Festival Series - The Teneriffe Festival

http://www.teneriffefestival.org/

I still remember my first time fondly.  We were blissfully unaware that the inaugural Teneriffe Festival was underway and out for a morning walk through Newstead and Teneriffe.  It was pretty random to be honest, we just picked a direction and head towards Teneriffe, thinking a long walk along the river would be a great idea.

As we rounded the corner of Commercial Road, we could see some commotion a little further up the road and as we got closer, we could see that the street was closed off and there seemed to be some sort of street party (big understatement).  That first year of the Festival was a random occurrence, but we've made our way to the Teneriffe Festival each year since.

In the five years that the festival has been running, we've watched it slowly consume more and more of  the trendy inner city suburb and this year was it's biggest yet.  I couldn't believe how vibrant and incredible Teneriffe becomes during the festival, with live music, fashion shows, laneway parties and all-so-much-food.

Aqua Linea - Riverside dining at Teneriffe

http://www.aqualinea.net/

With so many restaurants in Brisbane to check out, it can be quite a daunting experience to find a dining spot that I've not visited.  Sometimes, it's pretty easy. The bright and shiny new restaurant opens and you just have to check it out - often leading to an amazing experience (see post about Black Bird here).  But as strange as it seems sometimes, there is not a new restaurant opening every week of the year in Brisbane, so at times I need to look for established restaurants that I've missed out on visiting.  My favourite way of picking such a restaurant looking through the latest edition of the Entertainment Book.

The thing I love about the Entertainment Book, and the reason why I spend the $65 dollars on purchasing it each year, is that it's a great way to save money.  All of the restaurants included give some sort of discount, be it a main meal for free or a discount on the entire meal.  That's a pretty sweet deal when you eat out quite a bit!  

We listed out a few restaurants that looked pretty good and then after checking out the restaurant websites, decided upon Aqua Linea, which had a pretty awesome looking menu and some spectacular looking food photos on the site. The first time we'd noticed Aqua Linea was during the first ever Teneriffe Festival when the streets around Teneriffe were closed off and we could walk around and explore the area.  It was also a restaurant that came to my attention when a buddy at work asked for a list of restaurant recommendations, then decided to ignore the list and head over to Aqua Linea instead. 

London Porterhouse - Argentinian BBQ comes to town

No website just yet

Share dining is on the rise.  Well, it's actually been on the rise for a few years now with many menus across the restaurants of Brisbane showing 'bites' or 'small plates' that are designed to be shared amongst friends.  Many cultures around the world around the world have a version of share dining so it's hard to pinpoint where share dining originated, but it's certainly most popular in Latin American and large parts of Western Europe.

When you consider the ever increasing number of restaurants in Brisbane there is actually quite a diversity of cuisines available if you go looking.  Mexican cuisine aside, there is not a large Latin American food scene in Brisbane which is a little surprising given the nature of our move to share dining and the love of communal dining in this part of the world.  Amidst all of the doom and gloom about restaurants closing in Brisbane, a new restaurant has quietly opened with its eyes fairly and squarely on Latin American share dining.

London Porterhouse has it's roots firmly in the Argentinian culture with a view that eating and drinking are there to be enjoyed.  Located at Teneriffe in the converted London woolstore, London Porterhouse joins the stable of cool restaurants in bars that sits below the converted woolstore that makes up the London apartment block.