Star Specialty-Coffee Spot Josie North Is Now Opening Late for Rotating Minimal-Intervention Wines and Bar Snacks

It’s now six years since Matt Roggenkamp opened Josie North inside Toowong’s charming old Clements Arcade. In that time, it’s become a specialty coffee go-to in the west on account of its regular rotation of roasters such as Seven Seeds, Small Batch, and Wood and Co, and an efficient but tasty menu of breakfast and lunch staples.

Now, Roggenkamp is stepping out from behind the coffee machine and keeping the doors open late on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights, turning Josie North’s cute, white-tile and timber shop into a wine bar.

“I guess my initial dream was to open a coffee shop and become a real specialty-coffee destination,” Roggenkamp says to Broadsheet. But as the venue evolved, and the team developed a sense of what the area was missing, he landed on the wine-bar concept. “[We realised] that it’s just as much about the community spirit as the coffee side of things,” he says. “So we were like, ‘Well, what can we translate to night-time?’”

After dark, the place is spotlighting natural, minimal-intervention wines from small producers in Australia, France and Italy. On the list is a regularly rotating selection of rare bottles, with five or six always available by the glass. You might order an Ochota Barrels Surfa Rosa pinot-noir rosé from the Adelaide Hills, a Momento Mori Fistful of Flowers moscato-vermentino blend from Heathcote in Victoria, or a Kuhling-Gillot Qvinterra riesling from Germany.

For food, there’s a short menu of small plates including fresh seafood (fish crudo with chilli and lemon, and soon, oysters), creamy burrata with broad beans and herbs, and umami ‘nduja toast with tomato and basil oil. For something bigger, there’s a crisp chicken-thigh cotoletta with tangy Italian slaw, and the dessert menu keeps it simple with a tiramisu.

The venue’s layout remains the same from breakfast and lunch to the PM service, with one large communal dining table inside, a bench along the front window, and a few tables outside the shop. In short, it’s Josie North up late.

“We already had such a great local community base of customers,” Roggenkamp says, “and we thought, ‘Why don’t we try and cater for this need?’ A customer would even joke, ‘You guys should serve wine at night,’ and I guess what was light-hearted banter has turned into reality now.”

Josie North
51 Sherwood Road, Toowong

Hours:
Mon to Wed 7am–1.30pm
Thu & Fri 7am–1.30pm, 5pm–late
Sat 7am–12pm, 5pm–late

josienorth.com
@josienorth.brisbane