Kosta’s Takeaway in Newstead takes chef-made sandwiches to a whole new level.
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It’s been all over Instagram and TikTok.
Chicken schnitzel buns as big as your face. Luscious fish sandwiches. Oozy tuna melts.
Kosta’s Takeaway at Gasworks was giving away 100 free sandwiches one day. Free doughnuts the next. Free coffee the day after that.
Kosta’s Takeaway has arrived in Brisbane with its Instagrammable Schnitty sandwich present and correct.Morgan Roberts
Benji Terkalas sure knows how to roll out a new venue. But Terkalas does, actually, know how to roll out a new venue.
Each time he’s opened a new Kosta’s sandwich shop in his native Sydney, Terkalas has enlisted the help of a chef to create a slightly different menu to the original, which he debuted in front of his father’s auto-repair business in Rockdale in 2021.
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This time it’s no different, with former Anyday and Gerard’s chef Adam Wolfers onboard. Wolfers is one of the best in the business, anywhere, and his imprimatur is on the Gasworks shop in two sandwiches in particular: a chicken shawarma and a breakfast yiros built with bifteki, egg and cheese. No wonder the queues begin well before lunchtime.
“The response has been amazing,” Terkalas says. “Brisbane has just got this really nice culture to it at the moment … it feels like we’ve landed at the right time … It’s week one, things will normalise, so we’re not getting ahead of ourselves, but it’s been great.”
Kosta’s Takeaway opened late February in Gasworks Plaza.Morgan Roberts
“But that’s why we hire people like Adam, so we can serve that many people at speed, and get this kind of quality out. We have an expectation of ourselves, so does the customer, and we need to back that up.
“It’s not a Joe Blow’s cafe on the corner. Everything’s thought out and has a lot of execution to it. It’s a busy restaurant with high expectations and high-quality food.”
The Supa Deli sandwich, another Kosta’s classic that’s been imported to Brisbane.Morgan Roberts
If you’ve visited Gasworks Plaza in the past week you might think the term “restaurant” is being used loosely here. Kosta’s is little more than a terracotta tiled counter and pass on one side, and small seating area on the other, with a bunch of small tables scattered out front.
But it simply backs up how much emphasis Terkalas places on the food, which is expressed in a breakfast and lunch menu that covers sandwiches, toasties, focaccias, wraps and a pair of salads, with everything – other than the bread – made in-house, from the sauces and ferments to the brining of the chicken.
Kosta’s Takeaway owner Benji Terkalas.Morgan Roberts
In the morning there’s a breakfast roll with egg, smoked bacon, cheese and a house barbecue sauce, a salami toasty on sourdough with olive, cucumber and labne, avocado toast with feta and a Greek-inspired take on furikake, the aforementioned breakfast yiros and two focaccias – one with mortadella, stracciatella, pistachio and hot honey, the other with halloumi, za’atar, tomato, olive and ricotta salata.
And then there’s lunch, with Wolfers’ shawarma couched by Kosta’s classics such as a poached chicken schiacciata with avocado, cabbage, apple, pickles and salsa verde, the Supa Deli schiacciata with salami, ham, mortadella, rocket, peperonata and stracciatella, and the Instaworthy Schnitty sandwich with its enormous crumbed to order chicken schnitzel squeezed into a bun with lettuce, cheese and the shop’s signature VIP sauce.
Poached chicken schacchiata with avocado, cabbage, apple, pickles and salsa verde.Morgan Roberts
Bread is being produced to Kosta’s specs by The Bread Social. Beyond the sandwiches and variations thereof there’s a pair of salads, coffee by Canberra-based Ona, and a selection of soft drinks.
“It’s an approachable, high-level experience that’s relatively affordable,” Terkalas says. “It’s somewhere people can come, have some time to themselves, and eat something and nod their head.”
Open daily 7am-3pm
76 Skyring Terrace, Newstead
kostastakeaway.com
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Matt Shea is Food and Culture Editor at Brisbane Times. He is a former editor and editor-at-large at Broadsheet Brisbane, and has written for Escape, Qantas Magazine, the Guardian, Jetstar Magazine and SilverKris, among many others.
