Casual Dining - Colle Rosso

http://www.collerosso.com.au/

It had been a little while since I'd fallen into a Sunday night rhythm of hitting an Italian restaurant for either pizza or pasta, but after our visit the weekend before to Sorellina for pizza (see post here), we felt inspired.  I've checked out most of the Italian restaurants in and around the Brisbane CBD, but not all of them, and after a quick look around, decided that Red Hill favourite, Colle Rosso was long overdue for a visit.

Colle Rosso has been around for a couple of years now and it's slowly been building a loyal fan base of locals.  Located on Musgrave Road, Colle Rosso is only a few minutes out of the CBD and actually much more convenient than you'd expect.  It was a freezing cold Sunday night when we decided to visit, so it was definitely a trip in the car, but it's close enough to the CBD that we'd be comfortable walking in warmer weather.

We'd parked the car just across the street from the restaurant and made our way across busy Musgrave Road and by the time we'd hit the front door, were eternally grateful to be out of the freezing (well, cold for Brisbane) wind and into the warm and inviting dining room.  It was a pretty quiet night, with only one table occupied when we arrived, and were shown to our table, which was right at the front of the restaurant.  We had a chuckle about our location, which was strategically great for the restaurant (showing that diners were in the restaurant), but being next to the massive plate glass windows, it was a little cold!

The dining room at Colle Rosso is quite an inviting space, with lots of Italian memorabilia over the walls including an homage to the world game - a glass enclosed number 10 guernsey from a much loved football side (soccer).  We didn't have to wait for menus to be delivered, they were already at the table and we set about deciding on what to have for dinner.  My intention had been for us to have a couple of pizzas again but SC was soon in a quandary, with some sensational looking pasta options.  In the end, we ended up mixing it up with pizza and pasta.

Breakfast Series - Cockadoodle Cafe and Espresso Bar

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Cockadoodle-Cafe-Espresso-Bar/160876987300569

Over the weekend, we had a fairly loose plan to go to breakfast, that was if we got out bed in a timely manner. Because we didn't have any firm plans, I didn't do any research the night before for a breakfast but I did think that we would give Paddington a go.  As it turned out, we were up early enough to cruise somewhere for a leisurely meal in one of our favourite suburbs before it got too busy and after a quick search on Urbanspoon, we were off to check out Hamptons Home Living.

A funny thing happened on the way though.  SC was driving and went a totally strange route to Paddington from the CBD and we ended up at Waterworks Road and needing to cut down Enoggera Terrace.  As we shot around the corner (like the car was on rails), we caught a blurry glimpse of a little cafe that we'd been meaning to check out for a long time.  A quick look at each other and we knew that our plans for breakfast had changed and after a quick u-turn we were parked and heading off to Cockadoodle Cafe.

The little corner of Enoggera Terrace and Waterworks Road has been a cafe that we've wanted to check out for a very long time, in fact it could have been in the decade range.  Cockadoodle Cafe is a relatively new tenant in the spot and for years and years it was a restaurant called Oliveto's, which was a little Modern Australian bistro.  When we lived in the area, we always thought that there would be time to check out Oliveto's and continued to put it off until the next time.  As is normally the case with these things, but the time we finally decided that 'tonight would be the night', it had closed down and we'd missed our chance forever.  Bummer.