overtures of romance and style

1000 667 In Good Company | Northern Rivers
Osteria Casuarina

Osteria
1 Barclay Dr, Casuarina NSW 2487

www.osteriacasuarina.com.au

Visit Tweed Northern Rivers -01
overtures of romance and style

Mark Wilson, Lia Mason and Lee Middendorf all met when the three of them were working in hospitality jobs at The Sandbar Grill in Casuarina in 2005. A lot has happened since those early days of friendship: Mark and Lia are now married, and along with their good friend Lee, they now own the restaurant.

“In 2009, Lia and I were travelling through Italy when we heard the restaurant was for sale,” Mark says. “We called Lee, who’d moved to Adelaide, and within days the three of us had put an offer in.” They called the restaurant Osteria – the Italian name for a simple style restaurant, in ode to their European holiday.

It’s a romantic story and one that attributes much of its success to romance. In the next 18 months, Osteria will host more then 250 weddings, bringing 19,000 guests to the Tweed Coast. The business now employs 135 staff, with 45 of them full-time, and 13 apprentices developing trade skills.

The success of Osteria has enabled Mark, Lia and Lee to open three other venues in the area in the past two years – Taverna in Kingscliff inspired by holidays in Greece, Ancora their function centre on Tweed River which will soon also be a cafe, and Indian restaurant The Bombay Cricketers Club at Salt in Kingscliff.

Patience and persistence are the foundation of this success story, with things moving very slowly in Osteria’s early days.

“The restaurant was built in the new suburb of Casuarina that probably only had 100 homes in it at the time, but the function centre space held 400 people and the restaurant could serve 150,” Mark says.

The rebuild was gradual: they opened a café with the basics and only opened the restaurant two nights a week.

“We were struggling to survive in such a small marketplace with such a large venue,” Mark says.

It was weddings and events that changed everything. “This allowed us to stabilise our business and continue to invest in it and develop the diverse and successful venues that we have today.”

Despite Osteria’s large-scale success being driven by drawing people from outside the region, Mark, Lia and Lee’s hearts are with their connection to local community.

“This region is a living, breathing, connected thing,” Mark says, adding that organisations like Destination Tweed bring a vital collaborative approach to business in the region.

“If we want a sustainable and successful region then we must co-operate and develop it together in the best way we can.”

Share this story

Read more stories

Casino RSM Club

 1360 906 In Good Company | Northern Rivers

Casino RSM Club
The 23 of March 2020 was the hardest day of Neale Genge’s career.

nicholson fine foods yamba

eclectic food innovator shines

 1030 1030 In Good Company | Northern Rivers

Nicholson Fine Foods
The small coastal town of Yamba is home to the one of the world’s best eating prawns, the Eastern King Prawn. It’s also home to the highest…

From trauma to business transformation

 1620 1080 In Good Company | Northern Rivers

Our Cow
For Casino-based meat providers Our Cow, the last three years have seen remarkable, game-changing growth.

northern_lights _ballina_northern_rivers_001

let there be light

 2000 1333 In Good Company | Northern Rivers

Northern Light
“I eat a pot of honey every day and I’ve been stung more than 70,000 times,” says Jeffrey Gibbs, founder of Northern Light, an organic beeswax…

Flexing the entrepreneurial muscle

 2560 1707 In Good Company | Northern Rivers

Summit Sport & Fitness
Like many Northern Rivers businesses, Summit Sport & Fitness has undergone immense change in 2022 – except, rather than being buffeted by floods or pandemic, these changes are positive, and mark a new chapter for owner Matthew George.

Talking together for 50 years

 1440 1080 In Good Company | Northern Rivers

Jumbunna Community Preschool and Early Intervention Centre
The early childhood sector has played a vital role in supporting communities and families in the Northern Rivers amid the onslaught of challenges in the last three years.

yaru water tweed

building bridges with water

 1600 1067 In Good Company | Northern Rivers

Yaru Water
“This unique partnership between an Indigenous family and a non-Indigenous family enabled Yaru Water to start changing the way the procurement…

From cobblestones to all-terrain cranes

 1200 900 In Good Company | Northern Rivers

Wicks and Parker
Fast approaching 100 years old, the Wicks family business has helped build motorways and carry out emergency bushfire repairs, but it once hammered out steel bands for horse-drawn carriage wheels.

an epic adventure into healing honey

 1191 893 In Good Company | Northern Rivers

Gather By
Gather By is a closed-loop regenerative agribusiness that works with beekeepers and landholders in NSW and Queensland, and investors around Australia to produce and market rare, pure and potent Australian Manuka honey…

The Natural Rice Co.

 940 627 In Good Company | Northern Rivers

The Natural Rice Co.
The Natural Rice Co. (NRC) is a unique enterprise not just in the Northern Rivers, but in a national context too.

Creativity takes flight

 2560 2560 In Good Company | Northern Rivers

Honey Hunt Style
Jules Hunt moved to Byron Bay with her family 15 years ago because she wanted to raise her children with a strong sense of community. It was by chance that this move led to the flourishing of her artistic career – and more recently to her turn as a successful business woman.

nimbin valley dairy 003

love, peace and artisan cheese

 666 500 In Good Company | Northern Rivers

Nimbin Valley Dairy
Not every goat in Australia has its own nutritionist and its own vet. But the goats at Nimbin Valley Dairy definitely do. Bill, the nutritionist…

glass lab tweed heads 002

riding the wave of success

 1000 661 In Good Company | Northern Rivers

The Glass Lab
Adam Wessel may have worked in surfboard factories since the age of 16, but it was a stint in the luxury yachting industry that sowed the…

Alstonville quality meats image 1

main street royalty reigns

 2000 1333 In Good Company | Northern Rivers

Alstonville Quality Meats
There’s a giggle in the undertone of conversation when Ashley and Tina Thomson share their claim to fame as being the multi-award winning Sausage Kings…

growing community, growing business

 1600 1066 In Good Company | Northern Rivers

The Farm
It’s a typical Saturday morning at The Farm, on the outskirts of Byron Bay. Families line up for freshly made pastry and coffee. Every table in the…

putting the business into ‘show business’

 2560 1709 In Good Company | Northern Rivers

Brainstorm Productions
You might think that COVID-19 would rattle a business that delivers educational theatre into schools. But the “show must go on” mentality runs deep for Brainstorm Productions’ founder and artistic director Jenny Johnson…

spar maclean clarence valley

making history, creating culture

 1535 1025 In Good Company | Northern Rivers

Spar Maclean
SPAR Maclean’s claim to fame is a doozy. Indeed, it’s something only one supermarket in the whole of Australia can say: that it is the longest…

oatten and hoffman kyogle 002

revving up the community engine

 1000 667 In Good Company | Northern Rivers

Oaten and Hoffman
In 2015 Tim Hoffman was riding the high on business success, and had no clue about the blow that was awaiting him….

cooperative success, sweet for 150 years

 1000 627 In Good Company | Northern Rivers

Sunshine Sugar
The Northern Rivers is home to generations of cane farming families who have not only built the sugar industry, but also saved the local…

You can judge a book by its cover

 1440 2560 In Good Company | Northern Rivers

Charlie & Fox
When Jess Tunnage’s mother-in-law gave her a sewing machine for Christmas a few years ago, she had no idea how to use it.

Start Typing

X