Brisbane 2023

August 8-10, 2023

   

A family celebration brought us up to Queensland in August, and we booked a couple of nights in Brisbane afterwards. Meals were limited and precious, with so many good veg*n options around West End and South Brisbane. We started with brunch at Alphabet Cafe with our friend Tash; she took us on a tour of the local second-hand shops and advised us some of the better eating in the neighbourhood. 

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The following morning, we followed her advice to The Twin, a cafe with a gorgeous garden courtyard by its side. The Twin is best known for its sandwich rotation: all sandwiches are made with puffy, generously salted squares of house-baked focaccia and at any time there are four vegetarian fillings available. Once each fortnight, the flavour that sells the fewest sandwiches is replaced with something new.

I went for a long-term champion, the tomato ($16). Thick slices of tomato are teamed with mustard pickle, malt vinegar mayo, and French fry-style crisps (plus some bonus greens). I was ecstatic. Before I was ecstatic, I was mildly surprised that Michael looked past the BBQ jackfruit option to order the marinated zucchini sandwich ($16). With broccoli sauce, fried shallots and Dijonnaise, it was fresh and green and flavoursome.

As if ultra-fresh sandwiches in a garden weren't enough, the Twin staff were just awesome, making us feel like regulars on our first visit. I absolutely would be if I lived closer!

   

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We rarely cover alcoholic drinks on the blog, because neither of us would consider ourselves connoisseurs and because I actually drink very little at all. But even we could tell that Maker is something special. It's a teeny, fancy cocktail bar on Fish Lane staffed with a slightly serious friendliness. Cocktails are named after their feature spirit ($22 each), and the staff will concoct something just for you for a little extra ($24).

I've not had much bourbon in my life, but I looooooved sipping it in combination with passionfruit, white chocolate and lemon (pictured above left). I could barely divert myself away from its wonder to try Michael's also-excellent carbonated vodka cocktail (pictured above right), which included strawberry, coconut and lemon myrtle.

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We resisted the jaffles and cheese plates at Maker in anticipation of dinner. We were hoping to revisit El Planta, but they were taking a winter break! Instead, we hopped on the free local bus and secured an outdoor table at Bar Francine. It also feels special, though a little more relaxed, with mismatched op-shopped plates and chipper service.

Among the three of us, we tried almost everything vegetarian across the menu. The individual French toasts ($8 each, pictured above) spread with marsala onions, ostentatiously piped with mushroom parfait and garnished with a maraschino cherry were surprisingly retro, unsurprisingly rich, and very fun. We also shared a puffy house bread ($8), butter beans with cimi de rapa and pangrattato ($15), a bloomin' onion (!), aka onion fritti with sour cream and sweet chilli ($15), fried Brussels sprouts with manchego and truffle vinaigrette ($24), chips ($10), and an early spring salad ($16). 

Dessert was another throwback: golden syrup dumplings ($16)! These were served small and were easily split among us. Their creamy counterpart was goat's milk gelato, which added a welcome little tang.

   

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Though this visit to Brisbane was brief, we packed in quality time with an old friend and several new food experiences (not to mention some shops, galleries and e-scooter rides!). It's kept us eager to return again soon.