Earlier this year, we broke the news that two top-flight hospo talents would be teaming up to open Milquetoast, a brand-new wine bar and dining room coming to Brisbane City in July. Operated by George Curtis of Before + After and sommelier James Horsfall (currently restaurant manager at Blume), Milquetoast will transform a gritty laneway garage space off Elizabeth Street (right next door to Alice) into a spot to sip fine wines and innovative cocktails, as well as a menu boasting a bit of a British twist. James will be overseeing a tight wine list of approximately 50 bottles to start, encompassing small-scale independent producers from across Australia and the globe. On the cocktail front, Aidan Perkins (formerly of Exhibition, Hôntô and Agnes) will be dispensing a range of creative concoctions that champion seasonal ingredients and utilise contemporary techniques ranging from fermentations to house-made tinctures and sodas. Milquetoast’s menu will be concise, but will be elevated by the use of quality ingredients and top-class cooking. The likes of chicken-and-leek pie, lentils with sausages, jam roly-poly with custard, and bread-and-butter pudding with amaro-soaked raisins will be available alongside snacks, such as freshly shucked oysters, cut-to-order salumi, tinned seafood, cold nibbles, burrata and beetroot carpaccio.