Boonah Bowls Club in South-East Queensland will reopen under private management, with a new restaurant, The Bowls, by award-winning local chef Jack Stuart from Blume Restaurant. The venue will be run by Emily Lochran from Scenic Rim Events in Kalbar.
The pair will collaborate on the venue, 100km west of the Gold Coast, to bring it back to life, creating a new modern venue and kitchen that will hero Scenic Rim produce at family-friendly, affordable prices.
Fassifern Sports Club, an amalgamation of six clubs that owned the Boonah clubhouse and bowling green, sold the property to Richard and Alice Gorman from Kalfresh, a prominent local farming and agribusiness family. They have declined to comment on the purchase.
A clubhouse makeover is currently underway at the now pokie-free venue with a summer 2023 opening planned. The result will be a family-friendly dining experience, featuring a spot for cocktails at the bar, barefoot bowling or a social game of croquet on the green, all overlooking spectacular mountain views.
The menu will use produce from paddocks patrons can literally see from an inside dining area or the outside lawn option.
“We live in an incredible food bowl – there’s no need for long food miles when everything surrounds us here in the Scenic Rim,” Lochran said. “And the fact we are also at the Bowls Club, makes the reincarnation perfect for the local community, the region and for visitors.”
Lochran added that there will be no frozen schnittys on Stuart’s menu.
“Instead, think handmade pasta with in-season flavoursome local produce, like ricotta gnocchi, broad bean and walnut pesto, pecorino or a risotto of Harrisville mushrooms with truffle pecorino, or lasagne of rabbit, duck and wild boar,” she said.
“We’ll shine the light on our wonderful producers with dishes like Tommerup veal cotoletta, anchovy butter, and Coochin full-blood wagyu T-bone with Boonah butter.”
The Outside Menu will feature share plates of Scenic Rim olives and cheeses, free-range chicken liver parfait, zucchini pickles, toasted focaccia and Harrisville mushrooms. There will also be Beaudesert Crayfish and potato brioche rolls served with hand-cut russet fries and smoked garlic mayo. Stuart expects Troy’s tomatoes from Peak Crossing and Mt Tamborine mozzarella with The Bowl Cheeseburger set to be a standout.
“There is incredible local produce in the Scenic Rim,” he says. “If you want the best cream and milk, then call Tommerup Farm; great sheep’s milk and cheese, then Towri is not too far from Blume. Live crayfish can be purchased at Beaudesert from Alex at Australian Freshwater Traders. It’s pretty simple isn’t it!”
The Scenic Rim was recently named by Lonely Planet as one of the Hottest 10 Regions in the World to visit.
