For years, Sidonié was the Newport Marketplace place most closely associated with early coffee, pastries and breakfast. Now the waterfront café is stretching well beyond the morning trade, with dinner, tapas, wine and cocktails carrying the venue into the evening.
The change has been building through 2026. Sidonié installed a dedicated bar in April, moving its coffee counter and adding a new cocktail and wine offering, before rolling out an expanded day-to-night menu. Its current website lists hours from 6am to 8.30pm seven days a week, with separate morning and afternoon/evening menus.
General Manager Ethan Newcombe said when the bar work was announced that the aim was to make Sidonié somewhere customers could come for breakfast, lunch or dinner, then stay for cocktails or wine.
“It’s all about elevating the experience while keeping the relaxed atmosphere we’re known for,” he said.
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A Café Changes With Newport
The shift is a significant one for a business that began at Newport Marketplace as the French-inspired Sidonié Patisserie & Boulangerie.
When new operators took over in February 2025, breakfast and pastries remained central to the business. But evening trading was already on the agenda, with plans at the time for smaller dinner meals, drinks and cocktails.
That transition became more visible this year with the new bar and expanded menu. The business, now styled simply as Sidonié Newport, remains open for breakfast and lunch while adding an evening reason to visit.
It also comes as the potential customer base around it has changed considerably.
Newport had 2,964 residents at the 2016 Census. Five years later, that had risen to 5,964 — effectively doubling between censuses as newer parts of the suburb developed.
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More Choice After Dark
Sidonié is not making the move into a hospitality vacuum.
Newport Marketplace’s first stage opened in 2022, bringing several food businesses together on Lakeview Promenade. Today, Fishport serves lunch and dinner six days a week, while Quê Dining trades into the evening from Wednesday to Saturday.
The mix continues to change. Italian restaurant Sì Baby has since closed, and its former premises became Taquiza, a Mexican restaurant which opened in July and now serves dinner from Wednesday to Saturday.
That means Newport residents now have several places within the Marketplace where dinner is part of the regular offer rather than having to look automatically towards the established restaurant strips elsewhere on the Redcliffe Peninsula.
The evolution has not been entirely straightforward. A proposal to add a hotel, food and drink outlet and other uses in later stages of Newport Marketplace was refused by the City of Moreton Bay amid concerns including parking and traffic impacts.
For Sidonié, however, the move from a daytime patisserie and café towards a venue spanning coffee, meals and evening drinks is already under way.
The croissants have not disappeared. They just no longer mark the end of Sidonié’s day.
Published 7-September-2026





