038 VIRGIN AUSTRALIA DECEMBER 2017
OUT & ABOUT
His mission: a mini-break in the heart of Surfers
Paradise. Facing great food, cool drinking spots and
endless beaches, Bryce Corbett braves the Goldie.
The Gold Coast
Grows Up
“I need you to go to the Gold
Coast and spend 36 hours
there,” came the request
from the editor. “Eat, drink
and play your way along
the Glitter Strip and report
back.” Dear God. What had
I done to deserve this?
Visions of tawdry motels,
bikini-clad meter maids, garish
skyscrapers and Bacardi-
Breezered schoolies loomed.
The prospect of existing ona steady diet of pizza-by-
the-slice and barely drinkable
cofee. Sophisticated is not
a word that springs to mind.
And yet listen to any one of
the Goldie’s many proponents
— from the Gold Coast mayor
to the celebrity chefs who
are increasingly inhabiting the
joint — and it seems the area
has come a long way since the
days of the Pink Poodle Motel.
My first stop is at The
Star Gold Coast (the artist
formerly known as Jupiters
Gold Coast). I have a lunch
scheduled with The Star
Entertainment Group’s CEO,
Matt Bekier. I pull into the car
park and enter the premises
fully expecting to dodge
Zimmer frames among dimly lit
rows of pokies and to pick myway past pensioners queueing
for the all-you-can-eat bufet.
What I find instead is a light-
filled series of atria.
Bekier and I meet and eat
at The Star’s Garden Kitchen
& Bar — a large, open space
that spills out onto a wide lawn
rimmed by tropical foliage.
“It used to be a dark,
Irish-themed pub called the
Prince Albert, oddly enough,”
Bekier explains, “but we
knocked out some walls to
take advantage of what
I think is the Goldie’s greatest
asset: months and months
of uninterrupted sunshine.”
Over Mooloolaba crab
cakes and a Craggy Range
chardonnay, he explains the
building frenzy currently
taking place around us: