Le Pain Quotidien - finding a home in Wan Chai

http://www.lepainquotidien.com.hk

Man, I really love crunchy fresh baguettes. 

There's something special about lathering a heap of room temperature hand churned salted butter on a fresh baguette that captivates me.  

Sometimes, when I go to a restaurant and there's a fresh crunchy baguette on offer, I make the mistake of filling up on bread and ruining my appetite for the pending meal!

As much as I love bread, it's nowhere near as much as Alain Coumont, the mastermind behind global phenomenon Le Pain Quotidien; "the daily bread".  Coumont opened his first Le Pain Quotidien in his home of Brussels in 1990, with his fanatical approach to producing the absolute best 'daily bread' leading to a global empire that as of today stands at more than 200 outlets, including a flagship bakery on Madison Avenue in New York City.

Coumont had always been around food, his grandparents owning a restaurant near Liege in Belgium and his father was a trained chef, so it seemed natural to continue in the same vein. After training at the same hotel school that his father attended, he eventually deviated slightly to become a baker as opposed to a chef.

Breakfast Series - The Cupping Room

The Cupping Room

I used to be a breakfast fanatic. Back in my home town of Brisbane, the climate allowed for a huge breakfast culture.  There were so many amazing breakfasts, that it was hard to keep up.

When I moved to HK, I was a little dismayed to discover that there's not even close to the same dedication to the first meal of the day - well, at least the Western version!  After checking out a number of cafes and restaurants, I eventually gave up seeking out breakfasts, I just couldn't take the heartbreak of another sub par serve of scrambled eggs.

My search is over!

The best discoveries are those that are unexpected and discovering that the Cupping Room did the best Western breakfast in HK happened pretty much by accident.  

The are a couple of Cupping Room outlets across Hong Kong and they are quite well regarded as producing a great cup of coffee.  I'd been into the Central CR a few times for coffee, but had never 'clicked' that there was an upstairs section that served food.  One morning, curiosity got the better of me, so I wandered upstairs and grabbed a seat.

Breakfast Series - The Coffee Academics

https://www.facebook.com/TheCoffeeAcademics/

We've been spending a lot more time in Wan Chai just recently. We're thinking of moving out of our Mid Levels location and the allure and action of Wan Chai has been calling out to us.

While the girl has had breakfast at Coffee Academics before, and we'd both stopped in for a quick latte every now and then, it was time for me to visit the little cafe for food.  Interestingly, Coffee Academics in Wan Chai opens a lot earlier than most of the cafes around Hong Kong, which means you can actually get a breakfast (and not brunch).

It was pretty quiet when we walked in just after the opening time, but we weren't the first there and there was another westerner taking advantage of an 'early' morning opening.  That is if you'd call 9am early!  

Taking a seat at one of the many available tables, we were given one of the snazzy looking menus to look over, which had a photo of a beautiful looking European 'fry up', which included a strip of delicious looking bacon.  One of the options on the menu was the Academic's Breakfast, which included all your typical breaky goodness like fried eggs, baked beans and of course fatty (oh so fatty) bacon.  The rest of the menu was quite contemporary by Hong Kong standards, and reminded me of some of the breakfast menus back home in Brisbane.

Gauge - breakfast on steroids

One of the things I miss most about my home town of Brisbane is the breakfast culture.  Don't get me wrong, there is an amazing food scene in Hong Kong, one of the best in the world, but no one seems to have nailed the breakfast gig.

It's why, when I recently flew back to Brisbane for a week, I decided I'd get out and have as many great breakfasts as possible.  One I'd been particularly keen to check out was Ollie Hansford's Gauge in South Brisbane.  Formerly of two hatted restaurant the Stokehouse Brisbane and winner of Young Chef of the Year, I was super excited to see what Ollie was up to.  

When I set off from my Hotel to find Gauge, I was surprised to find that it was right next to Julius Pizza, in a spot that had significantly changed in the nine months since I left Brisbane.  With a couple of new high-rise buildings finally open, there was a different vibe from a few years ago, where there was not much at all to do at the Museum end of Grey Street.  Looking quite dark and brooding from the facade, I loved the juxtaposition of the light and airy interior that had a post industrial feel.  Quite stark and simple, with lots of share tables arranged around the kitchen area.

Breakfast Series - Bar Pacino

http://bellezzagroup.com.au/index.php?page=bar-pacino

I almost sound like a broken record, but it's amazing how many new spots are opening up around Brisbane, with new venues seemingly opening on a daily basis.  There are also so many older buildings in the CBD that are getting a make over, that it's hard to count them all.  Of course, a new facade means a new cafe or restaurant opening.  I've been watching the old CUA building (otherwise known as the Hopoate Building due to the installation art) go through its make over recently and was excited to learn about another new dining spot.

Taking a slightly different approach, the team behind new Italian bar e ristorante (bar and restaurant) have literally built new floor space behind the building, almost like land reclamation. Giuseppe Petroccitto, of the Bellezza Group, is the man behind Bar Pacino and has done a wonderful job with the fit out.  With floor to ceiling glass windows, the restaurant and bar has arguably the best view of the Story Bridge and Brisbane river in Queensland.

I'd been looking for an opportunity to get across the street to check out the newly opened Bar Pacino and after a few false starts (it was stupidly busy for the first week or so), I arranged to get across for a breakfast.  You're probably aware by now that I am moving from Brisbane to Hong Kong in early January, so I'd been looking for times to catch up with mates before I head off. Fellow foodie and former Brisbane food blogger, JC from Feed Me Now Brisbane was my dining companion for the morning and I was really looking forward to catch up before I finally leave our shores.

Breakfast Series - Chow House

http://www.chowhouse.com.au/

Another Saturday morning rolled around, but this one was a little different.  An early personal training session meant there was time for leisurely breakfast, a treat that normally is deferred to Sunday mornings (often depriving us of choices).  With the world at our feet, figuratively not literally, we decided to head into the Valley for a breakfast at the Chow House.

One of the funkier looking venus on James Street, Chow House is the Phoenix 'rising from the ashes' of the James Street Bistro.  Not that there were new owners, but more of a strategic move to freshen up a spot that hadn't really changed in a long time.  A move that seems to have paid off considerably! I'd never been to the previous incarnation, although I'd often wondered about it, and thought it was finally time to check out the space.

The Chow House is a fairly informal dining experience and is inspired by the street stalls of all exotic parts of the world, but mostly the Asian continent.  The menu reflects the use of the finest local seasonal produce and is prone to regular changes but regardless of how often, the menu always reflects its Asian inspiration.  

Feeling a little pooped from her PT session, we drove the short distance from our apartment in the CBD to James Street - yeah, I know, it's not that far to walk but we didn't want to waste any time either.  We were worried about parking, which can be quite unpredictable on a Saturday, but we were in luck, scoring a park (paid unfortunately) just around the corner in Robertson Street - which left us with a walk of only twenty metres - it was a great park!

Melbourne Series - Hardware Societe

Facebook - The Hardware Societe

There is a cafe in Melbourne that seems to be the most popular spot in the universe!  I've been wanting to check out uber cafe, the Hardware Societe, the last two or three times I've been to Melbourne, but alas, its been closed for a while.  You can imagine my excitement then having been told that the cafe had re-opened after a fire had partially destroyed the premises.  I had to get along and check it out.

I only really had one morning available to me on my trip, which was a Friday morning.  When in Melbourne, I normally make my way to The European in Spring Street, which had been my favourite breakfast spot down south (see post here), but I was willing to make an exception. Knowing that Hardware Societe was pretty damn popular, I thought that I'd get up early and make my way over at around 7:15am, a little while before it's opening time of 7:30.  I was pretty glad that I did, there was already a decent queue forming and I managed to join it about twenty people deep.

Breakfast Series - the HUB Cafe Kitchen

http://hubcafekitchen.com.au/

Ashgrove is not an area that I associate as a foodie hub, in fact, I kind of think of it as the start of the 'burbs and the end of the inner city area.  I'm thinking that I might have to reassess that view!  We were invited along to check out new Ashgrove restaurant the HUB Cafe Kitchen and thought breakfast would be ideal.

We're quite familiar with the Ashgrove, we used to live around the corner in Bardon and a long time ago, I lived in the Gap and drove up Waterworks Road every day to get home.  The HUB was located on Stewart Road, just off Waterworks Road and right by the shopping centre.  It hadn't been that long ago since our last visit to the area, when I dropped SC and her regular dining buddies for their Indian Curry nights, of which I am (thankfully) excused.  Annasamara was right next door to the HUB and when we pulled out the front, we were surprised by the flashy looking new restaurant and even more surprised that that little part of Steward Road had developed into a little foodie hub.

The HUB has pride of place once you turn the corner into Stewart Street and it's pretty hard to miss. The heritage listed corner store style cafe and been completely remodelled and has the feel of yesteryear but a very modern fit out.  As we walked into the restaurant, I was impressed with the very contemporary open style kitchen and bar area inside, and the open feeling of the main dining room, which had massive open doors that let the outside in.  We were greeted by co-owner and head chef John Lambkin, whom was impeccably dressed in his chef whites and a cool green apron that all of his staff were wearing.

Breakfast Series - The Funky Monkey Cafe

http://www.thefunkymonkeycafe.com.au/

Sometimes it feels as if there is a bit of a 'merry-go-round' of cafes and breakfast spots in the Brisbane inner city suburb of Paddington. There are some mainstay cafes that seem to be able to weather the storm, such as the Java Lounge (see post here) and Sassafrass (see post here), and stay around for generations.  Others though seem to just disappear overnight, Eurovida (see post here) and Cockadoodle Cafe (see post here).  While it's always sad to see a cafe shut up shop, it does provide an almost never ending supply of new cafes to check out.

The Funky Monkey is one of the newer cafes that has moved into a recycled business, right where a little chocolate cafe used to be.  Located right across the street from Paddington Central, the little cafe with the cool name occupies the style of Queenslander that dominates Latrobe Terrace, most of which used to be residences.  The Funky Monkey has a name that really appealed to me, who doesn't like a monkey, right?  And a funky monkey?  Well, that was always going to draw me in.

We had no trouble at all finding the Funky Monkey, it's pretty much front and centre in Paddington Central and we were early enough to be able to score a street park.  It was pretty quiet when we arrived and I was beginning to think that our strategy getting to cafes early was robbing us of much needed sleep in the mornings.  With the proliferation of cafes and restaurants across Brisbane, it had been a while since we'd come across a cafe where we'd had to wait, with Shouk being the last (see post here).  Perhaps we needed to be less concerned with not getting a seat for breakfast without a wait...

With practically every seat available, I dithered about looking for the right table to sit at, it seemed as if I was having a 'Sheldon Cooper' moment, but eventually we settled down at a table that had the right ambiance.  It was a beautiful morning, so I wanted to be out of the sun but still have that feeling of openness.  With a name like the Funky Monkey, I was expecting a little more of an eclectic feel but the closest we got was the brightly coloured tables in the cafe, each a different colour and each brighter than the last!  Our table was a bright green...

Breakfast Series - The Hutch Bistro

http://www.thehutchbistro.com.au/

It's increasingly difficult to find breakfast spots that I haven't tried close to home, so I've been casting my foodie net a little further of late.  It's not that I can't find cafes that I haven't been to before, but it's hard to find a cafe with a menu that appeals.  Some of them are too fancy and some of them don't really have enough options to make it interesting for me, and by interesting, I usually mean chorizo on the menu.

When looking online for a breakfast spot, I usually look for areas that I know or have lived in before, so I went searching for cafes in the half dozen or so suburbs I lived in previously.  We ended up finding a cafe in the Grange, which is one of the northern suburbs SC and I lived in for a whole six weeks!  Long story short, our awesome house at the Grange was sold out from underneath us and we had to find a new place to live - which resulted in finding an even more awesome house in Bardon.

I'd never heard of The Hutch Bistro before, but I was intrigued by the web site, which had proudly displayed a Dimmi badge noting that it was their 'neighbourhood gem' for 2013.  It was enough to entice me to look over the menu, which didn't have a heap of options, but did list chorizo as one of their 'extras'.  It was enough for me, so we jumped in the car and drove north.

Breakfast Series - The Cutting Board Brisbane

https://www.facebook.com/CuttingBoardBris

I'm a big fan of any cafe or restaurant that specialises in meat, even more so when chorizo is prominently displayed on the menu.  This is quite well known, so when I was asked to get in and check out The Cutting Board, it was a no brainer, the lure of a chorizo breakfast was way to much for me.  Ironically, I'd arranged to catch up with my regular mid week breakfast buddy, DruBoy, who happened to be a pescatarian.  After being taken to an almost completely vegetarian breakfast spot a few months ago (see post here), I thought of it as a bit of sweet revenge! 

Unfortunately, my plans of revenge were usurped by family emergencies, not once, but twice, with DruBoy needing to pull out at the last minute each time.  We'd postponed after the first one, but I thought fate was having a laugh at me for my dumb revenge plans, so I spoke to my beloved, who was only too happy to step in and have a hearty breakfast to kick off the last working day of the week.

The Cutting Board is a week day only cafe located at the top end of George Street, underneath the Telstra building.  I'd walked past a number of times when visiting friends and colleagues in the Telstra building, but was not aware that it was open for breakfast until invited down.  Wanting to get an early start on the day, we got out of bed just a little bit earlier and made our way down for a 7:30am weekday date for breakfast.  After arriving and meeting proud manager Brett (owner Anthony was busy at another venture), we got a little bit of a lowdown on what the Cutting Board was all about.  Firstly, it was a loud and proud meat venue, which was ironic as Brett's partner was a vegetarian.  The most popular part of the menu are the 'cut sandwiches', which are chocked full of meaty goodness! But it wasn't only about meat, with some pretty spiffy muffin options available on a daily basis.  

Breakfast Series - WickEd Cafe

WickEd Cafe Spring Hill

All day breakfast.....  It kind of has a luxurious feel about it.  It's a bold statement saying 'you don't need to rush, you can just take your time'.  I don't know about you, but I am a big fan of the all day breakfast, I love bacon and eggs on toast for lunch. It had been some time since I'd taken the time out to do breakfast at lunch, but it was something that I used to do quite often.

I'd been heading back to work after visiting my surgeon for a post shoulder operation check up and happened to be walking down Wickham Terrace on the Spring Hill / CBD border when I spied a sign announcing 'all day breakfast'.  I'd actually walked past WickEd in Spring Hill heaps of times and had wondered what the little cafe at the bottom of Observatory Tower was like.  It wasn't until I had walked completely past WickEd that it registered that the all day breakfast included chorizo, but once it did register, I found myself on auto pilot walking back up the street and into the cafe.

While I had never set foot in WickEd before, the name has always been a source of amusement for me, it's a pretty cool name, if not a little over used, but given the cafe is on the corner of Wickham Terrance and Edward Street, it kind of works.  I was surprised by how little the cafe was inside, there was room for a counter and kitchen, as well as a few seats with most of the seating outside, under a huge sun umbrella.

Breakfast Series - The Shady Palms Cafe

http://shadypalmscafe.com/

Back in the day, there was a powerhouse precinct that had it all, discount shops, cafes and quite a happening scene.  It was a place where on Saturday mornings, there was a vibe, it felt real and just a little bit edgy.  That place was Stones Corner and for a while, it was almost everyone's go-to spot for cheap clothing and a good feed. Then, one day, it wasn't.

For years, Stones Corner languished as a forgotten location, there seemed to be more 'to let' signs in the windows of the shops than shops themselves.  At times, it felt a little bit like a ghost town.  I'm not gonna say that it was the introduction of the discount outlet store DFO, but it was around it's opening that things started to go awry.  Coincidence, perhaps.....

Languish as it might, Stones Corner was not forgotten and over time it has started to transform again, away from its bargain basement factory outlet days into more of a mature setting with cafes and bars.  It might be said that that transformation, while not complete, was kicked along by an enterprising young couple who'd turned to reality TV to help speed up their dream of being in the food industry and opening their own restaurant.  Bec Saul and Mal Gill took to season two of My Kitchen Rules, and while they didn't take out the prize, the exposure was enough for them to open up their very first restaurant.

It might have seemed like a strange choice to open their first restaurant at Stones Corner, which at the time was at perhaps it's lowest ebb, Bec and Mal must have seen something that others didn't. Lady Marmalade was their first restaurant, which quickly became an oasis in an otherwise desolate location.  Success often leads to more success, and after a few short years, it was time to crack on with another cafe/restaurant and since they'd been so insightful with their first cafe, stuck with Stones Corner for their second.

Breakfast Series - The Spring Hill Deli and Produce

https://www.facebook.com/springhilldeli

I really love being able to tell people about those little hidden gems that are dotted around Brisbane. There are so many breakfast spots to check out, you can get a little bit lost trying to decide where to try next (well, that happens to me every weekend!).  I'd been struggling running through the list on Urbanspoon, a list that has almost nine hundred breakfast and brunch options before I came across a name that tingled my memory!

Very good friends of ours and regular breakfast buddies have lived in and around the Spring Hill area for a long time and once I came across the Spring Hill Deli, a hazy memory of DruBoy telling me that it was a top spot just popped into my head.  It was possible that I'd imagined the memory as well, we've been told about a few placed by DruBoy, but I was positive that we were onto a winner.

While the Spring Hill Deli was technically close enough for us to walk to, we were feeling a little bit lazy and decided to drive.  If it had been summer instead of being in the final throws of winter, we might have walked, but it was a tad cool and I reckon we'd made the right decision, especially when a little drizzle of rain hit us on our journey.  Located on Boundary Street, the Spring Hill Deli really stands out in a very quiet part of Spring Hill, in fact its almost impossible to miss - its painted bright red and was like a beacon for our cold and hungry bodies.

Breakfast Series - Plenty over at West End

http://plentywestend.wordpress.com/about/

I love going out for breakfast and I'm not alone, it seems as if everyone wants to check out the latest Brisbane breakfast hot spot, which seems to change with stark regularity.  One of the hottest places to check out for some time has been Plenty, over in West End and I've been keen to check it out for ages. I'd have gone earlier too, if it wasn't for the fact that Plenty does not open on Sunday mornings, which is our normal morning for breakfast out.  Drats!

You might be thinking, why not just go on a Saturday, damn it!!  And its a good point, except SC has her personal training sessions on a Saturday morning and we almost never get away for breakfast as a consequence.  That all changed unexpectedly over the weekend and SC was not feeling up to the rigours of PT torture, but it did open up a window of opportunity, which was quickly filled with a trip to West End.

It was a rainy and miserable morning, too wet for us to walk the short(ish) distance to West End, so we hopped in the car and cruised on over to look for a park.  For those in the know, this is no easy feat, with the West End markets dominating the area on a Saturday morning, so SC did the usual 'dump-n-run', so I could score a seat.  Located on Montague Road, just around the corner from the start of Stanley Street, Plenty had plenty of seats available once I'd been dumped by the sidewalk near the entrance.  I was able to score a great seat and sat around for some time before SC made her way into the cafe, brolly in hand.  Apparently, she'd had to park quite some way away!

While I'd been waiting for SC, I'd managed to have a decent look around the cafe, which was located in a big warehouse type environment, that looked (purposefully) like an incomplete building site in parts and funky cafe in the middle.  A huge looking kitchen was down at the very rear of the cafe, with extra seating tucked around the corner.  It was a very interesting looking little cafe, with lots of seating spread out over the area, including a second story, that again looked like an incomplete building with exposed wood beams.

Breakfast Series - Il Locale - my (not quite) local Italian

http://www.illocaleitalian.com.au/

For a long long time, one of my favourite breakfast spots in Brisbane was just around the corner from my apartment in the CBD.  Bordering on the City / Valley fringe is a little shopping complex that amongst other things houses the Valley Woolworths as well as a little breakfast spot called Tognini's Trattoria (see post here).  Unfortunately, as was the case once I started blogging about food, I stopped going to my regular spots so often, mainly so I could get out and experience as many restaurants and cafes as possible.

I was petty excited to learn that another restaurant owned by the Togninis had started a breakfast service, so excited that I decided that I had to get across and check it out.  I'd been to Il Locale once before, and that was for the opening launch party (see post here) which had been pretty good, but I'd not been back since.  Located in my old stomping ground in the Rosalie Village (I used to live just around the corner), Il Locale took over from my all time favourite pizza spot - Tomato Brothers, which unfortunately doesn't exist any more.

We'd decided that a breakfast with our very good buddies, Thommo and DruBoy was well overdue and that catching up over a nice breakfast in Rosalie would be a fantastic idea.  Our breakfasts with Thommo and DruBoy have become more frequent in the last twelve months and DruBoy and I have been branching out without the girls lately too, so breakfast is our new thing!  It was a beautiful sunny Sunday morning when we made our way across to Rosalie and surprisingly found that the whole area was pretty much dead!  It was puzzling to us as we remember the area as being a bustling hive of activity on a Sunday morning.

Breakfast Series - Soul Bistro Milton

http://www.soulbistro.com.au/

I'm not sure if you've noticed but breakfasts in Brisbane have been creeping up in price.  Slowly but surely, the humble breakfast in our fair city is becoming quite an expensive proposition.  This isn't necessarily a bad thing, the quality of breakfast has also risen, to the point that Brisbane is now the centre of the known universe for the weekend breakfast (true story!).

A lot of the cafes and restaurants I've visited for breakfast have been in the mid to high price range, with a recent breakfast hitting seventy bucks for the two of us.  While that might seem a little exorbitant, it was a lovely breakfast..... but it was still seventy bucks.  Our latest breakfast adventure was at the opposite end of the spectrum and was one of the best value breakfasts we've had in a very long time. 

I'd had Soul Bistro on my radar for a little while but we'd never quite got around to visiting, that was until recently.  Located on the corner of busy Milton and Baroona roads, Soul was on of those little spots that you'd normally drive past a thousand times before realising that it was there.  We had a reasonable idea where the cafe was and cruised on over just in time for Soul's 8am opening.  In years gone by, when we lived around the corner in Bardon, we'd seen the little shopfront change hands a heap of times but Soul has been in existence for around six years.

Breakfast Series - Customs House Breakfast

http://customshouse.com.au/

After what had been a pretty huge couple of weeks at work and eating, we were feeling pretty exhausted and in need of a sleep in.  It doesn't happen very often, we're usually up fairly early on Sunday mornings so we can grab a table at one of Brisbane's burgeoning breakfast spots.  But, on this occasion, exhaustion definitely won out and off-went-the-alarm and we had a blissful sleep in until around 9am.  The only problem with lolling around in bed until 9am was that we were super hungry when we got out of bed and really felt like breakfast somewhere - oh!  The irony...

It just so happens that there is a great little breakfast spot in the CBD, right next to my apartment, that is only open on Sunday mornings from 9am.  We'd been to Customs House for breakfast a few times before, but not since I started my blog, but it immediately sprung to mind once I realised what time we'd crawled out of bed.  After a quick call to the restaurant and  a quick confirmation that we could just pop over without a reservation, we got dressed in our slightly less casual Sunday duds and made our way across the street to Customs House.

One of the most striking buildings left standing in Brisbane, Customs House was designed by Charles McLay of the Colonial Architect's office and work commenced on its construction in 1886.  Taking around three years to build and costing thirty eight thousand pounds, the riverside building was a fine example of Victorian Free Classical style and most recognisable by its copper sheathed dome. Customs House was a functioning government office building until around 1994, at which time it was sold off to the University of Queensland and is now used as a function facility.

Breakfast Series - Deedot Coffee House

http://www.deedot.com.au/

Who would have thought that visiting a suburban cafe for breakfast would cause such a divide?  Last weekend, we decided to get out of the city and visit The Rare Pear (see post here), but in doing so, exposed a simmering competition.  Located within sight is another Holland Park favourite cafe called Deedot Coffee House, and it seems as if it has as many fans as The Rare Pear.  I needed to get along and check out Deedot to settle the neighbourhood debate, once and for all.

There is a strip mall of shops along Logan Road, which went through one of those council rejuvenations a few years back.  The idea was to pretty up parts of Queensland suburbs with the lure of making them attractive to retailers.  I'm not sure that its effects were immediate, but there is no doubt that a few years later, there seems to be the type of energy in a suburb that brings a couple of cool little cafes to the same strip.

We'd seen how busy Deedot was the previous week and resolved ourselves to an even earlier start to ensure we secured a table without the dreaded long wait for a table.  If we'd thought it was cold on our previous visit to the area, we were assaulted by an even colder morning, not great when you're up so early.  I even had to pull out my leather bomber jacket from storage, just to make sure I'd stay warm.  It's funny how things go, there were hardly any diners when we arrived at Deedot but the Rare Pear just up the street was going gangbusters!  We easily secured a table of our choice and had a look over the menu.

Breakfast Series - Felix Espresso & Wine Bar

Facebook - Felix Espresso & Wine Bar

As a foodie, I'm forever looking for those hidden little gems.  As a self confessed 'city-slicker', I get a huge sense of satisfaction stumbling across a little part of Brisbane that is new to me.  Combining the two into my food blog means that I get to tell all of you about these little parts of our fair city that you may not have known about. Felix Espresso and Wine Bar in Burnett Lane is just such a gem.

I must admit that I'd walked up and down Burnett Lane a heap of times before I even noticed that there had been an addition to the Brisbane bar and cafe landscape.  Tucked right out of the way, Felix fills out the space that for the last ten years has been used as Adelaide Street's Record Exchanges store room.  It's not until you actually stop, take a breath and look around you that you notice these things and it wasn't until I'd taken that moment that I'd even observed the other changes to the lane.

As is often the case, once it had entered my orbit, I was destined to get along to check Felix Expresso and Wine Bar out.  One of my good buddies, DruBoy, had been visiting Felix since the day it had opened and asked if I'd want to get along and share a breakfast with him one morning, in what had become his favourite city resting spot.  DruBoy did warn me that Felix was a little different to other cafes around town and that I'd have to be open to selecting something other than my usual bacon and eggs for breakfast.

We'd arranged to meet for a 7:30am breakfast on a Friday morning, which just co-incidentally happened to be one of the coldest mornings on record.  We both live within easy walking distance of Burnett Lane but I arrived just a little bit earlier and was able to secure us a prime spot in the very little cafe.  Felix, which is quite tucked away, is just up a flight of stairs that takes also takes you to the back of the Record exchange, has enough room to comfortably sit about fifteen people.  It's small, but it uses space spectacularly, with the main dining area residing in a sunken lounge area that looks out over colourful Burnett Lane.  The view is made even more colourful by the tinted windows that dominate the front of the room.