You can take the foodies out of the suburbs, but in the end, for brothers Mork and Benn Ratanakosol, you just couldn't take the burbs out of these foodies.
From Yarralumla to Florey, then Kingston and back to Yarralumla, they've put themselves on the suburban maps of the capital. And their latest offering, EASY BOY! in Scullin, is a return to form.
Back when they opened Morks on the Kingston Foreshore in 2013, it felt like the most obvious pairing in the world. Elevated Thai food in a waterfront setting? Yes please, said Canberra.
But Morks had already begun in the Belconnen suburb of Florey four years earlier, as a retirement project for their parents.
It went gangbusters in Kingston for 11 years, until 2024, when the brothers decided to close it down and try something new.
Enter Minima at Yarralumla, a wine bar serving "third culture cuisine" that celebrates the diaspora of Chinese and Southeast Asian cuisine to Australia. But even that was a return to what they knew best. Their parents' first restaurant, Sukothai, was at Yarralumla from 1990 until 2008.
And when a space opened up at Scullin, they decided it was time to close that circle once again, returning to the Belconnen suburbs.
EASY BOY!, which opens this weekend, on August 1, is in many ways a return to what they know best - a good Asian eatery close to where people live. In this case, it's a Vietnamese take on Morks - a modern twist on old favourites, although EASY BOY! won't be serving pho.
Instead, chef Rey Vo, who says "easy, boy!" a lot, hence the name, will be serving up the food from his central Vietnamese hometown. He worked with them at Morks in Kingston, and will be ruling the kitchen at Scullin alongside his wife, Amy Vo, who will be the venue manager.
"He'd come on board at Minima as well, and we were just chatting, and he was really passionate about his hometown-slash-regional cuisine, which is not really showcased here as much," Mork says.
"It used to be the seat of power so the food is often really complex and very spicy, very strong flavours. So perfect with a cold beer, or a wine."
He and Benn are sitting in the clean, white surrounds of what is shortly to be a hip new eatery, in a stretch of shops that's come a long way since they were kids growing up in Yarralumla.
Vegan bakery Sweet Bones is now based at Scullin, there's a yoga studio down the way, and an intriguing African grocery store next door.
EASY BOY!, which will be open for dinner from Tuesday to Friday, and all day on Saturday and Sunday, will be serving up a vegan banh mi as a weekend lunchtime treat, as well as pork belly and pig ear salad, hot and sour lemongrass Murray cod and kingfish ceviche.
It won't be priced the same as the average suburban restaurant, although the set menu won't be as expensive as Minima.
"We're going to be positioned a little bit cheaper, a bit more approachable, and definitely family-friendly," Benn says.
And, says Mork, with all-day dining on the weekends, people can drop by for a beer and a snack.
Benn says there'll always be a place for suburban restaurants in Canberra, which is largely made up of suburbs anyway.
Their parents move to Australia in the 1980s for a better life, and both sons went on to get university degrees - Mork a bachelor of science and an MBA, and Benn in marketing and communications, both at the University of Canberra.
But while a restaurant in the family may have been intended to further their progress elsewhere, it seems hospitality is well and truly ingrained in their psyches.
And they see possibilities everywhere.
"While we loved the foreshore, it was quite metropolitan area," Benn says.
"I definitely think that the city [centre] has a very strong place in the Canberra scene ... Obviously it's a little tough and tricky at the moment, and you really have to feel for those operators, but if you see the drone shots that the government released with the stage two light rail, you can see the potential once it's completed. It's a serious city. There's so much residential going up, all that infrastructure is going to be so good for the city. So a lot of people are saying the city is dead. I think the city is alive and will come even more to life.
"But I personally just really love the idea of a suburban local shopping centre."
For the moment, the brothers are splitting the difference, with Mork overseeing Minima at Yarralumla, and Benn at EASY BOY!
But with their eyes firmly trained on the 'burbs, there are good things on the horizon.
