New Brisbane

With all the hype surrounding the launch of Cloudland, which has only been enhanced by the cloak of mystery that club management has thrown around the venue, I, like most people, was quite keen to check the place out following its Friday launch last week. Sadly, I had to work all day & night last weekend and with the Miss Hawaiian Tropic National Final coming up this past weekend, I knew I wouldn’t have a chance to check it out. Fortunately, Cloudland is open 7 days a week and so a friend and I went down last Thursday to check it out.

Cloudland
641 Ann St, Fortitude Valley
T: +61 7 3872 6600
F: +61 7 3872 6699
E: management@cloudland.tv
W: www.cloudland.tv

Operating Hours:
Monday - Friday: 11am til late
Friday & Saturday: 11am til 5am
Sunday: 11am til late

Showing up around 8pm, we approached the rainbow-like interplay of lighting that forms the facade to Cloudland and entered through its grand doorway. Once inside, the humidity pleasantly dropped, as the closed roof and climate control worked together to prevent the wet and sticky atmosphere of outside from pervading the air inside. And like everybody else that walked through the door that night, we stopped about two steps in, to take it all in.

When Cloudland is fully completed, it will feature a total of 5 floors - the main courtyard overlooked by two interior levels, as well as a rooftop garden and a basement wine cellar. For the moment, only the main courtyard floor and the floor above it are open for business, but this is certainly enough to get a good taste of what the future venue will have to offer.

The main floor is dominated by a large, open courtyard with a retractable roof, a water feature, wire frame statues (including one we nicknamed “Jesus with a penis”) and lots of lush greenery. The main floor also features the restaurant and, having decided last minute that we would like to eat dinner as well as try out their cocktails, we went to the bar to see about getting a seat. Sadly, even on a Thursday, eating at the restaurant during opening week required a booking and so we had to watch on jealously as a couple were led to the booth overooking the water feature that we’d had our eye on.

However, I’d seen from the menus on their website that Cloudland had quite a good selection of tapas and other share platters, so we asked if we could see the menu for those. Unfortunately, we were told that all the menus had been stolen over the opening weekend, due to their opulent decoration. Not to be put off, we pointed at a passing platter and said “order us what they’re having and give us a look at your cocktail menu” - the cocktails were the real reason we had come to check the place out, after all.

Sadly, the cocktails were on the same menus that had been stolen and so we couldn’t choose from the glorious range that I’d seen advertised on their website and I was quite disappointed about that. You see, it’s forgivable that their menus got stolen - that’s something that’s beyond their control and I’m honestly not surprised it happened, but what is unforgivable is that by Thursday the following week, they had not printed and laminated some temporary replacements. I know they’re going for a classy look and so it may take a while to reprint their ornate menus, but even A4 laminated pages have got to be better than not having menus at all.

Determined to try the cocktails I’d read about, I wrangled one of the recipe sheets away from the staff and we managed to kick off the night with a couple of the drinks we’d been looking forward to trying, a Peach & Passion Bellini (a satisfying twist on the Harry’s Bar classic) and a Bubblelicious Martini (Bubblegum-infused Vodka, Chambord, lemon juice & “champagne”). All the drinks we tried throughout the night were great - either subtle enhancements on classic cocktails, or the venue’s own creative, delectable concoctions.

One thing we weren’t overly impressed by though, and which has been mentioned to me by a few different people now, is the wait at the bar. With a range of complicated cocktails and too few staff, expect to wait around 20 minutes for each round you order - and that’s not even on a weekend. The staff also don’t seem very experienced mixing cocktails - when ordering a Brazillian Flaming Punch, the girl behind the bar didn’t strain the ice and passionfruit seeds out of my drink after shaking, and then couldn’t get the sugar to light, even after dousing it in Bacardi 151. But, the overall taste and price of cocktails more than made up for this, and I’m sure they’ll get it right in time - there are always going to be teething problems in any new venue that opens.

The downstairs area was pretty well appointed, with some cool tear-drop seats, dining tables overlooking the water feature and enough stools and tables to suit the Thursday night crowd, however we found that the jazz band which routinely struck up a tune made any sort of conversation impossible. After what was no doubt a big launch weekend, the club was already showing a few signs of wear, with some broken decorations on the tree wall, some missing balustrade mountings and a few other minor issues, but again I’m willing to put these down to teething problems

When you walk up the stairs to the first floor, you’re greeted by a lounge area that looks like something out of Cirque du Soleil, with a hodge podge of colours and themes. There’s obviously been lots of money spent on the lighting, as this area is lit up like the inside of a lighthouse. Immediately to the right of that is the famed glass bar, constructed out of thousands of glass balls, and beyond that, another lounge with slightly more seductive, darker lighting. In the other direction is the outdoor smoker’s lounge, which lacks any kind of cover from the rain. Now while I normally have no problem with smokers getting drenched, my companion for the night was a smoker and she thought that the smoking area could use some cover from the rain, particularly as we are going into winter, which is traditionally more rainy.

All up, I think that Cloudland has what it takes to be one of Brisbane’s premiere venues. From what I’ve heard, it’s already getting great numbers through the door, as well as some great reviews, and if they manage to get past some of the teething problems mentioned in this article, they’re sure to firmly establish themselves as a Brisbane icon.

– Ross