It’s not easy injecting charm and personality into an eatery in a shopping centre carpark, but Whisky Business in Capalaba, in Brisbane’s bayside, has somehow found a way. 

This turquoise-toned cafe boasts a fit-out as bright and colourful as the rainbow-hued, house-made macarons which fill its cake cabinet at the counter, with chairs of every shade topping an astro-turfed lawn out the front.

A tower of blankets ready for guests to borrow on cool mornings adds an extra layer of hospitality, while the sweet, if a little green, young staff – many probably still in school – demonstrate this is a cafe with the community at its heart. This local approach is what’s no doubt behind the venue’s longevity, celebrating 12 years in operation this year. Its endurance, however, could also be put down to its quirky menu and monstrous serves.

Whether it’s their sweet dishes like a “doffle” doughnut waffle hybrid, creme brulee crepes or Nutella and Oreo waffles, or savoury favourites like their burgers, dirty fries and fried chicken bender, plates here come filled to the rim and make leaving hungry arguably impossible.

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Throw in one of the cafe’s famous loaded thickshakes in flavours such as lemon meringue, Nutella brownie or Ferrero Rocher, which is packed with the Italian chocolates and tastes just like its liquid equivalent, and you will barely need to eat for the rest of the day. In fact, adding the chipotle chicken and waffle ($24) even defeated my dining companion, who boasts the appetite of a bear after hibernation. 

Described by the server at the counter when I order as “the perfect balance of sweet and spicy”, he’s not far wrong, with the dish surprisingly not sickly despite being flooded with maple syrup.Keeping the saccharine levels under control is the fact that chipotle infuses the syrup as well as an accompanying mayonnaise, while the crunchy waffle is relatively savoury underneath a huge piece of fried chicken that could give the Colonel a run for his money.

Keeping that fiery theme going is the loaded croissant ($22). Turned into a sandwich, its soft pastry shell is filled with raw spinach, crispy bacon, scrambled egg, a hash brown, and a piece of haloumi so big it could chock open a door.

The filling is then showered in a sriracha-spiked hollandaise with heat that catches you off guard. Extinguish the burn with one of the cafe’s full- bodied creamy milk-based coffees using beans from nearby Mount Cotton roastery Old Friend, or try one of their Nutella hot chocolates, creme bru-lattes or a frappe or smoothie with dairy-free options available.

And if you haven’t already burst a button, try one of the cafe’s signature macarons, for which the whisk in the moniker refers, rather than the dark spirit. With fun flavours like Skittles, Redskin and fairy bread, you could go one better and take a box home for later.

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