South Austin
You know them for their American-style low-and-slow barbecue, but now the heroes at Barbecue Mafia are taking things a little further south – all the way to South Austin. South Austin is the team’s latest project, a Tex-Mex cantina in collaboration with southside favourite Cenzo’s Café + Bar. The cantina is inspired by the Barbecue Mafia team’s travels through Texas, particularly chef Miguel Vidal’s Valentina’s Tex Mex BBQ, and their love of tacos. While Cenzo’s will continue to serve up its much-loved breakfasts and lunches, on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights the cafe will transform into South Austin. The Barbecue Mafia gang will be hand making its own tortillas (loading them with its own mouth-watering versions of al pastor, carnitas and birria using Mafia smoked meats and house-made pico de gallo), while the Cenzo’s crew slings margaritas and other cocktails alongside. Just a note on birria tacos – if you’re not familiar, this is a heaven-sent and utterly addictive concoction of a tender, juicy beef stew, stuffed inside a tortilla, all of which is dipped into the juices of the stew, then fried into a crispy, glorious mouth gift. South Austin is due to open in late January – we’ll have full details for you in the new year!
The Time Travel Cafe
If you’ve watched Woody Allen’s Midnight in Paris and yearned for a chance to go back in time and chew the fat with some of history’s famous figures, you’re in luck! Next year The Time Travel Cafe will manifest like the TARDIS in Woolloongabba, giving locals a chance to have a conversation with history. The brainchild of James Elliott and Kristian Santic – a pair of seasoned performance artists and experience-design professionals – The Time Travel Cafe is a pop-up concept that will blend interactive theatre with lively old-school hospitality. Set within a 20th-century salon (set up and operated at Canvas Club’s new function space – a remodelled tailor shop), guests will be able to enter The Time Travel Cafe and mingle with an ensemble of performers, each representing pivotal characters plucked from the pages of humanity’s history. On any given night, patrons will be able to rub shoulders with the likes of Joan of Arc, Ernest Hemingway and Cleopatra, with the assorted time-displaced clientele interacting with each other in a variety of ways. Guests will be free to engage with the characters in one-on-one conversations, and may even be asked to assist in changing the course of history (while trying to avoid pesky time paradoxes). The Canvas Club crew will be slinging a range of themed cocktails and a tight menu of nibbles. The Time Travel Cafe will arrive in May, and will only be around for a short three-week run before it’s transported to another point in time. Head to The Time Travel Cafe’s website to register your interest and sign up for updates.
Coffee Head Co.
For caffeine seekers living in and around South Brisbane, Coffee Head Co. has likely saved your hide a bunch of times. This cosy cafe on Manning Street is known for serving cups of jitter juice until the early evening but from Saturday December 12, Coffee Head Co. will be also be opening as a bar for late-night trade. Coffee Head Co.’s drinks list will spotlight a rotating selection of Australian sips, from small-batch distilleries and local craft breweries to Australian wine makers that specialise in organic, biodynamic, low-intervention and experimental drops. The bar’s cocktail list will pay homage to the venue’s coffee roots, featuring an espresso martini concocted using freshly extracted organic espresso (another cocktail will boasts the inclusion of top-shelf pisco). Snacks will take the shape of a tapas-style offering as well as more substantial burgers made using ethically sourced free-range protein. Both Coffee Head Co.’s interior and laneway will be activated for nighttime drinking from 5:00 pm until late, with plans to open for drinks on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights.
Harajuku Gyoza’s dessert beers
Although primarily known for its menu of crispy Japanese-style dumplings and liberal pours of sake, Harajuku Gyoza has also earned a reputation for its experimental and Instagrammable limited-edition menu items. Previous years have seen the institution add the likes of giant soufflé pancakes, translucent raindrop cakes and super-long fries to its offering, and now the team is sweeting up its sips selection with a duo of dessert beers. Later this week, Harajuku Gyoza will tap some kegs containing a nutty and malty black-sesame ice-cream beer and a herbal matcha-flavoured ice-cream beer. These beverages, brewed by Yoyogi Brewing Co., are thick and creamy suds sweetened with lactose to evoke that decadent ice-cream flavour. Sound like your kind of beverage? Harajuku Gyoza’s South Bank and Broadbeach locations will be dispensing the drops from Thursday December 10!
The Gift Shop Food + Drink
If the scorching temperatures hadn’t already clued you in to the fact that summer is here, perhaps an influx of summer-appropriate eats will. Winsome Wishart cafe The Gift Shop has just launched its new summer menu, which is stacked with morsels perfect for sunny weekend grazing. The list includes mouth-watering day starters like the summer smoothie bowl (a tropical passionfruit-and-mango smoothie loaded with coconut flakes, cacao nibs, gluten-free granola and summer berries), party croissant (toasted butter croissant topped with chia-crusted banana, coconut ice-cream, macadamia butter and toasted marshmallows) and the Golden Eggs (crispy poached eggs, avocado, huevos rancheros, enoki mushrooms, chipotle mayo and Swiss cheese on a potato-gem waffle), while lunch dishes like the tempura zucchini flowers stuffed with a ricotta and crab mix, crispy avocado tacos and The Gift Shop’s signature range of toasties sound like stellar arvo snacks.
If you’ve heard something that’s worth mentioning in The Weekend Edition’s Pavement Whispers, email [email protected].
