Stephanie Holmes explores the Gold Coast dining scene and finds four new favourites, as well as a surprising Kiwi connection.
Granddad Jack’s Craft Distillery
The Gold Coast and Timaru might not seem like natural bedfellows, but hidden on a side street in the Gold Coast suburb of Miami, you’ll find a place with a surprising Kiwi connection. David Goulding, better known to his family as Granddad Jack, was born in 1919 in Timaru and is the epitome of the classic Kiwi battler. With his father dying before he was born, Jack had to grow up fast to help provide for the family. His grandson David Ridden says Jack “never got the opportunity to be a kid, he had to be a man from day one”. Aged 14, he began working on a sheep station, more than 100km from home, saving up to pay off the family’s debt. He then took over the local barbershop and worked there for almost 50 years before retiring aged 70 - when he was still charging only $4 per cut.
Family meant a lot to Jack, and he maintained a tradition throughout his life as the whānau grew - he would take the male family members out to his greenhouse on their 15th birthday for their first taste of whiskey. He himself enjoyed a neat whiskey every day until the day he died, aged 93.
Over on Queensland’s Gold Coast, Ridden set up Granddad Jack’s in his grandfather’s memory and the family heritage oozes from every pore of the former mechanics’ shop, turned tasting room and bar. There are mementoes from Jack’s life - his barbershop pole, his scissors, a replica of his motorbike, and a mural portrait of Jack on one of the exposed brick walls, “so he can watch over us,” Ridden says. Take a distillery tour and you’ll be told all about Jack’s life and legacy, as well as taste some of the spirits brewed on-site by Ridden’s son, Luke - Jack’s great-grandson. Afterwards, sit back in a battered leather armchair with a crafted cocktail and soak up the atmosphere. You’re a long way from Timaru, but you’ll feel right at home. granddadjacks.com
