Every year, it seems that the James St Food & Wine Trail gets bigger and better. From the exclusive in-restaurant events and limited-edition dishes to the massive Market Day street party, if you’re a foodie or simply a fan of good times, there’s always a lot to like. This year will be no exception. On July 27–28, the James St Food & Wine Trail will bring together the street’s finest restaurants, bars and treat makers for a 48-hour extravaganza, kicking off on Saturday at ESSA with a luxe champagne lunch featuring a four-course set menu (including caviar and crab crumpets) and a limited-edition list of top-tier champagnes. Over the road, Cru Bar & Cellar will be showing off its new fit-out, commemorating the relaunch with a celebratory wine tasting with Shaw + Smith. Later in the evening, flashy James Street newcomer ēmmē will host its Taste of the Middle East dinner, dishing out a menu filled with mouth-watering mezze, hearty stews, fragrant rice dishes and decadent desserts. Across the weekend, King Arthur Cafe will be serving limited quantities of its extra-special minced-chorizo croffle paired with a glass of wine, while Gelato Messina is luring in sweet tooths with its newest one-off flavour, Cinnie Bunstein – a doughnut-inspired gelato boasting cinnamon bun pieces, peanut praline, baked cheesecake and brown-sugar caramel. On Sunday from 9:00 am until sold out, Jocelyn’s Provisions will stock its cabinet with a range of covetable curiosities, including 100s + 1000s lamingtons, Peking duck croissants and mini beef and bacon sausage rolls.
The James St Food & Wine Trail will culminate on Sunday July 28 with its famous Market Day, which will see the strip’s roadway, laneways, carparks and outdoor spaces shut from Sixes and Sevens to Gemelli Italian and transform into a pedestrian dining avenue from 10:00 am to 5:00 pm. In addition to plenty of live entertainment and kid-friendly activities, the free-to-enter event will feature 39 stalls, with new and existing hospitality venues erecting pop-up kitchens to dispense restaurant-quality fare to the masses. The Market Day guide is now live and is giving attendees a peek at the morsels on offer, from sAme sAme‘s soft-shell crab baos with Asian slaw, Mooloolaba king prawn cocktails from SK Steak & Oyster, Mosconi‘s homemade rigatoni with chicken and pork ragu, manoushe with lamb, red pepper and toum from Gerard’s, barbecued chicken shawarma from The Green, and Moreton Bay bug sushi from Sushi Room (which will also a live tuna-carving display at 2:00 pm). A bunch of first-time stallholders will also be getting into the action, with James & Antler slinging its viral croque sandwiches, Agnes Bakery dispensing cinnamon-sugar-coated doughnut holes with caramel sauce, and ēmmē turning out serves of aromatic biryani rice.
In special news for art lovers, New Zealand artist Zac Langdon-Pole will showcase a major new installation work for one day only at the James St Food & Wine Trail as part of the ongoing Art on James creative program. ‘Chimera’, a bronze sculpture of a Camarasaurus dinosaur skull, will be suspended from a spider crane at the intersection of James, Robertson and Doggett Streets. The work will be appearing in Brisbane exclusively at the James Street event, and serves as a taster ahead of Langdon-Pole’s inclusion in the upcoming Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art (APT).
For all of the important details on this year’s James St Food + Wine Trail, including tickets to its exclusive events, head to the James St Food & Wine Trail website.
‘Chimera’ image credit: Peter Rees, courtesy of James St
James St Food & Wine Trail image credit: Andre Cois, courtesy of James St
