Tony & Claudia Pattinson

It didn’t have to be anything fancy. They didn’t want it to be pretentious or trendy like everything around them in Brisbane, where they had hoped to open a restaurant. The drive to the Gold Coast, for a New Year’s Eve party at the turn of 2016, gave Tony and Claudia Pattinson time to complain a bit about how their dream to open a modest but cool place kept being thwarted by what was happening everywhere: red tape and boring everywhere-big-city vibes.

“We don’t need anything flash,” Tony was saying, in the car. “We just need something small and affordable.

They went through a roundabout at Griffith Street in Coolangatta and there it was: a grubby, non-descript storefront with a for lease sign.

“Like that,” he said.

Tony and Claudia talk about Frank Jrs Famous Pizzeria, the dream location that lured them here from Brisbane, as a parallel of the Gold Coast. It’s easy to look quickly at Frank Jrs and to misjudge it: a bit seedy? Strip clubs and fast cars? No, step inside and it’s all soul.

“That’s the hangover from being just a holiday destination,” says Claudia, from a table in Frank Jrs. “It’s not like that anymore, and you see it if you spend any time here.”

For Tony, who still calls himself a blow-in from New Zealand, it was an easy transition to become a Gold Coaster. “If you’re just going to be a lowly pizza-maker, why not do it in a beautiful environment?”

Their philosophy, based on cool modesty, on a lack of pretention, is to make Frank Jrs a Tuesday night restaurant.

“Every restaurant’s busy Friday, Saturday, Sunday,” says Tony. “We've got to give people a reason to come out on Tuesday.” It’s not only about the food. "When you walk in, it's not just the pizza you're getting. It's the way you're welcomed at the door, the music we're playing, the wine we're drinking, the feeling you get."

The Tuesday night feeling, inspired by 1950s Italian restaurants, injects the room with something special. They don’t try to be anything they are not, another parallel with the new Gold Coast. "We try to lower the expectations, so when we over-exceed them, you feel something. You feel joy." When a customer asks whether they have a proper wine glass, his answer is a grin: "It's a glass. It's got wine in it. It's a wine glass. The juice inside is the same."

The kitchen is open, and so is the atmosphere. Chefs aren’t hidden behind stainless-steel walls, under fluorescent lights. Tables are close together on purpose.

"We're all just here to have one big dinner party," Claudia says.

Some guests arrive on their wedding night; some turn up barefoot with the kids after a day at the beach. "Just come as you are."

What makes all this possible, Tony and Claudia believe, is a spirit they never found in Sydney or Melbourne.

"There's no preconceived idea of what the Gold Coast is supposed to be," Tony says. "There's a real openness to new things."

Their family style of service was unfamiliar at first; locals took a moment to understand, then got it, then told everyone about it.

"They saw what we were offering was genuine, and they supported that," says Tony. He knows what’s been different for them, doing it here. "We'd have been successful in Brisbane, sure, but to the level we are now? No chance. It's the openness, and a true appreciation for authenticity. A tourist business sees you once and doesn't care if it ever sees you again. We wanted to give people a reason to come back."
For Gold Coasters, Frank Jrs Famous Pizzeria is an example among many of what is possible when you build something for the community first and expand from there. The second location, in Nobby’s Beach, carries the same culture. They plan to expand further.

It didn’t take long for clients to transform into community — even family. "So many of our customers became our good friends," says Claudia, some of them now nine or ten years deep. They once had four generations at a single table, all of them having a lovely time. Their own kids hang around the restaurant; the staff are thrilled to see them, and Tony lights up watching other people's children and grandparents do the same.

As they expand, Claudia vows to remain true to what has helped them distil and contribute to Gold Coast culture. What does she want everyone to feel, in the restaurants and on the Gold Coast?

"You can find a place to belong."