Bistro Tino opens in Fortitude Valley
Taking over the World War II-era digs previously occupied by King Arthur Cafe, Bistro Tino is a daytime diner unlike any other.
Mark Rotolone didn’t think he was James Street material.
“I was young, a bit naive and eager, and I guess we came from the back streets of New Farm… so I felt like I had something to prove,” he says, laughing.
Rotolone is talking about opening Mosconi in 2019. And that catches you off guard in 2026, because if there’s one restaurant in the James Street area that everyone can agree on, it’s the World War II restaurant on Arthur Street. Housed inside a World War II-era Nissen hut is the small Mosconi, which seats 100 people.
For years it was half of a neighborhood favorite for two next to the King Arthur Cafe, which is also housed in a Nissen lodge with its distinctive curved ceiling.
King Arthur Cafe later closed. And Rotolone no longer felt like a stranger. So he opened Bistro Tino on site earlier this week.
Rotolone says there wasn’t much of a brief for designer Meredith Burke of By Burke Design for Tino. It was more of a series of spitballs over Friday lunch at Mosconi’s.
“I sent the first photo of the finished space the other day, and Meredith said, ‘It was a quick fit.’ But it never actually happened,” he says.
“It was more of an idea to take you somewhere else. The place you just happened to go to on vacation and go, ‘F—, this is great.’ … It wasn’t really planned out there. It wasn’t perfect. They won an award and they put it on the wall, and then there was the World Cup and they put up a Pelé poster. It just grew over time. It was a story of their lives.”
The brief was truly fulfilled. The 60-seat Tino is one of this city’s best-looking openings in a long time, but in the most homely way possible. Small tenancies like this are a rare and valuable thing in Brisbane, and he and Burke resisted the temptation to do too much about it.
Inside, dining is organized around an ocher leather banquette on one side of the ground floor and a bar built in Tasmanian oak accents with brass accents on the other. The two-tone color palette is “mission brown” and “clot cream” and the floors are finished in beautifully polished hardwood.
It feels so welcoming, so lived-in, that it takes a while to realize that the layout has changed since the days of King Arthur, with the stairs moved to the back of the venue, mirroring the Mosconi next door. Upstairs, the mezzanine is now located behind windows that can be left open or closed, depending on the nature of the reservation.
Tino’s is launching as a daytime bistro for starters, with nightly services on the way, and chef Alfie Cutler’s menu, developed under the direction of longtime Mosconi chef Catherine Anders, is an elegant and inviting take on all-day dining.
“I didn’t want it to be built on bacon and eggs,” Rotolone says. “It’s great to have something a little different that feels European.”
Dishes available throughout the day include silverbeets, butter beans, and Italian sausage served with a baguette; potato and zucchini frittata served with blue swimmer crab and creme fraiche; and Abruzzese ham, house pickles, soft-boiled eggs, served in a container and with seeded bread.
At lunchtime, a series of more angular plates are released for the afternoon; these include the pork collar bifana roll, provolone and tomato sauce; a cozy pastina minestrone; and market fish served with vierge sauce and green olives.
For drinks, there is Single O espresso, Somage teas and Hunted + Gathered organic hot chocolate. Later in the day, an aperitivo-focused cocktail list and a tight, deliberate wine list favoring European style arrive on stream.
“I don’t want anyone to feel like they have to book two weeks in advance,” Rotolone says. “You want to eat somewhere, you don’t want to get dressed up. It’s an impulsive action – ‘We’ll go, maybe I’ll have a glass of wine, let’s see how I go, I don’t need to stick to three courses.'”
Open every day between 6.30-14.30.
Matt Shea is Food and Culture Editor at the Brisbane Times. He is a former editor and editor-in-chief at Broadsheet Brisbane and has written for Escape, Qantas Magazine, Guardian, Jetstar Magazine and SilverKris, among others.
