MITCH SMITH

Co-Owner / Executive Chef

The start of Mitch’s career saw him in far North Queensland Port Douglas working for his brother at a thriving restaurant, serving modern Australian food, 17 Years ago. After completing his apprenticeship, Mitch moved to south east Queensland to work for and run numerous restaurants and hotels.

Mitch’s next big career move was back to Port Douglas FNQ to work at the award winning restaurant, Salsa Bar & Grill under Master Chef Goran Zonai. This is where his passion for Asian cuisine and influences took off.

After taking over The Lounge Bat at Mooloolaba, Os3 was next for Mitch where he was working alongside chefs Tony Kelly and Dan Jarrett. Together they created Junk. Junk took off around the Coast and Mitch was given an opportunity to take over as executive chef, furthermore opening and overseeing 3 more Junks around Australia (Toowoomba, Brisbane, Melbourne).

One year later Mitch has opened his 5th restaurant Rice Boi alongside Tony Kelly and Elyza Molloy. Mitch’s Rice Boi menu mirrors his love for Asian food and influences as well as the depth of flavour that can be achieved in this cuisine.

After spending an extended amount of time in his past in Corfu Town, Greece, Mitch fell in love with Greek cuisine. The opening of Spero saw Mitch fulfil his dream to have his own Greek restaurant alongside Tony Kelly and Elyza Molloy.

ELYZA MOLLOY

Co-Owner / Manager

Sunshine Coast local Elyza Molloy completed all of her training at the 5-star Hyatt Regency Column, running restaurants all over the resort including the entire village square-comprising of five separate restaurants. She then moved to manage the food and beverage division of Bedarra Island before meeting up and beginning work with Tony Kelly at World Wide Hospitality Group.

Elyza went from running one independent burger restaurant, to being the national operations manager of more than 16 restaurants nation-wide, covering Queensland and Melbourne, both regional and CBD.  She jumped at the opportunity in 2017 to go into business with Tony Kelly and Mitch Smith to open what is now Rice Boi Mooloolaba. Fast forward two years to 2019 and Elyza has again successfully established yet another restaurant alongside Tony and Mitch – Spero Greek.

Elyza’s strengths are in recruitment, managing wages and developing new brands. Elyza’s passions are food, wine, travel, surfing, music and her dog Kevin.

TONY KELLY

Owner / Director

Tony started his career at the 5-star Resort Hotel, Hyatt Regency Coolum & Spa, spending five years training in their nine kitchens. He then travelled to the US to take a role with Disney as Chef de Cuisine aboard one of their luxury Cruise liners “The Wonder”.

From here Tony developed a passion for Italian food and accepted an offer to work alongside Celebrity Chef Peter Kuruvita in the World renowned and multi-award winning Hayman Island Resort.

In 2003 Tony opened The Wine Bar in Maroochydore, a 100 seat fine dining venue which was awarded five Sunshine Coast Restaurant of the Year awards and several Wine List of the Year awards.

After selling The Wine Bar after eight years, Tony ventured to Brisbane after accepting the position of Executive Chef of the soon to be opened Stokehouse Queensland. Under Tony’s guidance, Stokehouse Queensland would be awarded “2 Hats” in the prestigious Good Food Guide, one of only four QLD restaurants to achieve this.

Tony was lured back to the Sunshine Coast after two years by long-time friend Peter Kuruvita to re-ferb the Sheraton Noosa Restaurant & Spa. Following this Tony developed a Burger Franchise, opened six very successful Asian street food venues across Australia, as well as a slew of espresso bars, pubs & whisky bars.

Currently Tony has focused 100% of his energy on the multi-million dollar re-ferb the famous Mooloolaba Wharf and his two successful restaurants Rice Boi and Spero.