The Vegan Mary
One of Brisbane’s finest purveyors of slightly sinful comfort food is teaming up with rough-and-tumble West End booze and tunes peddler, The Bearded Lady, for what is shaping up to be a match made in heaven. The Vegan Mary, a market-born slinger of creative plant-based comfort food, will be taking over The Bearded Lady’s kitchen from Wednesday July 19. Born as a food trailer that serviced the Brisbane and Sunshine Coast market scenes, The Vegan Mary quickly built a following thanks to its out-of-the-box experimentation on nostalgic fast food favourites, shaking up the formula with modernised vegan tweaks. This approach has resulted in highly sought options like the signature No Cluck’n Around (house-seasoned crispy fried oyster mushroom chick’n with cheese, lettuce, pickles, tomato, burger sauce and mayo on a brioche bun) and the Smokey Joe (Byron Bay Burger plant-based patties with onion rings, American-style cheese, barbecue sauce and chipotle mayo). Now fans won’t have to search high and low to find The Vegan Mary around town – The Bearded Lady will be the concept’s home for five days a week. In addition to their stacked burgers, owners Josh and Charli will be pumping out serves of The Vegan Mary’s famous cauliflower bites (tossed in special house-made spicy buffalo sauce), crispy panko-crumbed mac ‘n’ cheese bites (filled with three-cheese gooey melted macaroni), the Turn The Tide po’ boy (seaweed-seasoned crispy fried oyster mushrooms with lettuce, pickles, tomato, tartar sauce and lemon juice), and the Mary’s Fully Loaded fries, which comes topped with shredded oyster mushroom chick’n, cheese, lettuce, tomato, spring onion, buffalo sauce and mayo. Once up and running at The Bearded Lady, Josh and Charli hope to educate the community on the depth and creative potential of plant-based cuisine. If you’re keen to try, make sure you pop in on the launch night from 6:00 pm on Wednesday July 19 for special discounts on food and a cheeky voucher for further discounts on your next visit.

GOMA Farm-to-Table
There are changes afoot at GOMA Restaurant. The boundary-pushing eatery is shaking up its formula following the recent departure of long-tenured head chef Matt Blackwell, with the team pivoting its concept with a brand-new pop-up dining experience. GOMA Farm-to-Table will see the kitchen team (helmed by QAGOMA executive chef Aaron Holt) shine a spotlight on locally sourced Queensland produce via a two- and three-course set menu. Launching on Friday July 14 and running until Sunday October 1, GOMA Farm-to-Table will offer guests sensational dishes like kangaroo with salt-baked beetroot and burnt pumpkin meringue, Urban Valley mushroom with potato pave, porcini mousse and red grape, pan-roasted local fish with sand pipis, coastal greens and lemon myrtle beurre blanc, and Darling Downs wagyu beef petite tender with onions, morcilla and Davidson plum. Naturally, the culinary offering will be complemented by a selection of top-notch wines from Queensland and Australian makers. GOMA Farm-to-Table is holding lunch sittings from Thursday to Sunday between 11:30 am to 3:30 pm – head to the QAGOMA website to view the menu and to make a booking.

Hellenika
As it approaches its five-year milestone of operating at The Calile Hotel, top-tier Greek restaurant Hellenika will undergo a bit of a sprucing. The STK Group, which also operates SK Steak & Oyster and Sushi Room at the glamorous James Street accommodation spot, will be closing Hellenika for two weeks from Monday July 31, during which the crew will be making a few cosmetic upgrades. Fans of the restaurant’s zucchini chips, spanakopita, flash-fried calamari and chargrilled chicken souvlakia wont have to go without for long – the restaurant will once again welcome guests from Monday August 14. If you’re craving a Mediterranean-style fix, STK Group’s James Street lunch spot Sunshine will be able to scratch your itch, while SK Steak & Oyster will be serving breakfast during the renovation period from 7:00 am, including Hellenika favourites like the Eggs with Eggs with Eggs, strapatsada and Greek French roast.

Rich & Rare
Tassis Group, the busy hospitality crew behind beloved venues Massimo Restaurant & Bar and Opa Bar + Mezze will soon double its presence at West Village. Premium steak and seafood restaurant Rich & Rare will open at the precinct in September, joining Tassis Group’s Greek-inspired locale Yamas Greek & Drink as anchor tenants of West Village’s thriving dining offering. Blending traces of Manhattan’s metropolitan grandeur with West Village’s neighbourhood oasis appeal, the lavish 150-seat restaurant is taking shape along the hub’s Boundary Street border. Clui Design, Kyson Commercial and Allo Creative are collaborating on the venue’s branding and visual personality, with contemporary opulence a major theme of the restaurant’s design. Once complete, Rich & Rare will boast a state-of-the-art cylindrical glass walk-in dry-ageing room and a temperature-controlled walk-in cellar, with a bar housing an impressed-nod-worthy selection of local and international whiskies. In the kitchen, head chef Felipe De Souza Oliveira (formerly of Urbane and Greca), will oversee a menu featuring oysters ‘opened on order’, live lobster, Mooloolaba swordfish steaks and a flame-seared tomahawk, which will be carved table-side. Keep your eyes peeled for more on Rich & Rare as we get closer to its opening date in September.

Souvy Sundays at Opa Bar + Mezze
Speaking of Opa Bar + Mezze, the striking Greek-inspired riverside eatery is turning up the heat for its weekend service, helping locals overcome their Sunday scaries with a drool-worthy six-course banquet. Souvy Sundays will see the Opa kitchen crank out a procession of dishes, including souvla of the week (rotating between lamb, chicken and pork) and other stand-out staples such as taramasalata with village bread, lemon potatoes, calamari, araka lemonato (green peas, carrots and onion with dill and lemon), and a serve of golden honey puffs. You can snag this feast for $65 per person, with a glass of red or white wine included. Souvy Sundays will be running every Sunday from 11:30 am to 9:30 pm (or until sold out) until the end of September.

If you’ve heard something that’s worth mentioning in The Weekend Edition’s Pavement Whispers, email [email protected].