LONgTIME - definitely a funky spot

http://longtime.com.au

Not long before I moved away from Brisbane, a cool sounding little restaurant opened up in the Valley called LONgTIME.  I'd walked past a couple of times and made the rookie mistake of looking at the bar area outside, assuming it was the dining area and thinking 'Meh.

I'd never really given the modern Thai restaurant much of a thought until we came back to Brisbane for a short visit and arranged to go along with good mates.  You can imagine my surprise when I arrived for our dinner and found a huge and contemporary looking dining room, wrapped around an open kitchen, hidden from street view.  I was gob smacked!

It didn't surprise me that it was one of the hottest dining spots in Brisbane and a favourite of our Brisbane buds Thommo and Druce.  It was just the sort of hip and out of the way place that would appeal to our friends, who regaled us with stories of former visits and amazing food.  I literally couldn't wait to get cracking...

But, wait I did.  I'd arrived a little early and Thommo and Druce, who'd been entertaining SC, were quite late.  So, I had the opportunity to sit in the dining room and watch it slowly, then quickly fill up as I waited for my dining companions.  At least I was comfortable and it did give me the opportunity to admire the fit-out, which was solid looking wood tables and chairs and green leaf covered chandeliers, bringing the outside in.

Farewell Tour - Gerard's Bistro

http://www.gerardsbistro.com.au/

There are very few restaurants that burst onto the scene and make an impression in the same way that Fortitude Valley’s Gerard’s Bistro has done.  In a very short space of time, Gerard’s has done what very few restaurants have done….

Chefs Hat – check (currently One Brisbane Times Good Food Guide Hat)

Gourmet Traveller top 100 list – check (currently 88 in Australia)

Gourmet Traveller 10 ten in Brisbane – check (currently #4)

Gourmet Traveller best new talent – check (Ben Williamson )

It would be foolish to understate the impact and influence that Gerard’s Bistro has had on the Brisbane dining scene.  It’s helped radically transform the fine dining paradigm.  No longer did amazing restaurants need to charge $50+ for a main course;  silver service was relegated to yesterday’s news; and share plates became the norm….

All because of Gerard’s Bistro.

A collaboration between Brisbane’s well known Moubaraks and wonderkind Chef Ben Williamson, it would also be a mistake to think Gerard’s was an overnight success.

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!

Nikuya - the Japanese Meat Shop

http://www.nikuya.com.au/

I have to tell you, blink around this town and you're gonna miss a lot. Just when I thought I'd finally checked out all of the restaurants at the Valley hotspot of M&A Lane, a new one opens up to taunt me! We were walking to the Valley last weekend to do some furniture shopping (yep, I bought some cool stuff - see here) and we came across Brisbane's latest Japanese restaurant - Nikuya.  We made a mental note to check it out sometime, but curiosity got the better of us and we made a reservation for later that night.

Now that we're into the warmer months, we're finding ourselves walking around a lot more and even though we'd walked about in the hot sun for most of the day, we took advantage of the lovely evening and wandered into the Valley for dinner.  As we arrived to Nikuya, we got a sense of how big the restaurant was.  Like it's neighbour The Flaming Olive (see post here), Nikuya is a massive space, but unlike it's neighbour, dining is split out over two levels - a more traditional restaurant downstairs and a Japanese BBQ up.

The direct Japanese to English translation for Nikuya is 'butcher' but Owner Patrick Ip uses the more literal translation of 'meat house'.  Some of you might know Patrick Ip's other restaurants Ginga and Bamboo Basket, which are popular dining spots in Brisbane (Ginga seems to be everywhere).  With a name like Meat House, you're going to expect to get some amazing meat and it's something that Nikuya seems pretty proud of.

After arriving, we followed our waitress to the back of the restaurant to a booth that was quite spacious for the two of us.  It seemed like quite a long walk and I was able to check out the interior and decor of the restaurant, which was very modern in appearance.  The dark wood of the tables and chairs were interspersed with circular beach coloured circles that had a bit of a retro feel about them. I also noticed the huge kitchen and bar area - I guess with a space that holds over 200 customers, you're going to need a huge kitchen....

Casual Dining - The Flying Cock

https://www.facebook.com/theflyingcock

I've been a little surprised that the UK phenomenon, the Gastro Pub, has not really taken off in Brisbane. For a while there, I thought that we were on the verge of a new thing, but it didn't quite eventuate the way that American style foodie establishments have hit town.  If you've been to England, gastro pubs seem to be everywhere - it is after all where the phrase was coined in 1991 when mates David Eyre and Mike Belben took over The Eagle pub in London and turned into a pub slash restaurant.  It was a concept that helped reinvigorate the pub culture and British dining.

There have been a couple of Gastro Pubs open in Brisbane over the last couple of years to mixed success.  The Alliance in Spring Hill (see post here) and Statler and Waldorf on Caxton Street (see post here) are a couple that spring to mind, but I'm sure there are a few others out there.  One of the things that I like about the concept of a Gastro Pub, apart from the food, is the great names used - I especially love the name Statler and Waldorf (named after a couple of famous muppets).  I was really interested when I got invited along to check out the new lunchtime menu from Brisbane's latest Gastro Pub - the Flying Cock (what a great name!).

The Flying Cock is located on Brunswick Street and is part of the complex, that for many years housed the Valley's favourite Irish Bar, Dooleys until it closed a few years back.  It was a place I'd frequented 'back-in-the-day' when we wanted a rowdy place to play some eight ball, so I was quite familiar with the spot.  While the location was inhabited by Dooleys for what seemed like forever, when the old Irish gal closed down, a string of forgettable places seem to take it's place, so I was keen to see what the lads had done to the place.

Within easy walking distance of the CBD, we decided that we'd walk into the Valley for a bit of furniture shopping (we bought some really cool replica furniture from Matt Blatt) and then stop into the Flying Cock on the way home.  It was a pretty damn warm day on the Saturday of our visit and by the time we'd finished our shopping and arrived, we were a bit hot and sweaty.  Stepping into the shade of the pub was like stepping out of the Sub-Saharan sun into an oasis of blissful cool - we hoped that it was a good sign of things to come.

Casual Dining - The Wickham Hotel

http://thewickham.com.au/

If you've visited the Valley over the last twenty years(ish), then you would know about a little corner of the trendy inner city suburb that has an interesting and checkered past.  The Wickham Hotel is well known in the Valley as being a traditional gay venue (LGBTI) since 1996 and it's fair to say a rollicking good time has been had by many an adventurous Brisbanite.  While it's recent past has been dominated by the Big Gay Day and if memory serves me correct, Boy George spinning some tunes on the 'ones and twos', the Hotel has been around for a lot longer.

Originally estabilished in 1885 by famous Brisbane architect Richard Gailey, The Wickham began it's life as the Oriental Hotel and for all intents and purposes was one of the 'grand old pubs' of Brisbane.  It's a pub that SC had spent a bit of time in 'back in the day' when it would be Sunday beers between Ricks Bar and the Wickham Hotel.  The hotel has been ever changing and if you frequent the Valley or drive down Wickham Terrace, you would have noticed that the next incarnation of the hotel has been underway.

We were pretty excited to be invited along with a number of Brisbane bloggers to check out the renovations and get a peek of the new renovations.  Given that the Valley is a short walk for us, we'd taken the opportunity to have a nice easy walk into the Valley for our Wickham experience.  We'd entered through the new 'car park' area, which used to be the Wickham's car park but was not an outdoor dining area.  It was a large space with lots of share dining tables spaced about, as well as some group seating around different sized cable 'barrels'.  It wasn't until we walked through to the main part of the pub that we saw the magic.

Tartufo - this time its all about the Pizza

http://www.tartufo.com.au/

A couple of months ago, I started an adventure to try to find the best pizza in Brisbane (see posts here), but after eating a little too much pizza in such a short time, I paused for a moment.  After going without pizza for almost two months, I started to get that feeling in the pit of my stomach that can only be resolved with a dose of pizza.  Not just any pizza, margherita!

So far in my travels, I've had some great pizza with my favourites being Sorellina (see post here) and Beccofino, which to date had been my favourite by quite some distance.  It was time to get some hatted pizza and by that, I mean get some pizza from one of Brisbane's best restaurants, Tartufo.  I've been to the Tony Percuoco restaurant a heap of times and rate it as one of the best Italian restaurants around but it's only been relatively recently that I became aware that Tony had moved into another great love of his life - pizza!

Being a native of Naples, the home of the margherita pizza, following in the footsteps of the most famous pizzerias in the world, Brandi, Da Michele and Trianono Tradition, it was only natural that a pizza oven would grace the floor at Tartufo.  With a view of using only the freshest ingredients of the highest quality, Tony aims to be accredited through the 'Associazione Verace Pizza Napoletana' (AVPN), an association dedicated to the protection and veracity of the 'true Neapolitan pizza'.

We'd been trying to get in to see Gone Girl for a couple of weeks, so we'd had a plan to get in to Tartufo right on pizza opening time of 5:30, so we'd have enough time to eat and then get over to the CBD for the movie.  Surprisingly, we were able to score a park on the street, right out the front of the Emporium, the Valley complex where Tartufo is located.  

Casual Dining - Papa Jack's

http://www.papajacks.com.au/

Southern style Americana is definitely the cuisine of the day at the moment and with a huge number of US of A restaurants opening, I thought I'd check out a place that's been kicking around for just over twelve months.  Papa Jack's didn't start the Southern American revolution but it certainly kicked off a second wave.

We'd been attempting to get to Papa Jack's ever since it first opened in the newish M&A Lane that houses a heap of other restaurants, including fellow Southern Belle the Mighty Mighty (see post here). Several false starts and and attempts to get along on really busy nights meant that we checked out every other M&A Lane restaurant before we finally got it together and paid Papa Jack's a visit.  In hindsight, that could have been a huge error!

We had a bit of a choice, go and see new Affleck flick, Gone Girl, or walk over to McLachlan Street in the Valley for a bit of Louisiana comfort food.  It was a tough choice, but we really felt like it was time, so made the twenty minute walk from the CBD and found ourselves on the front doorstep of Papa Jack's.  It's a spot that we've walked by many times on our travels and from the outside, Papa Jack's looks pretty neat and new, but it's a different matter once you step over the threshold.  It was like stepping into a vortex and finding ourselves in swampy old Louisiana.

If you're like us, then one of the must watch shows of 2014 was True Detective with Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson, a show set in the Louisiana bayou.  It's a brilliant show and some of it's set in seedy bars and while Papa Jack's didn't have that same seedy feel to it, it was un-mistakingly Southern American.  Adding to the feeling was the costumes that the wait staff were wearing and the French American accent of our waiter as he welcomed us and showed us to our seat. Owners Marco and Emily Nunes (who created Woolloongabba bar, Canvas), have faithfully recreated a Louisiana watering hole right in the middle of the Valley.

Cheap Eats - Chur Burger

http://www.churburger.com.au/brisbane

I've not kept it a secret but I've been on a mad burger hunt ever since I spent a month in New York City last year, which has to be the burger capital of the world (see post here). Just so we're clear, there are over nine hundred burger joints in the Big Apple, so there is no doubt that it's the burger mecca.  I've always loved burgers, I mean, who doesn't like a burger?  It's just that spending time in NYC allowed me to experience a wide range of burgers and really open my eyes to what's possible with some humble ingredients.

I've been chasing those burger highs ever since I returned from the US and over the last twelve months, it seems as if the whole city has gone burger crazy!  There has been burger joint after burger joint open, all trying to win the Brisbane diner's burger heart.  I guess it's not just burgers, but the whole American cuisine that's really taken off, but the quintessential and most favoured of American foods is the burger. 

My quest is quite well known and it's not unusual for a FoodMeUpScotty follower to tweet or Instagram me the moment a new burger place has opened.  This happened recently with the opening of Chur Burger.  I'd been vaguely aware that the Sydney institution was opening up a Brisbane outlet sometime this year, but it wasn't until internet buddy DigellaBakes sent me a tweet that I became fully conscious of the opening of a new burger joint (Thanks DC!).  From that moment it was clear that we'd be hitting up Chur Burger pretty quickly.

It ended up being two days post my tweet from Digella that we found our way to Chur Burger.  We knew it was in the Valley and we knew it was in Constance Street, but it wasn't until we pulled up out the front that we realised that it was underneath hip new Valley hotel Tryp by Wyndham.  It was a moment of revelation once we realised that the Tryp was in one of the old buildings that up until a year ago was just a shell, cool.  We'd always wondered who would take on 20 Constance Street and now we knew.

Cheap Eats - Ben's Burgers

https://www.facebook.com/bensburgers

Who knew how polarising pickles could be?  I mean, I just assumed that everyone else hated pickles as much as I did and saw no place for them in hamburgers!  Apparently that's not the case and just as many people like pickles in their burgers as those that don't.  You might be asking why I'd kick off a post with a question like that, but I found out over the weekend just how many people shared my thoughts and how many people thought I was nuts.

But let's start at the beginning. I'd heard about a new burger joint in the Valley that everyone's been talking about.  I've got a few followers who know about my burger fixation and need to find the best burgers in Brisbane and thankfully they've been scouting new places out for me.  Ben's Burgers has taken over the old Flamingo Cafe spot in Winn Lane in Fortitude Valley.  It's a great little spot, just a little out of the way of the hustle and bustle of the rest of the Valley.

We'd actually walked past Ben's Burgers a couple of weeks ago when walking to James Street and even though it was well past 2pm, the place was packed full of hipsters, funksters and some down and outers just enjoying a burger.  At the time I'd decided to make a beeline for a burger the next opportunity, which as it turned out was the following week.

The Flaming Olive - New winter wonderland of a Menu

http://www.flamingolive.com.au/

April this year saw the introduction of a new restaurant to the Brisbane dining scene, one that went largely unnoticed by many, but one that caught my eye. There was a bit of a tale about how I first came across the Flaming Olive, which involves the Courier Mail and McDonalds, two brands that I don't often mix with (see post here).  Always on the lookout for new dining experiences, I booked in and went along to check it out.  Not having super high expectations, I was a little gobsmacked at the quality of the meal and the amazing job Head Chef Wayne Brown had done with the menu.

I was super excited to learn about the Flaming Olive's first major menu change and could hardly refuse Wayne's kind offer to come in and check out the new Winter menu.  Changes of season often mean changes of menu and I was keen to see what it would mean for the Flaming Olive and what wonderful tweaks Wayne would make to the menu.  I'm usually not enamoured with winter menus, which are heavy on the slow cooked meats and root vegetables, so I went in half fearing that I'd not love the changes.

We arrived a little before our 7pm reservation and took a risk on McLachlan street by securing a park 15 minutes before the street opened up for parking.  It was a calculated risk because pretty much every street park was taken and I could hardly resist the vacant spot 'calling my name' right out the front of the M&A Lane, the home of the Flaming Olive (and half a dozen new Valley dining spots).  It was a score!

We were shown to our table, right up the back of the restaurant and next to the kitchen and after a few minutes of perusing the new menu had Wayne come over to say hi and explain a little bit about the menu. Suffering the effects of a lost voice, the ordinarily quietly spoken head chef struggled through letting us know that it was a little different from normal winter menus and he hoped we'd enjoy it.  We had the option of picking some items on the menu that caught our eye or letting Wayne send out a selection of courses in a mini tasting menu (turned out to be more than SC could eat).

Casual Dining - Kwan Brothers

http://www.kwanbros.com.au/

How crazy is the Valley dining scene getting?  It seems like week in and week out, there is a new dining venue opening and they all seem pretty cool. Much has been written about the ever expanding number of American (Gringo) style dining spots, so it's pretty refreshing to write about a different type of opening.

There are plenty of Asian style restaurants in the Valley and Sunnybank, but new openings don't normally garner much attention.  That's where Damien Griffith and his team come into their own.  Not afraid to mix things up, Damien is responsible for Valley hot spots Alfred and Constance, Chester Street Kitchen and Alfredo's Pizza, a trio of very different styles of food.  It's now a quartet with the opening of the very funky Kwan Brothers and I was invited along recently to check it out.

Kwan Brothers is located in Alfred Street right next door to Alfredo's Pizza and is nothing like any Asian style restaurant I've been to before.  Equal parts hawker market from Singapore and night markets of Hong Kong it balances out the funkier and seedier sides of Asia style dining establishments and bars.  The interior is polished cement floors and dark walls with bright red neon signs that are unmistakably Asian in their influence and all add to the feel that you've entered a different world.  An exposed kitchen has the sights, sounds and smells that further contribute to the sense of disappearing into the depths of Singapore, Hong Kong or even Tokyo.

Cheap Eats - Ribs and Burgers

http://ribsandburgers.com.au/

If there is a way to catch people's attention, Ribs and Burgers certainly figured out how to do it.  The offer of one free hamburger a week for a whole year for the first 100 customers certainly got my attention, and that of my blogger buddies too.  Given that the offer was mid week, there was never any chance of me winning the prize but I hear that the queue on the opening was complete madness.  I guess I could have called in sick but that would have been irresponsible!

Even though I couldn't get in and wait in the queue for free burgers, the fact that a new burger joint had opened up in Brisbane was always going to pique my interest.   Of course, it wasn't long before I made my way to James Street to check it out.

I've always liked hamburgers, lets face it, they are the food of champions but it wasn't until I went to New York last year that I really got a taste for the traditional American (Gringo) fast food (see post here).  Ever since then I've been on a crusade to find Brisbane's best burger and I've had some beauties but the standard against which I've been measuring my burgers is Howzat Burgers in the CBD (see post here).  In fact, since I tasted my first Howzat Burger, I've pretty much eaten it every week!

Ribs and Burgers first opened in Sydney's Neutral Bay in 2011 and since that auspicious date has gone on to open another nine burger joints, Brisbane being the most recent.  The latest in a series of burger joints to open up in Brisbane, Ribs and Burgers aim to be different by considering themselves a boutique casual dining restaurant instead of a chain restaurant.  In doing so, they plan not to saturate the market with heaps of franchises, but choose select locations that increase the value of the brand.

Casual Dining - The Bread and Meat Co

http://www.breadandmeatco.com/

If you're like me and keep your ear to the ground about cool new places to eat, then you will have no doubt heard about the Bread and Meat Co in the Valley.  When looking for dinner last weekend we'd had a bit of a mental block and really didn't know what we wanted for dinner (see post here).  We ended up meandering through the valley looking for interesting dining options and one of those spots was the Bread and Meat Co.  Our only problem was that it wasn't open for dinner, despite Urbanspoon clearly stating they were open Sunday until late.  That was a bit frustrating for us but we just shrugged our shoulders and continued on.

This weekend we were better prepared and with opening times in hand we walked into the Valley for Saturday lunch.  The Bread and Meat Co is located in the TCB building, just off the Brunswick Street Mall, which has seen its fair share of shops rotating through.  The mall itself is also going through a bit of a transformation and if you haven't seen it for a while, it's just a torn up mess.  Knowing this, we actually entered from the Chinatown Mall side, which was just as easy.

It was still pretty early in the day when we arrived and the Bread and Meat Co was pretty quiet, which gave us a bit of an opportunity to acquaint ourselves with the menu.  Short and sharp, the menu pretty much reflects the name of the joint: simply put there's a few choice cuts of meat, stuffed into fresh bread and then served up on a breadboard.  There are three real options on the menu and then a trio board, which is a sample of all three sandwiches, especially designed for those who can't make up their mind!  Feeling quite decisive, we opted for two sandwiches and a side, which would leave us with something to check out the next time we came.

Tartufo - classic Italian

http://www.tartufo.com.au/

It was a Sunday night and we had absolutely no idea what we wanted for dinner.... None.  Sometimes it's like that and SC and I just look at each other and shrug our shoulders.  You would think that it would be easy to grab a bite to eat with so many great restaurants just a short walk away but sometimes 'analysis paralysis' in.  To sort ourselves out, we went for a walk and it just so happened that we walked towards the Valley and did a menu shop.  You know what I mean, walking up to interesting looking dining spots, casually glancing at the menu and seeing if anything jumps out.

Restaurant after restaurant passed us by as literally nothing looked interesting to us.  Eventually we made our way to Emporium and after walking a complete circle around the little Valley precinct we found ourselves standing in front of Tartufo.  A quick glance and a short nod and we were walking through the front door and asking for a seat.

It had been some time since our last outing to Tartufo, in fact it was incredibly over twelve months since we last walked through its doors (see post here).  That last outing to the Tony Percuoco's incredibly well regarded Italian fine diner was a beauty and we'd had a great time.  It was a contrast to our first visit, which had been disappointing to say the least and we were hoping that our latest visit would herald another winning meal.

I'm not sure if had been a conscious decision to head to Tartufo but I had been talking about the fine diner earlier that week. A fellow foodie asked if I'd seen Queensland's top ten wildest desserts in which Tartufo's chocolate fondant had featured heavily.  Tony Percuoco Tartufo is used to awards, informal and formal and has consistently been recognised with chefs hats and Gourmet Travellers stars.  

The Flaming Olive - another gem at the M&A precinct

TheFlamingOlive

It's interesting where you can get inspiration to visit a new restaurant.  I'd been keeping an eye on the new developments in the McLachlan and Ann (M&A) laneway precinct and had seen that the newest addition had opened.  It wasn't until I was sitting, strangely, in a McDonalds grabbing a quick burger between meetings that it hit me that I needed to get in and check out The Flaming Olive.  You might ask what on earth inspired me inside a McDonalds and that would be a good question!  I was actually flicking through Tuesdays edition of the Courier Mail and stumbled across "Kitchen Confidential' by Fiona Donnelly, who'd written a couple of articles - one about the Flaming Olive (the other was for the Foraging Quail).

Needless to say that I didn't enjoy my first McDonalds burger in a few years but I'd jumped on the phone and made a reservation for the Flaming Olive for later on that night.  Then all I had to do was convince SC that we'd be dining out that night, a task which was pretty easy!

I still find it amazing and concerning, in equal parts, that there are so many new restaurants opening up in Brisbane.  Amazing because there food scene in our city is maturing before my very eyes and concerning because I fear that supply will outstrip demand and we will see more restaurant closures.  M&A lane is leading the charge at the moment with heaps of new dining options (see posts here) but the Valley in general is about to explode with new building developments and dining options.  The Flaming Olive is the latest in that neck of the woods and I was interested in seeing how different it would be from its neighbours.

Casual Dining - Fiesta Ole Mexican Cuisine

https://www.facebook.com/fiestaolebrisbane

Given it was a Thursday night, we'd initially planned to have a quite night at home and SC had actually planned to have one of her two fasting days for the week.  That all changed pretty quickly when we received a text around lunch time from our mate DruBoy asking if we wanted to check out a new Mexican restaurant in the Valley.  It's not unusual to get a late request from DruBoy, the last of which was a free ticket to see Jamie Oliver and his crew, an offer in which I would have jumped at if the offer wasn't the next day and in Sydney!  Anyway, this offer was a little less dramatic and always keen to check out new restaurants, we agreed to catch up.

There's been so many high profile restaurants opening in the last few months, it's pretty easy to miss out on the smaller openings and Fiesta Ole was just such a restaurant.  Located on Turbot Street just around the corner from the Valley Woolworths complex, it would be pretty easy to miss the little Mexican diner unless you knew it was there.  Fiesta Ole is actually in a little shop that we used to walk past all the time when doing our shopping in the Valley Woolies which never seemed to have tenants for very long.  It had been ages since we walked past that little shop so we had absolutely no idea that it had changed yet again.

Harvey's Bar and Bistro - Celebrating Autumn on James

http://www.harveys.net.au/

I don't know about you, but there are big Hollywood movies that come out that everyone raves about but for some reason, I just never get around to see. All the buzz and all the general chit chat kind of gets me excited, but when push comes to shove, I just never get around to seeing those movies. However, every now and then, I do see such movie, often by accident and then get what everyone was talking about and wonder why I never went and saw it in the first place.

There's a few restaurants around Brisbane where I fall into that same apathy, people rave about them and I often think 'yeah, I'll get there soon' and just never do.  Just like with the movies, if I get to one of these restaurants by 'accident', I almost always feel the same way - why didn't I come here sooner? Mondo Organics was one such restaurant where this happened (see post here) and recently I had the opportunity to get along to another such restaurant.

A little while ago I received an invitation in the mail to the launch of the Southern Queensland Country launch of Autumn on James.  The event was to celebrate the abundance of amazing produce in the South East of Queensland, including the Granite Belt, Southern Downs, Darling Downs, Toowoomba, South Burnett and the Western Country.  With the buzz about 'Paddock to Plate', the aim of the Autumn on James event was to transform James Street into an Autumn wonderland showcasing the produce through cooking demonstrations, 'farm gate' stalls and wine tasting as well as signature dishes from some of the James Street restaurants.

Alfred & Constance - A change of seasons and a change of menu!

http://www.alfredandconstance.com.au/

Not just satisfied with changing the Valley forever by introducing some of the coolest spots to eat in Brisbane, the team behind Alfred and Constance continue to evolve and stay fresh. Damian Griffiths and his team know they are onto a winner with the very funky Gastro Pub on the corner of Constance and Alfred Streets in the Valley, but never rest on their laurels.  

For those of you who haven't checked out Alfred and Constance, it's probably about time you thought about it.  A&C is known as a Gastro Pub serving tasty and down to earth food, but it's also so much more.  After lovingly restoring two old Queenslanders, Damien and his team set about creating a series of spaces that so completely fit into the vibe of Fortitude Valley, you would be surprised to know the place has only been open since November 2012.  Since opening, A&C has become a favourite drinking spot in its Tiki bar and a favourite local to hit your sweet tooth with its late night dessert cafe. 

Knowing that you need to evolve to stay ahead in Brisbane's ultra competitive casual dining scene, Damien, along with Patron Chef Jocelyn Hancock have again made some tweaks to the A&C menu.  As we move away from Summer (Noooooooo) and head into Autumn, its no surprise that the new Autumn A&C menu takes on a more earthy feel, yet still adhering to their basic principles of honest, full flavoured food.

Gordita - a different take on Spanish cuisine

http://gordita.com.au/

All the pieces of the puzzle are starting to fall into place at one of Brisbane's newest dining hotspots, the awesome M&A Lane in the Valley.  Gordita is the latest funky restaurant to open up in what is quickly becoming a killer dining destination, one of many in a rapidly expanding Brisbane dining scene.

As seems to be the case lately, we were walking to James Street to do our usual weekend shop, when we noticed that Gordita had opened its doors.  I'd known that Gordita was opening soon, in fact I'd been invited along to check out the menu at a sit down lunch, but the moment I saw that the spot had opened, there was no way I could wait a week to check it out.  In fact, we waited exactly one day before the lure of the shiny shiny had us booked in to sample some lovely Spanish nosh!

Gordita is part of an ever expanding empire of restaurants form Jamie Webb, who also runs Spanish Tapas joint Peasant at the Barracks (see post here) as well as Oyster Bar Cabiria and Lefty's old time music hall. Drawing on his experiences running restaurants in New York and Sydney, Jamie has put together a southern Spanish style restaurant that is very different from the more traditional cuisine at Peasant.  Amazingly, he's also been able to lure Alfonso Ales to consult on the menu, who brings his experiences in working in Spain's best restaurant in recent years ,(now closed) elBulli.