by Kyle Hitchmough
For those who might not understand, can you explain what Main St. Provedore is about?
It’s a French-style espresso bar. Coffee, fresh pastries in the mornings, and then we go into deli-style lunches with sandwiches and wine available, cheese platters, wine, meats, deli-style products. Then on selected nights we do fine dining dinners, four courses, set menus for up to 10 people at a time, a bit ‘Chef’s table’ where everyone gets to sit at the bar and watch me cook.
What does your breakfast pastry and lunch menu look like?
Breakfast is kind of classic, croissants, chocolates, danishes, different fruits whatever season it is, cinnamon buns, and we do a savoury one with egg and jamon, which is like Spanish prosciutto. For lunch it’s just big-style deli sandwiches, New York style like pastrami and mustard. Cubans which is ham, cheese and pickles, pretty classic sandwiches from around the world. Reubens, very New York style pastrami, sauerkraut, stuff like that. All made on fresh house-made bread and made to order, which makes all the difference.
What do you mean by ‘fine dining’ dinners? What’s on offer there?
It’s towards fine dining at the moment. It’s a little four-course, like a degustation so it builds up from a vegetarian course to a fish course, like sashimi or crawfish, and then we go into a meat course and a dessert.
Is anything a particular bestseller across the range? Do you have a favourite?
Cinnamon buns sell really well! Probably that and danishes are just going off the chain. Cubans and Reubens are big sellers, and we do a beautiful vegetarian sandwich, very Mediterranean. Artichokes, sun-dried tomatoes, caper berries, big flavours that fill you up. I like turkey, and the sun-dried tomatoes we use are a little bit sweet. With a lot of saltiness from olives, it’s really nice.
Where do you source your ingredients from?
I have a company up in Brisbane who do provedore stuff for me, specialized meats and cheeses that we have, worldwide cheeses, very good quality. There’s a place in Nerang too— and of course Joseph, our local grocer, as much as I can. With the dinners, because they change every month, we do seasonal stuff, and what Joseph gets in locally we use if we can in a dish. I would like to get in touch with more farmers, but it’s hard when I’m only small-quantity.
Are there any particular trends in your clientele?
Definitely we have a big local base, it’s probably 90%. We’re not too known to tourists, especially on North Tamborine. This side is really local. I really enjoy having a local base, it means I’ve got customers that just come back all the time, and I think the food’s good enough to bring them back. I find that a lot of people return having the same sandwiches, or trying a different one, they’re just coming back constantly to get stuff. In trends, some people drop off, some new people come in, not a lot, but it’s very much very local.
Are you a local? What’s your opinion on the Tamborine Mountain area and community?
Yes! I’ve found it very supportive. Everyone’s come in, everyone’s been excellent in supporting and helping me establish this business. It’s been very good. I’ve fitted into the community and it’s felt very welcoming.
What do you think Main St. Provedore really provides to the area?
That’s a good question. Hopefully, consistency with our food and something different. It’s all house made, that’s a big point of difference here. And quality. I’m a big believer in quality, I buy expensive products and I like to use quality stuff to deliver good quality food to people. With our dinners, we’re booked out for three months. They’re all locals, they always come back. They have dinner and then book that night for another one in two months. The menu changes all the time too.
What’s been your most memorable moment from your time here?
We’ve had a couple of events, we’ve done bread-making courses which were really fun, and we can extend that into pastry-making courses and all kinds of stuff. I had someone come in recently and organise an event and we kind of just ran with that, it wasn’t really something I advertised. I ask what I can do and I’ll do whatever they want.
What do you enjoy most about doing this?
I like making people happy through food. I like people enjoying something so much that they keep coming back, and I like to give someone something different. On our set menus for night times, I love to give people stuff they wouldn’t normally order and for them to enjoy it. To bring different techniques, different foods, different cooking ways, and finding that they really do enjoy black pudding or beef tongue, something like that.
Is there anything else you’d like to go on the record?
We are looking to expand the business; we’re doing a casual tapas in between dinners that’ll probably kick off a lot more through October into summer. Very Spanish, prawns and squid, very seafood based. Lots of wine, lots of fun, nice and quick— compared to the dinners that take two hours, you can be in and out in half an hour or stay the full two and enjoy yourself. Small dishes ranging from ten dollars up to eighteen. Pick a couple and enjoy with a glass!
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