A new operator for Brisbane Botanic Gardens café
After an unseemly stoush with the original operator, Brisbane City Council has announced that Zen Catering will run the Brisbane Botanic Gardens cafe and function centre.
Lord Mayor Graham Quirk said Zen Catering had big plans for delivering quality catering at venues across the city.
“Not only is Zen Catering planning enhancements to the venue spaces, but they’re planning a revamp of the menu and a host of other activities to activate the gardens and encourage more visitors,” Cr Quirk told Quest News.
Zen Catering will also pay for the $643,000 fitout of the café offering breakfast and lunch seven days a week and a function venue for evening events,
The venue has been nothing short of popular.
Last year, the gardens attracted 500,000 visitors and there were 750,000 users of Mt Coot-tha walking trails.
It’s a new chapter in the story of the café which had been subject to a brawl between the council and its previous operators that had resulted in it closing down.
The issue at stake was the construction of the Legacy Way tunnel and plans to introduce food trucks to the gardens.
The proprietor Mounir Ibrahim said he was losing money because of the arrangements. Both sides accused the other of reneging on the five-year lease renewal agreement reached last year.
The council claimed it had worked with café through the construction of Legacy Way and had waived $180,000 of unpaid rent.
It all came to an end when Mr Ibrahim’s lease expired on 31 May.
Following the closure, Zen Catering, operator of the Kangaroo Point Cliffs Cafe, took over the cafe on an interim basis.
The council had also received two tenders for the lease and operation of the site.
Gambaro Enterprises had put up the second bid.
Zen Catering was awarded the nine year and ten month lease on Monday.
by Leon Gettler, November 3rd 2016
