The Sandgate Post office opened in May 1887. Australia Post ceased trading from the architectural feature in 2009, and the building was purchased and refurbished and became 4017 Bar and Grill.
I heard about this 'cafe' at a work function. Our manager had organised our director's birthday lunch at our workplace. Alongside pizza and drinks, was this fabulous platter of hot food that I just simply couldn't keep my fingers out of.
Fast forward a few weeks, and my partner and I find ourselves organising a combined birthday party for his parents. With a lengthy guest list, the hot food platter from my work function came to mind, so I dialled my manager's number, and within minutes, I was phoning the 'cafe' she had purchased the delicious arrangement of cuisine from.
The following day, a sunny Friday, lunch time, my partner and I decided to visit this place for lunch, a day prior to collecting our hot food platter for the party. We were astounded - this was no cafe. We pulled up outside a building that oozed history. The massive beams on the front deck, the wrap around verandahs and not to mention the aroma floating from inside that made my mouth water.
We climbed the stairs, walked inside, ordered a Shandy and sat down outside on the back verandah and scanned the menu.
I ordered a B.L.T and chips, Geoff, being a devoted Mexican lover, chose upon the chicken burrito and wedges. We sipped our golden shandy's in the winter sunshine chatting, waiting for our meals. Geoff has been born and bred in Redcliffe, only ten minutes away from Sandgate and couldn't believe he hadn't visited the 4017 Bar and Grill previously.
Our meals arrived and already I could tell it was going to taste brilliant. The bacon on my toasted Turkish bread was 'proper' bacon, not the plastic stuff we so often run into at restaurants, true blue, dripping with oil bacon. Like the bacon your dad fries on the barbeque. The tomato slices were fresh and thick and the lettuce crispy, not soggy. Don't get me started on the chips. You would have driven there to taste them yourself by the time I finish raving on about them.
So just a quick rundown...ORDER THEM.
They are crispy and golden in some kind of light batter, perhaps beer battered and they practically snap in your mouth.
Geoff's burrito was the best he had ever tasted, filled with creamy chicken and 'real' tomato pieces and the wedges as crispy as my chips.
Reasonably priced, my B.L.T and chips to die for priced at $14 and Geoff's chicken burrito with wedges was $12. It was the first time I think I had paid less than what it would have cost them to make it.
The freshest ingredients, cold beer, the 4017 Heritage building, Bar and Grill. In the beautiful seaside suburb of Sandgate. You MUST check it out.
sandgate.com.au
