Halo Ground Coffee & Food serves up inclusive eats in Fortitude Valley
What do you get when a couple of fine-dining veterans link up with a coffee-savvy cafe guru to open a new venue? A damn-good eatery, that’s what. Halo Ground Coffee & Food recently opened up on Brookes Street in Fortitude Valley and is already causing a stir with its bifurcated menu of plant-based and omnivorous eats conceived through some shrewd left-field tinkering. With inclusivity and experimentation acting as the twin pillars upon which Halo Ground sits, The Ground Group’s newest venue has a bright future ahead.
Although The Ground Group is a relatively new name in Brisbane hospitality, its principal members are bona fide veterans of the scene. The trio of Stuart Mulhern, Vince Moefa’auo and Maddison Garrett connected over a love of top-flight hospitality, pooling their respective know-how to open up Red Hill’s The Ground Coffee & Food in early 2018. Demand for the cafe’s express style-offering exceeded expectations, and soon the crew were looking for a space to install a larger production kitchen. An ideal space was secured at the base of 100 Brookes Street where The Ground Group could not only establish a large kitchen on site, but also another cafe altogether. Halo Ground Coffee & Food offered the team the opportunity to establish a full-service cafe that delivered an exciting season-dependent menu that was a departure from fare already seen in the area. The foyer space was overhauled to accommodate the cafe, with a new modern aesthetic and minimalist interior layout providing a cool and accommodating respite for foot traffic.
The Ground Group recruited Casey Poland (Sasquatch Bar, Saké) to spearhead Halo Ground’s menu offering. Given carte blanche to formulate the menu with the only guideline being inclusivity, Casey got to work blending classic brunch fare with some Japanese touches, creating some dishes that are truly remarkable. Halo Ground’s plant-based options take plenty of the negative stigma away from the term ‘vegan’, opting for top-quality produce adapted into inventive dishes that surprise and delight. Stand-out dishes include handmade agedashi and hiyayakko tofu with sticky shiitake broth tsuyu, shiitake tapenade on rye with sautéed fresh mushrooms and slow-fried organic tofu, roast apple and buttermilk souffle pancakes with orange whipped ricotta, and sweet-potato waffles with Japanese fried chicken, wombok slaw, house-fermented kimchi and poached eggs. The grab-and-go crowd can opt for fresh salads, potted yoghurts, sausage rolls, polenta slices, toasties and pastries made on site. Stuart has tabbed Cleanskin for its coffee supplier, serving up espresso and consistent Marco SP9 filter brews. Halo Ground also has a concise booze offering, stocking vegan wines and a rotating selection of tap beers.
For opening hours and extra details, seek out Halo Ground Coffee & Food in the Stumble Guide.
The Stumble Guide is our comprehensive Brisbane dining guide with more than 2400 places to eat, drink, shop and play.
