Todd And Kristine Young's Bella Venezia Wins Wine Spectator Honour In Mooloolaba

Bella Venezia has turned another hospitality accolade into a Sunshine Coast business story, with the Mooloolaba restaurant receiving a Best of Award of Excellence in Wine Spectator's 2026 Restaurant Awards.

The award places Bella Venezia among restaurants recognised for the strength of their wine programs and gives the Coast a rare international hospitality marker. The restaurant was the only Sunshine Coast venue, and one of only two in Queensland, to receive the Best of Award of Excellence in this year's awards. Wine Spectator's awards recognise restaurant wine service across three main levels: Award of Excellence, Best of Award of Excellence and Grand Award.

The local significance is not just the trophy. Bella Venezia is a long-running Mooloolaba institution, established in 1983, and its latest recognition continues the founder-and-operator story built by owners Todd and Kristine Young. Todd Young has been publicly identified as owner and wine director, while the couple's hospitality portfolio has also expanded to include Fish House Steak & Grill on the Mooloolaba Spit.

For a regional dining market, awards like this matter because they help position local venues against capital-city and international benchmarks. The Sunshine Coast has a strong tourism brand, but its food and wine reputation still relies on individual operators building credibility over time. Bella Venezia's recognition gives visitors another reason to see Mooloolaba as more than a beach stop, and gives locals a practical example of how a family-led hospitality business can keep lifting its product without leaving the region.

The restaurant's record is broader than one award. Bella Venezia had also earned an Australian Good Food Guide Chef Hat for the fourth consecutive year, while Fish House Steak & Grill received its first Hat and a 13-point score within months of opening. Those results point to a business strategy built around repeatable standards rather than a one-off marketing push.

The wine program is central to that strategy. A Best of Award of Excellence is generally associated with depth, quality and alignment between the list and the restaurant's cuisine. In Bella Venezia's case, the venue's contemporary Italian focus and long-running Mooloolaba customer base give the award a local commercial edge: it helps validate investment in cellaring, staff knowledge, list development and customer experience at a time when hospitality operators are managing high input costs and cautious discretionary spending.

There is also a founder lesson in the timing. Coast venues are operating in a competitive winter market, with operators depending on locals, repeat visitors and events to keep dining rooms busy outside the summer peak. International recognition does not remove those pressures, but it can give a venue a sharper reason to be chosen.

For Todd and Kristine Young, the 2026 Wine Spectator honour adds another line to a story that has been built service by service. For the Sunshine Coast, it is a reminder that local hospitality success is often driven by owners who stay close to the floor, invest in detail and build a reputation that can travel well beyond the suburb on the menu.