SITE Hospitality officially unveiled Mozza Mozza Italian restaurant at Southport Sharks on the weekend, creating a new Gold Coast club hotspot. The opportunity was presented by the club to Dave Galvin (ex Pony, Sydney and QT hotels) and his SITE Hospitality group with club CEO Dean Bowtell and the board meeting agreement on what is believed to be a unique arrangement for a Queensland club and its outsourced operator.
“We played out a few scenarios, including license agreement, food-only sales, however, the drink creation and sales were critically important for us to execute the concept, and for us to take on the opportunity,” said Galvin of CRAFTY’S Sports Bar fame, who secured the location in mid-2021.
“We ended up taking over an existing legacy restaurant site and an event bar, amalgamated both spaces and carved out 400sqm to lock in our own food and liquor licence within the Southport Sharks,” he told Club Management.
“Additionally we had to have a venue that could be completely closed off to the club, and we had to control no drinks coming into the venue, or leaving the club.
“As far as we are aware, this is the only external liquor and food license within a registered club in Queensland.”
Southport Sharks CEO Dean Bowtell welcomed the opening of Mozza Mozza inside the Olsen Avenue club on Saturday.
“To partner with a proven hospitality operator with a strong understanding of the northern Gold Coast market was an important consideration when we decided to introduce a new food concept under a lease arrangement,” Bowtell said.
“Dave Galvin’s rich experience in the industry provided the ideal fit for our club and the opening of a modern-age Italian restaurant continues the evolution of the Southport Sharks. We are delighted to welcome the Mozza Mozza team to our club and we trust our members and customers will enjoy the food and the experience.”
The Italian kitchen and bar offers everything from tableside cheese wheels and tiramisu to wood-fired mozza(rella) pizzas, fried mortadella sandos, negroni slushies with a side of disco tunes.
With a four-metre-tall olive tree as the centrepiece, the 160-seater will offer long lunches (Friday to Sunday) and dinners (Wednesday to Sunday), with Gold Coast born-and-bred head chef Mitch Chesterton slinging the classic Italian dishes.
Chesterton (ex Alchemy, Michaels on Tedder Ave, Peak Dining at Iceworks in Paddington and former chef/owner of the award-winning Iku in Burleigh) spent years in his early days travelling from the top to the bottom of Italy, sampling all the regions cuisine.
The 48-hour fermented pizzas straight from the woodfired oven are expected to be a big drawcard with toppings such as Italian salami, peperoncino chilli and parmesan; a wild mushroom ragu, black truffle paste, mozzarella and thyme; as well as the white-based potato pizza with green olives, pancetta, ricotta and the restaurant’s namesake mozzarella.