We know. Florals for spring. Not particularly groundbreaking.

But we would be remiss not to use the arrival of a new season as an excuse to return to a photograph that has been with Venner since the beginning. Captured in a field of wildflowers in rural Sweden, the image became the seed for much of Venner’s visual identity. It has followed us from the earliest ideas of what this place might look and feel like, and still finds its way into what we do today.

So, with the flowers making another appearance, it seems an appropriate way to present you, our dear friends, with our new spring menu.

Fortunately, spring gives the kitchen considerably more to work with than just florals. Peas and asparagus return. Gardens become a little more generous. Citrus lingers. Ingredients that have been absent for months begin finding their way back through the kitchen door.

For a restaurant whose menu follows the season, rather than the other way around, this is when things become interesting. Our new spring menu is our first proper step into the season, led as always by what is available to us, what is tasting good, and what the people who grow, raise and catch our food put in front of us.

Spring, in its current form

Dinner at Venner is offered as a Set Menu at $115 per person, or an Extended Set Menu at $170 per person.

The evening begins with Spencer Gulf kingfish with cauliflower and chèvre, followed by rösti with kangaroo, fermented tomato and yolk. Ricotta arrives with Harry’s peas and asparagus, before bread with cardamom butter.

Heritage spatchcock follows with charred cucumber and malt, then Bangalow pork rack with carrot ‘chutney’ and sunflower cream, alongside Gatton potatoes with brown butter and crisps. The menu finishes with sheep’s skyr and watermelon, followed by blood orange and almond with cardamom, mountain pepper and candied orange.

For those settling in for the Extended Set Menu, there is a little more ground to cover, including grouper with bisque, radish and nasturtium from Amie’s garden, before a selection of Australian cheeses from Tasmania, South Australia and Victoria.

A little closer to the source

Provenance matters here, too. Our pork comes from Bangalow Sweet Pork, sourced from Australian family farms with a focus on animal welfare and responsible farming, while our kingfish comes from the cold, clean waters of South Australia’s Spencer Gulf.

Some ingredients travel considerably less distance. Venner’s own kitchen garden, tended by Amie Horsfall, continues to find its way onto the menu as the seasons change. This spring, radish and nasturtium from the garden appear alongside the grouper on our Extended Set Menu.

These are ingredients we seek out because of where they come from and the people behind them, but also for the simplest reason: they are good things to eat.

Like spring itself, none of this is particularly interested in standing still. The menu will continue to move as ingredients come and go. Something may stay with us for several weeks; something else may disappear sooner because the thing that made it worth putting on the plate has disappeared with it.

That is the bargain we make with seasonality. Ingredients lead. Technique follows.

Why a set menu?

There are plenty of ways to have dinner in Brisbane. We chose a set menu, not because dinner needs more rules, and certainly not because we think a set menu needs to arrive with all the ceremony traditionally associated with fine dining. Quite the opposite.

A set menu removes some of the decisions from the evening. Rather than assembling dinner dish by dish, you place yourself in the hands of the kitchen and allow the meal to unfold in the order it was intended. It also gives us a different way to cook: a menu can have a beginning and an end, one dish can make sense because of what came before it, and another because of what comes next. Not everything needs to shout for your attention at once.

Most importantly, it allows us to build dinner around what is available to us rather than maintaining a long list of dishes regardless of whether their ingredients are at their best.

For those looking for set menus in Brisbane, we think that distinction matters. Venner sits somewhere between the consideration of fine dining and the familiarity of a neighbourhood restaurant: a small dining room in West End, a considered progression of food, good wine and enough time to enjoy both.

Our Set Menu is the full expression of the evening. The Extended Set Menu simply gives the kitchen, and you, a little more room to explore it.

You choose how far you would like to go. We take it from there.

A good reason. Or no reason at all.

A birthday is a good reason to come for dinner. So is an anniversary, a date night, friends you have not seen nearly enough of, someone visiting Brisbane for the weekend, or simply getting through a particularly long week.

But we are equally fond of no occasion whatsoever.

If you have been searching for your next date night restaurant in Brisbane, somewhere for a special occasion in Brisbane, or simply a West End restaurant where you can settle in for the evening, consider this your invitation.

Venner is a small dining room at 237 Boundary Street in West End. Dinner is served Thursday, Friday and Saturday, with our seasonal set menu at the centre of the evening.

Bring someone you like spending time with. We will take care of dinner.

Menu is subject to change based on seasonality and produce availability.