They’ve dusted off a 35-year-old woodfired oven to cook oysters, a wagyu cheeseburger and garlic butter pipis, helped down by European wines and signature cocktails.
The first venue is for you. Everything after is for your diners.
“That’s what one of our wine reps said to us one night over a few drinks,” Leaham Claydon says. “The first one, you’ve just got to open the place. You need to do something you want to do. The next one, you do something people want, not what you want.”
So if opening Snug in March 2024 was for Claydon and his partner and co-owner, Jianne Jeoung, neighbouring Jane’s Deli and Bar Cooper’s are for the Coorparoo locals who have embraced the young-gun chefs these past 24 months.
The idea for Bar Cooper’s came first, but Jane’s Deli opened before it, in December.
With an efficiently designed L-shaped dining room arranged beside a low-set chef’s counter and a 35-year-old woodfired oven (which was left over from previous tenant California Native and hadn’t been used for a decade), Claydon and Jeoung say they’re not trying to break any boundaries with Bar Cooper’s, it’s simply intended to become a local favourite.
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“It doesn’t need to be the best. We just want people to love coming here,” Claydon says. “It’s like Julius [in Fish Lane] for us. Julius is our favourite. The food isn’t meant to be groundbreaking, but it’s just the best to fill yourself after a long weekend. We love going there every Sunday afternoon or evening.
“There’s something to be said about a restaurant that’s super-consistent, because that is the hardest thing to do.”
With consistency and comfort in mind, Claydon and Jeoung have kept Bar Cooper’s debut menu relatively straightforward.
“We’ve tried not to use any unknown ingredients that we have to explain,” Jeoung says. “We wanted a simple starting point, and then we can dive in a bit more.”
But the pair haven’t let that approachability get in the way of a few flourishes. “Five or six” dishes are cooked in the woodfired oven, including a dry-aged Wagyu cheeseburger served with fries, while “many of the others are touched by the grill”.
Designed for locals to engage with on their own terms, the menu is split into snacks, then smaller and larger plates.
If you’re wiling away some time in the bucolic courtyard, there’s woodfired rock oysters with a chicken veloute and tarragon; flatbread served with green garlic butter and parmesan; and a daily selection of cured meats.
The interior is more about intentional diners going large on plates such as seasonal raw fish with agrodolce shallots, artichoke, lemon and olive oil; garlic buttered pipis with kombucha and fermented chilli; cold poached king prawns served with tomato caper mayo and curry leaf; chicken schnitzel with brown butter, anchovy and a fried egg; and wood-roasted market fish with jalapeno, coriander and jus.
“It reminds me a little of a pub,” Claydon says. “They have those different zones, and different areas for different people, so they can cater for any occasion. It really suits this area to have a place like that, where people are coming for different reasons.”
For drinks, manager Sam Pritchard and Jeoung have compiled a wine list that leans more towards Europe than Snug’s Australian-focused list, while Pritchard has called on her experience working the bar at Caretaker’s Cottage, Romeo Lane and Death & Taxes to develop a cocktail list that boasts eight signatures.
The restaurant itself has been given a low-key fitout, its preference for timber and cool greens meaning it sings from the same design sheet as Snug on one side and Jane’s Deli on the other, giving the three venues the feel of their own miniature precinct.
Open Wed-Sat 5pm-10pm, Sun 12pm-3pm.
321 Chatsworth Road, Coorparoo.
instagram.com/barcoopers.bne
Matt Shea is Food and Culture Editor at Brisbane Times. He is a former editor and editor-at-large at Broadsheet Brisbane, and has written for Escape, Qantas Magazine, the Guardian, Jetstar Magazine and SilverKris, among many others.
