Moose and Gibson - getting the silent treatment

http://www.mooseandgibson.com/

2013 will definitely go down as a watershed year in the annals of Brisbane dining, there were openings and closings and just a heap of movement in what had been a stagnant dining and bar scene.  There were many wonderful moments for me last year, in my first full year of writing my food blog, and a couple really stand out for me.  One in particular causes me to smile every time I think about it, for various reasons.  I went to the opening of a cool little spot over at Woolloongabba called Moose & Gibson, then followed it up with a visit for what turned out to be one the best breakfasts I had all year (see post here and here).

Most notably was that through this event, I met a pretty good bloke whom I've become friends with, and because to this day, the Moose & Gibson post remains in my top two most popular blog posts of all time!

So I was quite excited to learn that Moose & Gibson was trying something a little different and went along to a test night to provide some feedback on their Silent Cinema Tapas night.  The concept is quite simple but ingenious:  tapas menu and silent cinema.  The menu has been put together by head chef Luke Tye, who has been producing some amazing food since moving to Moose & Gibson last year.  Owner and all round great bloke, Malcolm Watts was pretty excited about the new concept telling us that it's not really been done before and that he wanted to create a space where you could come and get some great food, a few drinks and enjoy some old style silent cinema.

E'cco Bistro - sharing the love with friends

http://www.eccobistro.com/

What can I tell ya, I'm a sucker for the classics!  I'd been heading down to check out Philip Johnson's pop-up burger place, Howzat Burgers (see post here), so often that I got it into my head that I needed to take it one step further and try the latest E'cco Bistro menu.  Not that eating at E'cco bistro is much of a chore, it's been one of Brisbane's best restaurants for as long as I can remember and it's been one of my favourites ever since I ate there my first time.

I've had many memorable meals at E'cco but had a surprising time trying to convince my mate to come along with us for a double date.  CI recanted how he'd been disappointed with the size of the meals and the price of mains the last time he'd been to E'cco, which he also admitted had been a long time ago. Sensing that I'd have better luck with TB, I asked CI to check in with his more culinary adventurous other half, which turned out to be a masterstroke.  TB had never been to E'cco before and had been keen to check it out for a long time, so it was a lock, we were heading over to E'cco Bistro for dinner.

There was just one problem, I'd left it pretty late on a Saturday afternoon to get into one of the most popular restaurants in Brisbane, pretty silly really.  Luckily though the restaurant was able to squeeze us into an earlier sitting (thanks Philip), as long as we got along by 6:30, we were going to be sweet.  SC and I were pretty happy with this earlier starting time but TB and CI found it a bit early, but were just really happy the we'd been able to score a seat.

Pop Up Series - Howzat Burger

https://www.facebook.com/HowzatBurger

A funny thing happened during the week, one of Brisbane's best known and well loved chefs tried his hand at something a little different, and pulled off one of the successes of the decade. You could expect Philip Johnson of E'cco fame to be a little gun shy after the unfortunate end to Bistro One Eleven but it seems as if the opposite is true.  After an extremely well crafted social media campaign that was eagerly picked up by foodies and online magazines around town, Howzat Burger was on the tip of almost everyone's lips in Brisbane.

I think everyone understands the concept of a 'Pop-up' - you find a space and for a short period of time, a restaurant or cafe takes over and you have an instant restaurant.  I first saw a little banner for Howzat Burger a couple of weeks ago and was instantly on alert, I love burgers and since my trip to New York, have been on a mission to replicate some of the tastes and flavours of genuine USA burgers.  As the social media campaign picked up and more information was 'set free', I found myself caught up in the hype, so much so that I couldn't help 'like' and 'share' and 'repost' all that I could see.

As the information and details emerged, it became clear that Howzat Burger would only be around for a short time, open on the last two Thursdays and Fridays in January.   Unfortunately, I wasn't able to get along on the first Thursday and could only watch the day unfold on Twitter and Instagram, all the time wishing I was there, enjoying a burger.  I did learn some valuable tips by looking on from the social sphere.  Firstly, the day had been incredibly successful, with over 235 burgers on the first day of trading.  To put that in context, thats over 58 burgers an hour, or just under one burger a minute!  (it would end up being over 600 for both days - even more amazing). Secondly, I had to plan carefully to avoid waiting in a queue for over an hour to get a burger, which many patient and happy campers did on the opening day.

Breakfast Series - The Java Lounge

https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Java-Lounge/211139015593625

A long time ago and a lifetime away I used to live in one of Brisbane's best suburbs, Bardon.  We always used to say that the inner west was best and we were only half joking when we said it.  What made it great living in Brisbane's inner west way back in the day was that it was one of the only areas within Brisbane that had a thriving dining culture.  This was when Park Road at Milton was just about the only spot where you could get a meal after 9pm at night -  yeah, it was a while ago.

I've always enjoyed eating out and back when I was younger and SC and I were just starting our life together, we didn't have a heap of money so going out to fine diners was a little bit of a luxury.  Instead of regularly hitting the city's few 'fancy' restaurants we would head off to breakfast as our main way of eating out and the Java Lounge was one of our favourites.

Fast forward a few years, there is a thriving dining scene just about everywhere in Brisbane but it's refreshing to see that some of the old places are still around and doing well.  On a rare Saturday morning where SC didn't have a personal training session, we decided to forgo the Sunday breakfast and go a day earlier.  As we were looking through our options on Urbanspoon, looking at and then discounting some of the hipper and cooler cafes on the list, I spied a name that brought back a flood of memories.  The Java Lounge, of course, it had to be the Java Lounge.  We were up nice and early so didn't bother about booking, we just hoped in the car, set autopilot and drove to our old stomping grounds.

E'cco - 18th Birthday Celebrations

http://www.eccobistro.com/

Philip Johnson's E'cco is one of Brisbane's most enduring and iconic restaurants.  A special occasion restaurant that made you want to make any occasion special, just so you'd have an excuse to go for your next visit.  More than a special occasion restaurant for the many regulars that love E'cco's approach to dining, relaxed and with amazing combinations of flavours.

I was excited and honoured to be invited along as a guest of Lucid Media and Philip Johnson to be part of the E'cco 18th Birthday celebrations.  I was joined by ABC news lead Karina Carvalho and her plus 1 and Jessalyn from Lucid Media to share in the celebration and work through some of the classic E'cco dishes of the last 18 years.

Well before I started blogging about food, E'cco was one of my favourite restaurants and I have had some exquisite meals over the journey.  Since blogging, I have been back often and I have written much about the restaurant (see posts here and here), so I was looking forward to sitting back and checking out the menu filled with Philip's favourite dishes.  I had only just landed from my New York visit, so I was a little jet-lagged for the visit and also had fresh memories of some amazing meals from Manhattan.

Cheap Eats - Lefkas Greek Taverna

http://lefkas.com.au/

I love fine dining.  I love great food produced by top quality chefs and amazing restaurants.  It's not all I love about food and eating, I also find nothing better than going to an old favourite and eating simple and tasty food.  What's even better is when it starts to get a little warmer and getting out and feeling the sun on the top of my head.

One of my favourite casual dining spots is Lefkas Greek Taverna over in West End, which recently reopened after extensive renovations.  Lefkas is a spot that I have been going to for a very long time and at times has felt like a home away from home and I was excited to see the extent of the renovations and remodelling.  Lefkas has now taken over the space next door that used to be Cantina and is now a very large and modern looking restaurant.  There are still remnants of the old inside of Lefkas, the traditional blue and white walls that remind of the Greek flag, but most of the space is now open with many more table and seats available in the restaurant.

Lefkas has always been one of the busiest restaurants in the Hardgrave Road strip of restaurants in West End, it's always been crowded and just a little uncomfortable to have a dine in meal.  It's because of this that SC and I almost always get take away, and head down to the Brisbane river to sit and enjoy a simple meal.

Bistro One Eleven - I just keep coming back

http://www.bistrooneeleven.com/

Everybody remembers their firsts;  their first kiss, their first love, their first <ahem>, well, you know what I mean.  As a food blogger, the restaurant of my very first blog also holds a very special place in my heart.  The angst of not really knowing how it would be received or even if it was any good; would people be interesting in what I had to say?  Did it even matter?  After eating out for many, many years and having friends and family tell me I should stop talking and start writing about my passion, I finally put 'pen to paper'.  My very first blog was about Bistro One Eleven and I remember it well and it was their third night open.

Fast forward eight months (has it really only been eight months?) and I am still blogging strong and still loving Bistro One Eleven.  It was my turn to select the venue for our quarterly leadership lunch and there was no other place that entered my consciousness to visit, it was always going to be this wonderful restaurant.  In the months since my last visit, Bistro One Eleven had been recognised as one of the best in the state by winning a coveted Brisbane Times Good Food Guide chefs hat, a just reward for the effort of the Bistro One Eleven team over the last eight months.

Owner Philip Johnson has put it all together; an amazing team; a fantastic location; a great concept and most of all now, a loyal following.  Never resting on his laurels,  Philip is always looking to improve the team and now has a brand new head chef Mathias Anderson, who returns to the fold after spending some time at Alfred & Constance (Mathias used to work at E'cco Bistro).  The philosophy at Bistro One Eleven is simple, take the very best of raw ingredients prepared well and served without complication.  In this respect Bistro One Eleven is a standout.

Cheap Eats - Burger Urge Fortitude Valley

http://burgerurge.com.au/

Brisbane is fast becoming an amazing food destination, not only in the fine dining arena, but also for casual dining and cheap eats.  There are so many new and exciting places to check out it's sometimes easy to forget about the food joints that have been around for a while.  The places that you really enjoyed going to but for some reason just faded into the background, I'm sure you're thinking about just such a restaurant or cafe that fits into this category right now!  Burger Urge in the Valley is one of those joints for me, a place where I used to go so regularly we were part of the furniture.

One of the great things about being a food blogger is that it's just such places that you want to go back to.....  To check out if it still holds a place in your heart or if you've moved on for a reason.  I had been invited back by co-owners Sean and Colby Carthew to check our their new menu, so SC and I 'saddled up' during the week and went in for a return visit.

The Valley Burger Urge was the first and original burger joint of what has now become a successful chain of Burger Urges'.  The Carthew boys have expanded their original concept and there are now five Burger Urges' dotted around town, the other locations being West End, UQ St Lucia, Kelvin Grove and the newest addition at QUT Gardens Point.  This is no mean feat in a market that is dominated by Melbourne burger franchise Grill'd.

Breakfast Series - Tognini's Trattoria

http://www.togninis.com/index.html

What to do on a Saturday morning when you have had a super bad nights sleep and there is no cereal left in the house and you are out of milk?  The answer is simple, just leave the house and find somewhere to defer breakfast responsibilities to someone else.  SC's been sick all week and has not had a good night sleep all week and this has impacted my sleep patterns as well, so we were both in need of a nice relaxing breakfast.

There are a heap of well known breakfast joints around town that do a fantastic breakfast, often these places are hard to get into and sometimes have long queues, we could not be bothered with any of that. The choice for where we would go was simple, heading off to the Spring Hill / Valley border for one of the more under rated breakfast menus in town.  SC and I have been going to Tognini's for many years and love the breakfast menu and the quality of the food.  More often than not, its pretty easy to get a table, especially on a Sunday morning.

Breakfast series - Sassafras

http://sassafrasfoods.com.au/

SC and I really felt like going out for breakfast on Saturday morning.  This bug does not bite us too often these days, we mainly head out for fine dining dinners now days, but there was a time when breakfast was the main meal that we would eat out.  Back in the day, there were not a lot of options if you wanted a nice breakfast.  Not so today!

When looking at Urbanespoon and checking out some cool breakfast blogs Taking care of Breakfast  and the Breakfast Club we could see that there was now a massive array of great looking restaurants and cafes that offered the starting meal of the day.  Where to go?  Quite a few of the cafes that we thought looked really interesting were not yet open from their Christmas breaks, so in the end we travelled down memory lane to visit Sassafras, which is cafe we used to frequent over a decade ago.  What would it be like now?

Interestingly enough, the Sassafras website talks about a re-opening after some remodelling, but when SC and I walked through the door, it did not seem any different from our last visit over a decade ago, so go figure?!  Sassafras is in an old Paddington Queenslander and has heaps of small rooms with tables placed where ever there is space, but there is a massive outside dining area out the back.  It's a pretty eclectic looking place with unmatched tables and chairs and has quite a homey feel to it.  They also pride themselves on the quality of their organic food selection, so hopefully this would come through with the taste of the food.