The Mulgowie Hotel is under new management, and Wendy Coppo and her new chefs are on the same page.
Mulga manager Wendy Coppo is a Mulgowie local of six years with her partner Mark Hooper and their eight children.
“We are a family unit, therefore we wanted the pub to be that family-friendly environment,” she said.
“The kids will be picking up your plates and helping in the kids club and playing games.”
Wendy is all about family, and that is what is driving her goals for the hotel.
“We want to get the families back to the pub in an affordable and fun way to bring the community back together,” she said.
“Families are always looking for something to keep kids entertained and somewhere they can meet up with friends in a relaxing environment.”
As such, the Mulga is bringing back popular family events like trivia, pool comps, and monthly kids clubs events.
“We had our first kids club on Sunday [12 May] which was a big success,” Wendy said.
On Saturday, 1 June, the Mulgowie Hotel will host its big relaunch.
“We’re doing a big family open day with live music, jumping castles, face painters, taste testing and wine tasting,” Wendy said.
“We’ve got a lot of local new wines we’ve brought in.
“It’ll be a huge day.”
Wendy and the Mulga’s new chefs, Josh Christensen and Brayden Zabel, plan to bring the pub back to the community by supporting local and holding chef specials nights.
“In the cost-of-living situation at the moment, we’re really putting value into the special nights every night with two-for-ones and that sort of stuff,” Wendy said.
“Whatever we can source locally, we try to source locally, because that’s a big part of the support network we’re trying to create.”
Josh and Brayden have worked in the industry for more than ten years.
“I started my apprenticeship in the valley and I’ve come and gone a couple of times to different pubs, restaurants and clubs in the Ipswich and Brisbane region,” Josh said.
Josh joined the Mulgowie Hotel team with the same vision as Wendy and Brayden.
“We’re going in there as equal partners to bring life back to the Mulga and get its reputation back,” he said.
“They only advertised for a chef but we went in the mindset of taking on the kitchen together and rebuilding it and giving the community the Mulgowie Hotel back.”
Josh said he and Brayden would start the menu with simple, good and reasonably priced pub food.
“We’ll let the food do the talking,” he said.
“We’ll be looking to expand the menu over the next couple of months.
“We are looking to take our careers to the next level and bring what we’ve learnt in our careers to a historic pub.”
Wendy said she was excited to bring new and friendly faces to the historic pub and town.
“Our pub is coming up on 133 years old and it’s still basically in its original format,” she said.
“The valley here at Mulgowie is a spectacular place to take a drive.
“There’s markets on the first Saturday of every month.”
