It’s finally Brisbane’s turn to hold one of Australia’s popular festivals and for the first time ever, MOULD Cheese Festival will be coming to Fortitude Valley!
Set for Sunday, the 19th of May 2019, this cheese food fest will run for two sessions 11:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. and from 4:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. at the Lightspace on Scanlan Street. The best fromagers from Australia will be there to offer their finest products.
There will be over 50 kinds of cheeses to try at the MOULD Cheese Festival so expect this event to be a gastronomic delight for cheese lovers. The full cheese list is posted and updated on its official website.
Cheeses taste even better with wine so there will also be quite a selection of alcoholic beverage vendors at this event.
Photo Credit: Mould: A Cheese Festival/FacebookPhoto Credit: Mould: A Cheese Festival/Facebook
Cheesemongers will also showcase the art of cheesemaking, which should be quite the learning experience. By the end of the night, you’ll likely have a new appreciation for the process of making this sinfully tasty food!
Experience the latest trend in fitness as W Brisbane, the boutique hotel located at 81 North Quay, brings the very first silent disco yoga to this city.
On Wednesday, the 15th of May 2019, the hotel will hold an intensive 90-minute silent disco yoga class beginning at 6:00 p.m. at the Great Room.
Australian fitness expert, Kate Kendall, the founder of Flow Athletic, will lead the session, while Sydney DJ James Mack will provide the beats before, during and after the class.
A silent disco yoga class is just like any vinyasa flow session, where students set their spaces on the floor while an instructor leads in front. However, everyone will be wearing a wireless headset the whole time to clearly hear the instructor and the background music, as well as block off the sound from the outside.
With the instructor’s voice and music more amplified, participants will feel more connected and energised to do the movements correctly without being distracted by other factors. They may also adjust the volume of the sounds coming from the headset to their preference.
Yogis attending the first silent disco yoga in Brisbane will get a swag bag filled with healthy treats. However, the first 40 people to book a slot will also receive an exclusive invitation to join a workshop for Disco Yoga oil blending. Sodashi founder Megan Larsen will conduct this class.
Slots to the silent disco yoga cost $59.11 inclusive of the booking fee. Participants need only bring their yoga mat, water bottle and towel. Drinks and snacks will be served for guests.
Australia’s homegrown gelato brand, Gelato Messina, has opened its second store in Brisbane, and it can be found at the foodie hub in Ada Lane on James Street, Fortitude Valley.
Gelato Messina in Fortitude Valley officially opened its doors on Thursday, the 21st of March. You’ll easily spot the parlour when you pass the location for its Palm Springs vibe.
Situated next to the pastry shop, Jocelyn’s Provisions, the ice cream parlour has neon signages, comfortable benches, and plenty of indoor plants. The Gelato Messina menu is set on a pegboard but there’s also a video projector blasting cool visuals to entice customers with the specials.
Gelato Messina in Fortitude Valley offers 40 different flavours on rotation every week. These are placed in new cabinets with sunken gelato tubs. Apparently, this is the second Gelato Messina store to carry the innovative design.
As with its other branches, this Fortitude Valley store also serves cakes, shakes, and sorbets.
Finn McCool’s at the Brunswick Mall in Fortitude Valley turned a fun shade of green on Sunday, the 17th of March, for its St. Patrick’s Day Celebration. The much-awaited Irish party was even bigger than last year, with dining, dancing, and drinking lasting up to the wee hours the following day.
The restaurant secured an extended licence for its St. Patrick’s Day party with the Brisbane City Council. Various pop-up establishments and food trucks set up shop to feed and serve the eager guests.
It was an event honouring everything Irish from the food, to the beer, to the band, to the activities and giveaways. Party-goers were mostly dressed in green, the day’s official color.
Guests above 18 years old toasted and cheered to a bottle or pint of Kilkenny, Magners, Guinness. Entertainment was provided by these line-up of performers:
St. Patrick’s Day, also known as St. Paddy’s Day, is celebrated anywhere in the world where there are Irish or Irish descendants. Aside from the party at Finn McCool’s, Brisbane also had a street parade featuring 80 floats to highlight Irish heritage.
Art Series Hotels is opening its eighth site at Howard Smith Wharves in Fortitude Valley. Slated to welcome guests beginning 2019 March, the hotel has begun taking reservations since November 2018.
The new attraction in the revitalised Howard Smith Wharves precinct joins favourite watering holes Mr Percival’s and Felon’s Brewing Co. It’s seven kilometres away from Art Series Hotel’s The Johnson in Spring Hill which, in keeping with the hotel’s name, celebrates the works of Australian abstract artist Michael Johnson.
For its part, the Art Series Hotel on Howard Smith Wharves will feature the works of Australian contemporary artist Vincent Fantauzzo. The site of six-storey 166-room hotel, aptly named The Fantauzzo, will be under the Story Bridge and has been designed to blend with the cliff’s neutral tones.
Photo Credit: Instagram/ArtSeriesHotels
Mr Fantauzzo, whose parents come from Italy and Ireland, was born in England in 1977. The family moved to Broadmeadows in the Melbourne in the 1980s but the Fantauzzos would move around Australia a lot while the artist was growing up.
Undiagnosed with a learning condition as a child, Mr Fantauzzo had difficulty in primary school and was grouped in a special class with other children with learning difficulties. He fared no better in high school and was expelled for “misbehaviour.” By this time, his parents had separated and the artist tried to help his mother by apprenticing as a kitchen helper in an Italian restaurant.
Mr Fantauzzo, however, excelled in sports and competed in Martial Arts tournaments. During competitions, Mr Fantauzzo would discover his growing love for painting and would illustrate sporting pictures he had seen.
Fearing he’d fail again, the artist resolved to improve his art and did so at an impressively progressive state. He enrolled at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT) for college, sans a high school diploma, and paid for his school fees with by selling his paintings.
Unfortunately, the school found out he did not complete high school after discovering a plagiarised paper he paid someone to write. Mr Fantauzzo said he had to confess his learning problems and the school facilitated tests to help him get a proper diagnosis. He found out he was dyslexic.
Mr Fantauzzo said he has learned to embrace his dyslexia more positively, especially with the help of the school’s disability liaison. In 2003, the artist received his Bachelor of Fine Arts in Painting degree from the RMIT and completed his Masters two years later.
Photo Credit: Instagram/vincent_fantauzzo
In 2012, RMIT made Mr Fantauzzo an Adjunct Professor. He has also travelled to Central Australia to create a portrait series featuring Aboriginal artists. Following an exhibit in Sydney in 2016, Mr Fantauzzo established himself as a well-recognized Australian painter whose works are now displayed in many homes and buildings.
Mr Fantauzzo has also done exhibits in Hong Kong, New York, Los Angeles and Vietnam. He has worked with famous Austrian director Baz Luhrmann and received various awards as an artist, such as the Archibald Prize People’s Choice.
Apart from Fantauzzo’s original artworks, guests at The Fantauzzo at the Howard Smith Wharves will also get to enjoy the view of the Brisbane river from the rooftop pool terrace. The hotel also has a bar, a gym and several rooms for different functions.
Brisbane City Council’s Kerbside Collection Day is coming to Fortitude Valley on Monday, 21 January 2019. If one of your goals for this year is to be kinder to the environment, there are several ways for you to up your reduce, reuse, and recycle game.
As part of their promise to make Brisbane clean, green, and sustainable, BCC had lots of ways to encourage residents to recycle and reduce waste.
Recycling at Home
If you are a fan of the trending KonMari method of tidying up, you would probably end up with a pile of things to discard.
Rather than tossing out old clothes to the bin, you can donate them instead to the following organisations in Fortitude Valley:
Suited to Success
Photo credit: Suited to Success Ltd/Facebook
This organisation mainly accept work appropriate or casual clothing donations. Suited to Success helps people on their journey towards career and personal development. As part of their program, they provide interview and job appropriate styling sessions to those in need.
You can donate your clothing to them from 9:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m. from Monday – Friday and from 7:30 a.m. – 1:00 p.m. every last Saturday of each month. Visit their website or call 3216 1969 for further information.
Location: 47 Anderson Street, Fortitude Valley, QLD, 4006.
St Vincent de Paul Society is also accepting clothes donation. Their donation rule is “if you’d give it to a friend, then it’s ok to give to Vinnies”. Apart from men’s, women’s, and children’s clothing, they are also accepting homewares, kids toys, books, CDs, and DVDs.
Vinnies Fortitude Valley is open from 8:30 a.m. – 4:30 p.m., Monday – Friday and from 9:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m. on Saturdays. Check out their website or call Vinnies Fortitude Valley on 3252 9856 to learn more.
Location: 210 Brunswick Street (Corner Brunswick & Alfred Streets), Fortitude Valley
Hosting a Garage Sale
Alternatively, you can set up your own garage sale and turn your pre-loved items into cash. This ‘Get Garage Sale Ready’ guide can help you prepare for a successful garage sale on your own yard.
BCC made it even simpler for households to recycle through the ‘Brisbane’s Best Recycling Guide for Households’. This pocket guide shares the benefits of recycling and provides the following:
the easiest ways to collect recyclables from your house
what can and cannot go in Council’s recycling wheelie bin
answers to frequently asked questions
information on sorting recyclables
answers to recycling myth
guidance on how to recycle items not accepted in Council’s kerbside collection (includes reusable household goods, scrap metals and garden waste).
You can download the Brisbane’s Best Recycling Guide for Households on a pdf or word format.
These are just some of the ways on how you can recycle at home. Start your year right by get your recycling game on for 2019 and do your share in caring for the environment.
One of the latest additions to Fortitude Valley’s ever-growing food and drinks scene, Beirne Lane is a gastropub that operates 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Photo credit: Beirne Lane/Facebook
If you’re looking for a place to eat or drink at any time of the day, Beirne Lane‘s door is literally always open. The gastropub lights up the heritage-listed TC Beirne Building which recently underwent a revitalisation.
Beirne Lane, Fortitude Valley offers a wide range of diverse food options reflecting Beirne’s Irish heritage, as well as his love and fascination with Japan.
One of their best-sellers is their Katsu Sandos. Customers can choose from their pork, chicken, barramundi or tofu katsu which all comes with beer battered chips and Japanese slaw.
Another must-try from their menu is their signature “Shilling Meal” inspired by one of T. C. Beirne’s longest standing employees, Mr. P. Nolan. This signature dish comes with four freshly shucked oysters, rib eye on the bone, onion rings, watercress, horseradish; with clotted cream cannoli.
Coming from Celissa, the team behind CBD’s Isles Lane, it is not surprising that Beirne Lane is lined up to be the newest drinking hotspot in Brisbane. Their bar menu features a constantly rotating selection of craft local beer and interstate breweries. It also includes an extensive wine list and a carefully curated cocktail list.
Photo credit: Beirne Lane/Facebook
Beirne Lane, Fortitude Valley is certainly ready to shake up the entertainment precinct with a gastropub that never closes. For further information, you may visit their official website.
Hellenika, the famous Gold Coast eatery, brings their exceptional Greek dining experience to James Street, Fortitude Valley.
Aptly located at the pool deck level of The Calile, Hellenika Brisbane offers prime alfresco dining and poolside bites paired with exceptional wines.
Photo credit: Hellenika/Facebook
The rooftop Greek restaurant features all of the famed signature menu items of Hellenika. From their famous mix of mezedes and large share plates to their signature fresh fishmarket options, Hellenika Brisbane’s restaurant menu is sure to impress.
Embracing their ideal poolside set up, the restaurant also prepared a dedicated poolside menu which includes their popular zucchini chips, classic Greek salad, a variety of Hellenika wraps, and a list of different poolside drinks.
Fortitude Valley’s new Greek restaurant embraces its owner, Simon Gloftis’s passion for bringing people together over their love for great food and wine. In fact, their extensive wine list boasts a line up of carefully handpicked wines that complement their menu. If you’re unsure of which ones to choose their team can guide you so you can have a great dining experience.
From the team behind the famous Rick Shores, Little Valley is one of the newest bar and restaurant in Fortitude Valley dishing up Chinese cuisine.
Little Valley is a neo-Chinese dining hall located at the heart of Fortitude Valley. Just like Rick Shores is famous for their Asian cuisine and cocktails, Little Valley is making waves for their delicious Chinese food.
Photo credit: Little Valley/Facebook
The new bar and restaurant is already gaining a following with their new takes on traditional dishes inspired by the regional cuisines of China. Their menu includes their best-selling chilli crab and pork xiao long bao, truffle and prawn har gow, miso poached chicken with black fungus, and more.
“Amazing new addition to the Brisbane dining scene! Great, friendly and fast service, loved the space and the food – yum! Especially the prawn & truffle har gow, chilli crab xia long bao, spring rolls and twice cooked duck. Can’t wait to come back with a crew! Well done guys.”
Can’t decide what dishes to try first? Customers can also try their Yum Cha Lunch menu which includes all the Little Valley favourites. The menu is available from 12:00 p.m. – 3:00 p.m. every Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday.
Photo credit: Little Valley/Facebook
Apart from their delicious food, Little Valley also offers a selection of drinks including an extensive Trans-Tasman focused wine and spirit list and cocktails. They also have non-alcoholic drinks which include cold-brewed herbal tea by Tavalon, organic fruit kombucha, and custom-made mocktail.
Little Valley is having a regular event every Sunday. The Lucky Sundays feature their signature cocktails as well as Tsingtao Tallies in their Mezzanine bar and open-air Piijiu garden. Apart from the excellent drinks, the event also delights guests with an all-day dim sum.
Lucky Sundays start from 3:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. every Sunday until 23 December 2018.
Read more about Little Valley’s offers by visiting their website.
Time is almost up for fans of The Coop Bistro’s parmigianas as the restaurant bids farewell to make way for I Like Ramen in Fortitude Valley.
Photo credit: I Like Ramen/Facebook
Tagged as the creator of country’s first vegan ramen, I Like Ramen will be taking over the place of The Coop at The Flying Cock on Brunswick Street. But before The Coop closes its doors on Saturday 20 October 2018, customers can enjoy the last bits of its weekly meaty deals.
Once refurbishments are done, the pub will make the big shift to serve vegan dishes.
End of an Era
With a sense of sadness and anticipation for new things to come, The Coop is bringing the last of its weekly promos up to 20 October.
Cocky Trivia – Held every Tuesday night, Cocky Trivia will have its final run on 16 October at 7:00 p.m.
Parmageddon – The Coop’s Wednesday promo, 2-4-1 Parmys, will end on 17 October. For the last time, from 11:30 p.m. to 10:00 p.m., the bistro’s famous parmigianas will be $19.99 for 2 parmys with any two drinks purchased at the time of ordering.
Photo credit: www.thecoopbistro.com.au
$3 Tacos – Thursday 18 October will be the last of the bistro’s all-day and night Thursday treat of any tacos for $3.
Friday $10 Burger & Fries – On Friday 19 October, The Coop will offer burger and fries for $10 for the last time. Choose from classic, chicken burger or the vegetarian Summer Harvest one last time.
Nugg Club – On the last day of The Coop, it will be an all-out, all-you-can-eat-nuggets time. For $20, customers can eat all the nuggs they can munch, plus unlimited golden fries and slaw.
It all started in August 2018 when The Flying Cock hosted I Like Ramen as a pop-up every Sunday to serve delectable bowls of plant-based ramen for lunch and dinner. Because of the successful run of the pop-up venue, the owners decided to make the permanent shift to vegan.
The bistro space will be refurbished, and whilst there is still no definite opening date for the ramen place, it is expected to begin operation in late October or early November.
I Like Ramen is currently busy creating the menu for the Fortitude Valley store. As a teaser, it featured some of the new menu items on Facebook. Think Panko mushroom and kimchi bao, Agedashi tofu in shitake dashi, and Steamed Asian greens with garlic and ginger dressing. All those in addition to its famous bowls of plant-based ramen.
Exciting vegan menu coming up at I Love Ramen in Fortitude Valley (Photo credit: I Like Ramen/Facebook)
The Fortitude Valley store is the first Brisbane branch of the Gold Coast-based vegan ramen specialist.
