Our aim in emailing it to you regularly is to keep you up-to-date with what’s happening at our five restaurants as well as at our properties, vineyard and brewery.

The sSs chain of country-style steakhouses is 100% Australian-owned and serves only the highest quality prize beef and buffalo and an exclusive range of our own wines and beer.

Good food, friendly service and a relaxed atmosphere combine to provide you, your friends, family and colleagues with a genuine fun dining experience.

We are always interested in your thoughts. Please share them by dropping us a line on info@sSsbbq.com.au.

Awesomely yours,

Graham and Marlene Manvell

This is the third time Tamworth - the first restaurant in the country-style steakhouse chain - has won this national award.

sSs franchisees, Jarrod and Maree Medway, also are over the moon after their restaurant at Coffs Harbour won the 2004 NSW Tourism Awards for Excellence in Business for Restaurant and Catering Services. The Medways and their manager, Kylie Griffis, will attend the national awards presentation in Alice Springs in February 2005.

These latest accolades boost the total number of awards won by sSs restaurants to 31 since 1997.

sSs sure has hit on an award-winning formula! Must be its combination of good food, friendly service and relaxed atmosphere!

On November 10 the first sSs to open in Queensland celebrated its first birthday. The restaurant has become increasingly popular as word has spread and the Brisbane sSs draws a good crowd seven nights a week.

You’ll find this sSs on the ground floor of the Pacific International – a prime location right in the middle of town on the corner of busy Ann Street and Queen Street at the Petrie Bight end of Brisbane’s CBD.

In Tamworth the original sSs has a whole new look. The mothership restaurant in the steakhouse chain brandishes a huge new colourful flaming sSs neon sign on the building’s façade.

Now there are five sSs BBQ Barns to choose from:

Tamworth, corner Craigends Lane & New England Highway
Ph: 02. 6762 2238

Lake Munmorah, 616 Pacific Highway
Ph: 02. 4358 3311

Cessnock, 4 Wollombi Road, Bellbird Heights
Ph: 02. 4991 4700

Coffs Harbour, corner Bray Street & Pacific Highway
Ph: 02. 6651 9166

Brisbane, corner Ann & Queen streets
Ph: 07. 3839 1162

Photo: Jarrod Medway, Kylie Griffis, Maree Medway and Jenna Hengstborger from sSs Coffs Harbour celebrating their tourism award.

It’s his way of unwinding after a busy week.

Brett says he goes to sSs because of the atmosphere, the music, and in particular because the food is “consistently good”.

“I’ve found a couple of meals that I really like and if it’s really good all the time, why change?

“A lot of guys head down to the pub. I go to sSs, have a feed and go home,” says Brett.

The staff know him well so when Brett arrives they automatically bring him a coke and some popcorn, followed by an entrée (Smokey’s Showdown) and his main meal (invariably Country Plains Chicken Breast and Rump) and make sure he’s happy.

The grapes were picked in early March and after eight months in French oak the wine, 128 dozen bottles of the bold dark red wine, called Autumn Pick, were put down for another 12 months.

This firmly structured aromatic wine will be available exclusively at sSs BBQ Barns restaurants. Petit verdot is an ancient grape variety that is undergoing a revival, led by Australia, where it is still a relative newcomer to the wine scene.

sSs owners, Graham and Marlene Manvell, own one of Australia’s largest domesticated farm herds of buffalo. Graham selected several beasts and had the hides especially tanned so they can be embellished with the autographs of famous people who eat at the restaurant.

“This is a trial but I reckon it’s a sure-fire winner,” says Graham. “It adds a bit of interest and nostalgia to the atmosphere and ambience of the restaurant. We plan to add a Hide of Fame to the walls of each of the other four sSs restaurants.”

Photo: Mike Whitney, Marlene Manvell and Adam Brand at Tamworth sSs.

That’s what the station manager at Brunette Downs, a 2.3 million acre station in the Northern Territory, did when Australia’s largest beef producer chose sSs as the venue for its station manager’s meeting in Brisbane.

Australian Agricultural Company (AACo) entertained 20 beef experts for dinner - Char Seared Darling Downs Wagyu Marbled Beef Strips served on an avocado salad with a Lazy Poet peppered shiraz dressing, then a 500g Manaroo sirloin on the bone char-grilled and coated with Graham Manvell’s secret BBQ glaze.

The amber ale, produced at the Manvell’s Ironbark Brewery at Tamworth, was among 185 different brews at the National Festival of Beers.

Festival-goers knocked back nine kegs of the beer – a non-filtered, naturally cloudy beer with a creamy head and dark golden hues that is strong in malt and has ginger as an enhancement in the background.

Ironbark Brewery’s ginger tawny ale is available exclusively at sSs restaurants. At the Graham Manvell received lots of interest from companies interested in stocking the beer as well as inquiries about making the beer available in bottles.

The Queen Ann conferencing and reception centre is located downstairs from sSs BBQ Barns.

Back in 1992 Graham was one of the chefs on the Australian team who competed in Frankfurt and brought home a gold medal.

All 22,000 vines were hand-pruned during winter 2004. Bud burst occurred in mid-October and since then plenty of good rain has resulted in a beautifully even mass of green vine leaves.