Low-key Greek stunner destined to become an Oxford Street favourite

Detailed summary

The La Bodega team is back with another approachable diner, but this beautiful woodfired thing is anything but half-baked. Take a look inside.

Family. That’s what Maddy Colombus thinks of when she thinks of Greece.

“But those long lunches with family. That’s what brings back my last trip. A lot of sea, a lot of sun.”

Colombus is marketing manager for Good Things Group and has Greek heritage. And Good Things Group co-owner Anna Brobjer’s family used to holiday there from her native Sweden.

You start to see the logic when GTG came across an empty hospitality space in Bulimba and more or less immediately pegged it for a Greek restaurant.

It was in the light and bright premises themselves with the crazy paver floors, but also the location on Oxford Street. There are few food precincts in Brisbane that are quite this family oriented.

“We were actually looking for another concept,” Colombus says. “Anna then came through on a weekend, walked into the office on Monday and we just looked at each other.”

The result is Chara, GTG’s first Greek restaurant, and the latest in a relatively quick succession of openings since the group unveiled its first La Bodega Mexican restaurant in East Brisbane in 2023 (its most recent was a second La Bodega in Fortitude Valley earlier this year).

The team has designed the restaurant themselves, producing a low-key stunner defined by bright yellows, brass-lined tables, rattan furniture, plenty of greenery, and tiled and arched features. The signature flourish is a beautiful artwork by United States illustrator Elias Thorne as you enter the dining room.

The whole thing references Greece and the Mediterranean without slipping into cliche.

Opening of the article, excerpted from Brisbane Times. To read the rest, open the article on the publisher's site.