Imagine a modern, lush, insta-worthy upmarket pub. Now add in a blend of classic and refined lunch and dinner options, late night drinks, and a breakfast menu (say what? A pub that serves the most important meal of the day? Well I never…).

And while you’re at it, throw in a killer beer garden because it’s the GC, and who even are you if you don’t have one of these?!

Well friends, we just described your new favourite eats and watering hole, Local, sitting pretty in our capital of cool, Burleigh Heads.

Founders Wesley Heincke, Steve Heincke and Sasha Mielczarek have transformed the ex-Harry’s Steak & Bistro site into a showstopping chameleon.

Nailing a coastal industrial chic aesthetic, mark our words; Local is here to stay.

With an inside/outside area spanning 350sqm, there’s plenty of real estate to cop a feed from early AM to evening and we love that for us.

When you first step inside, you’re greeted by lush greenery overhead, and equally lush green velvet booths seating up to 10 people, large-group-friendly bar tables, and a long bar set against the wall. Stacked with no less than 10 beer taps, it’s pitcher perfect.

Venture outside and you’ll find the secret sauce – Burleigh’s only beer garden! With contemporary timber panel detailing, more lush greenery, and a mix of industrial pendants and festoon lighting, we’ll be spending countless sun-drenched hours here enjoying (too) many summer bevvies.

Seating up to 70 people, there’s four large picnic tables and three booths, making it a great spot for larger groups. The only thing that could make this place better is a tinnie bar and colour us happy, there’s one of those too! Stocked with not only a huge range of craft beer but seltzers and the like too, our Local fangirling just levelled up a notch.

Head Chefs Jack Horder and Jimin Lee certainly know their way around a modern pub grub menu, with both casual and more fancy fare.

Let’s start with breakfast because this seems logical, and we’re zeroing in on the Cured Salmon with beetroot cured salmon, pickled cucumber, eschalots, wasabi mayo, and dill on sourdough.

Never one to say no to a morning cocktail, the Berocc Obama not only pleases our punny side, but also our palette with Smirnoff vodka, Berocca, kombucha, and lemonade.

Now let’s talk PM, and the lunch and dinner menu is everything we’d hoped for.

For those traditional pub food lovers, you can’t go past the Chicken Schnitzel, featuring a house-made schnitzel served with a leaf salad, shoestring fries, and your choice of diane, mushroom, or pepper sauce.

Feeling a bit highbrow? Then it’s gotta be the Duck, with pan fried duck breast, roast pumpkin purée, confit grapes, toasted hazelnuts, wild rocket, watercress, and a light jus.

And for dessert, tuck into a Chocolate Fudge Brownie with vanilla bean ice cream.

To accompany your delicious pub grub, you need a Local Anaesthetic and no, we are not carting you off to Pindara but referring to Local’s signature cocktail. It’s a take on an old fave, the Long Island Ice Tea, with vodka, gin, rum, triple sec, Chambord, lemon, lime and lemonade. Pair it with a little something to share and as if we can ever knock back a Lobster Roll. With tempura battered lobster, lobster mayo, apple, lettuce, togarashi, watercress and chipotle aioli served in a soft bun, you’d be cray-zy to say no.

So the message here is clear. Whether you’re young or old, feeling a chill breakfast, hearty feed, or late night bev, your new local is Local.

Where: 1744 Gold Coast Highway, Burleigh Heads
When: 6.30am – late, Monday – Sunday

Words by Bianca Trathen.

New cafes never cease to sizzle our bacon, especially those that are convenient, feel like home and above all, serve up incredible nosh. You know the kind – simple done right and whilst this sounds, well, simple enough to find, it can be like trying to locate your missing hoop earring on a packed Melba’s dance floor circa 2009 (in other words; bloody hard). Well we’ve discovered a place that delivers all of the above, with a super catchy name to boot. Chut & Co is bringing a fresh vibrant cafe to Mermaid Plaza, so you can pop in for a caffeine fix or feed before you drop your monthly salary on a week’s worth of groceries #2023Woes.

Chut & Co is the real deal. The brainchild of a humble carpenter passionate about coffee, Joey Vevjoda knows an opportunity when he sees it….and he saw it! One of this ex-Canberra local’s most brag-worthy moves was making Chut the champion of ONA coffee here on the GC. Also hailing from our country’s capital, ONA Coffee Roasters is one of the most recognised up and coming coffee carriers in Australia, and we have big love for his man for bringing it to our ‘hood.

In addition to cracking coffee, he’s enlisted Head Chef Fernando Giorgi to whip up some srsly mouth-watering café fare. Creating a masterfully curated breakfast and lunch menu, his 16 years’ experience and love for Mediterranean food is obvs when you peruse the meals on offer.

Speaking of, do yourself a favour and order the Pesto Joe with chicken, pesto, avo, tomato, cheese, spinach toasted on sourdough. We’re also partial to a Burrito with all.the.things, including bacon, a scrambled egg patty, avo, beans and corn salsa, crunchy slaw and cheese, served with hash sticks and spicy dipping sauce. Or for something sweet, the Choc-Chip or Blueberry Pancakes are guaranteed to please even the most discerning sweet tooth, both served with vanilla ice cream.

Pair your meal with your choice of coffee or other hot drink, smoothie (can’t beat the Classic Banana!), cold drink, milkshake, thickshake (swing us the Crème Brule any or every day of the week), and cold pressed juice. Our pick is the Lemon Glow with lemon, ginger, apple and spinach and we can confirm a swig of this will result in an all-round inner and outer glow-up #YouAreWhatYouDrink.

Another unique aspect of Chut is that the fit out was done entirely by Joey himself, who put his carpentry skills and other trade related prowess to darn good use! Picture a cool grey colour palette with pops of charcoal, white, and plenty of on-trend drapey greenery goodness #PlantsAreLyf. There are arches (yay!), polished concrete floors, funky brown leather chairs, rustic wood tables, and moody white pendant lights highlighting the textured render on the walls. It feels modern yet like you’re right at home and we’d be happy to move in here, mostly coz we’ve always fancied the idea of having a private chef #goals.

So if service with a smile, great tasting coffee and top-notch quality food, all conveniently located in Mermaid Plaza, check out Chut & Co. And PS if you’re wondering (we were) what Chut actually means, it’s Czech (Joey’s heritage) for taste….which is precisely what it delivers.

Where: Mermaid Plaza, 2400 Gold Coast Highway, Mermaid Beach
When: 5.30am – 2pm Monday to Friday & 6am – 1pm Saturday & Sunday.

Words by Bianca Trathen.
Images by Brittany Kreskas.

After 15 years competing as an IronMan Matt Poole announced his retirement earlier this year. In a fitting full-circle moment his last competition was held at Kurrawa, where he made his debut in 2007. We chatted to the new father about his drive to become a professional sportsman, what he loves about the Gold Coast and why he won’t be waiting for a cooked duck to land in his mouth!

How long have you been a Gold Coast local?
I moved to the Gold Coast from Sydney when I was 18. I’ve been here on the GC the entire time except for 6 years on the Sunshine Coast.

Tell us a bit about yourself.
I moved to the GC at 18 to pursue my sporting dream of becoming a professional IronMan, I spent 15 years racing professionally only just retiring earlier this year in April. Highlights of my sporting career include winning the 2017 Kellogg’s Nutri-Grain IronMan series, 2022 Shaw & Partners Shannon Eckstein Ironman classic, 2014 Molokai2Oahu World paddle board championships and winning gold at the ISA games in Fiji for team Australia. Outside of my sporting career I’ve got two businesses where I am a co-owner, MAMAN Bar & Kitchen in James St Burleigh and Gravity Seltzer.

Who/what inspired you to pursue a professional career as an ironman?
I grew up at the beach and fell in love with the ocean from a very young age. My Dad would take me in the water with him and pushed me into waves on a surfboard. I played a lot of sports growing up, but Surf Life Saving was my calling and through my teenage years really started to succeed and do well. I first qualified for the professional Ironman series at age 18.

Do you have any advice for aspiring athletes?
The life of a professional athlete is tough.. it takes hard work, dedication, sacrifice and resilience. Work hard, enjoy what you are doing and make it your passion!

How do you define success?
Success can be defined or measured a million different ways from a million different people. For me specifically success was always determined by training, racing and competing at my optimum. Winning races is the ultimate reflection of success, but sometimes for me I raced amazing, didn’t win and still deemed it a success.

In 2020 you teamed up with Oli Frost on opening Maman Bar and Kitchen. What made you want to get into the hospitality scene on the Gold Coast?
Oli Frost is a good friend of mine, he’s got one of the best business minds I know so when he came to me with an opportunity to partner up with him and launch MAMAN here on the Gold Coast, I jumped at it! We opened at the start of Covid which was always a risk, but even that aside we have continued to grow from strength to strength and are now a known and loved restaurant here on the coast.

You announced your retirement from competition earlier this year. Talk us through that decision.
I announced my retirement earlier this year in Feb, I still had a few more major events to round out the season but the timing felt right. 15 years racing professionally and I never left a stone unturned with my training and preparation. It takes its toll on the body physically and also mentally. I love racing and I love winning, when you lose motivation and you’re constantly getting injured it makes training suffer which in turn affects performance.. having said that, after I announced my retirement, I had my best results in Kellogg’s & Summer of Surf series races, but I enjoyed to go out on top, haha.

What’s next for Matt Poole?
My life has transitioned/ changed massively since finishing up my athlete career. I now have my beautiful daughter Posy who is 4 months old, I’m working with Gravity Seltzer to unlock new venues on and off premise for both our alcoholic and Non- Alcoholic range. I’m working on a podcast which is set to launch early 2023 and I’m also doing some commentary work with ch7 this season for Summer of Surf.

Health and wellness is obviously an integral part of your life, how do you intend to continue to incorporate that into your daily routine?
I thought after retirement I would take a long hiatus from any forms of training, however I quickly realised how much I love and miss that feeling you get after a hard session. Although I’m not training like a professional athlete, I still love staying fit and healthy. Mostly I go to gym, run, ocean swim, surf and a little Ocean Ski paddling.

What is the best piece of advice that you have ever been given?
Best advice I have ever been given… It’s more of a quote but it’s still advice: “The hunter who waits for the cooked duck to land in his mouth, is going to be a hungry hunter” – It’s weird, but since retiring I’ve realised you have to work hard for everything in life. You can’t just wait around for opportunities to land at your doorstep.

What do you love most about living on the Gold Coast?
I love the beaches, restaurants and warm weather! I live a stone’s throw from the beach and waking up, going for a morning ocean swim and grabbing a coffee on the way home is the perfect way to start any day!

Do you have any Gold Coast favourites you keep going back to?
Café/Coffee spot: The Kiosk Burleigh Pav
Restaurant: MAMAN
Bar or place for a drink: Burleigh Pav
Beach: Burleigh

How do you choose to spend your weekends?
I love spending my weekends eating out, surfing, fishing and having a drink with mates.