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

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.

meme productions featured image

world class creatives

 1000 750 In Good Company | Northern Rivers

Mememe Productions
The piece of advice that dirtgirlworld creator, Cate McQuillen, likes to share with other creative entrepreneurs in the region tells much about her story…

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…

harwood marine clarence

‘can do’ marine

 1920 1182 In Good Company | Northern Rivers

Harwood Marine
About half way between Yamba and Maclean is the tiny village of Harwood, which sits on the peaceful banks of the Clarence River with its population…

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….

Dance call for Kyogle

 1473 828 In Good Company | Northern Rivers

Ascent Dance
Starting a dance school just five weeks before the onset of a pandemic might have dampened the spirits of some new business owners, but Haylee Holliday took it as a sign that Ascent Dance Studio had to succeed.

from generation to generation

 850 565 In Good Company | Northern Rivers

Brookfarm
After buying a rundown dairy farm in the Byron hinterland in 1989, it was another ten years before Pam and Martin Brook made their shift to the…

Delivering top service, come hospital or high water

 870 652 In Good Company | Northern Rivers

McLeans Freight Service
When Leisa Blok’s father, Laurie McLean, began running urgent nighttime blood deliveries from Lismore airport in 1992, he mightn’t have expected the one-man gig to expand into a 50-vehicle courier fleet, delivering across the entire northern NSW region.

stone and wood 001

not just a business, a community partner

 960 761 In Good Company | Northern Rivers

Stone & Wood
“That’s like asking parents to name which of their children they prefer,” says Jamie Cook, Stone & Wood co-founder. He has been asked which of the…

old-fashioned approach reaps rewards

 1000 667 In Good Company | Northern Rivers

Kyogle Country Store
It feels like a brave decision, buying a hardware and rural supplies store in the age of the corporate superstores. Though it was a challenge…

Adapting is second nature for first in class

 2560 1709 In Good Company | Northern Rivers

Lazuli and Co.
The hairdresser and business owner, after all, has had a lot to adapt to – her salon is in central Lismore and was destroyed by the February 2022 floods, which also completely engulfed her nearby home. Before that were the ravages wrought by the pandemic.

building a good reputation

 1000 667 In Good Company | Northern Rivers

Brett Harley
When the only pub in town burns to the ground, it’s a big responsibility being the one chosen to rebuild it. The success of Uki’s new Mt Warning…

Step back in time for ‘reel’

 2560 1920 In Good Company | Northern Rivers

Yamba Cinema
Yamba Cinema is not just a popular venue to see the latest movie in an idyllic Northern Rivers town.

It was time the level the paying field

 1500 562 In Good Company | Northern Rivers

Zepto
What do you do next after more than a decade building up a Byron Bay skydiving business to become a national success and then stepping back after listing it on the Australian Stock Exchange?

cape byron distellery 002

spirit of the rainforest

 960 540 In Good Company | Northern Rivers

Cape Byron Distillery
Let’s forget the beaches for a moment, as the true lifeblood of the Northern Rivers landscape is surely its rainforests, some of the most botanically…

all the best fine foods casino 001

our kitchen rules in the heart of beef country

 1000 664 In Good Company | Northern Rivers

All The Best Fine Foods
From little things big thing grow, goes the saying, and Casino-based business All The Best Fine Foods is certainly proof that humble….

tripadeal_byron_bay

fastest growing, remains humble and local

 1000 667 In Good Company | Northern Rivers

TripADeal
For TripADeal, the figures speak for themselves: revenue in excess of $100million for 2017; 75,000 travellers sent to various…

Spoiled stays for special pets

 2560 1600 In Good Company | Northern Rivers

Skye Park Pet Resort
In 2014, a long-held aspiration finally came to fruition for Helen and Ian MacGregor when they purchased an existing pet boarding facility in bucolic Clarenza, with the dream of making it their own.

Keeping it real in the Tweed

 1706 2560 In Good Company | Northern Rivers

Tweed Real Food
Tweed Real Food is a business launched in 2018 from a desire to be resilient. Little did founder Julia Foyster know how prescient her plan would turn out to be.

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