Space & Co.
Former food-truck hub and bar Welcome To Bowen Hills is in the midst of an exciting evolution – one that will result in a brand-new identity boasting an inclusive and creative focus. Come Wednesday July 14, the King Street site will reopen as Space & Co. – a multifaceted venue that is expanding its offering to include visual art, live music and a brand-new food-and-drink range. Venue owner and musician Hannah Sands is taking the site in this new direction in response to a growing post-lockdown demand for more stimulating and interactive hospitality experiences. Hannah and her team have overhauled the venue substantially, stripping back the previous iteration’s colour-heavy aesthetic to a more pared-back industrial-style foundation, with neutral tones serving to funnel attention to a plethora of eye-catching artworks coating the space. Space & Co. will boast several outdoor murals (MCRT Studio, Kayla Coombs, Brigid Holt and Isabelle Cowan are the artists giving the space colour for its launch) and an interior gallery wall showcasing work by various exhibiting artists. The venue’s performance area – adorned with vintage furniture to create a comfy living-room vibe – will host intimate, stripped-back Tiny Desk-style gigs from an assortment of artists booked by local musician Hope D. Hannah is also reworking Space & Co.’s bar offering for the launch, adding a sizeable and evolving non-alcoholic selection that taps into a growing temperance movement with a range of booze-free cocktails. Space & Co.’s kitchen space – formerly home to Harry’s Pizza – will be helmed by the crew from Teneriffe craft beer and wine bar Zero Fox, which will be bringing across its popular menu of Korean and Japanese eats. Space & Co. will operate with a welcoming and inclusive mindset, establishing a safe environment for all comers and a laid-back option for networking sessions, panel discussions and queer events. Stay tuned for a closer look at Space & Co. when it opens this week!

Unbearable Bagels
The crew behind Zero Fox is in for a busy July – in addition to taking on the kitchen at Space & Co., the team will also soon introduce Teneriffe locals to its attitude-loaded step-sister Unbearable Bagels. The forthcoming concept will open soon in a refurbished convenience store space just across the road from Zero Fox on Vernon Terrace, with the corner store locale currently being reworked into a cosy grab-and-go joint that will dish out bagels and specialty coffee. On the menu will be a punchy list of loaded bagels, with the crew eschewing a core range in favour of an ever-changing list of six options that will each cater to a different taste (think breakfast, carnivore, vegan, vegetarian, pescatarian and sweet bagels – all made using interesting ingredients). Unbearable Bagels will also go against the grain with its coffee offering, which will ditch milk entirely and offer black coffee only. The team is pairing with Single O and Almanac Coffee to dispense a range of rotating single-origin batch and cold-drip brews, with the goal of raising the profile and standard of black coffee in Brisbane. While geared towards takeaway service, some tables and a breakfast bar will offer seats for those that need to sit, snack and sip for a spell. Unbearable Bagels will open in the coming weeks – keep your eyes peeled for more!

Cowch Westfield Garden City
We’re suckers for sweet things and few spots do sweetness as well as Cowch Dessert Cocktail Bar. The beloved pancake, shake and waffle house has long been a go-to spot for a bit of indulgence, and soon southsiders will be able to satiate their sweet tooth when Cowch opens a new location at Westfield Garden City in late August. Following hot on the heels of the opening of its Broadbeach site, the Cowch crew is bolstering its Brisbane portfolio (which features sites in South Bank and Chermside) with this new locale – the first franchised expansion in the company’s history. The new digs will open within the shopping centre near Timezone, Cloud 8 Karaoke and New Shanghai, with a cosier footprint boasting room for 120 guests and state-of-the-art light installations (shaped like udders, naturally) that cycle through gradients of pink. Cowch’s full menu will be available as well, with some exciting additions planned after Cowch opens next month.

Brewtide
If you missed the news from last week, anticipated Albion micro-precinct Craft’d Grounds revealed the first details of its in-house craft-beer brewery. Brewtide is the name of the new 500-sqm brewery, which will sit within Craft’d Grounds’ open-plan, zero-threshold space. Equipped with 12 tanks and a 15-hectolitre capacity, Brewtide will take an unpretentious approach to its range of frothy ales – all of which will be artfully constructed, balanced and, most importantly, effortlessly drinkable. Head brewer Gavin Croft will be utilising the bounty of local produce available from Queensland farmers in its range of beers, reducing the food miles its fruit, malt, hops and yeast travels. The bar is dedicating 15 of its 20 taps to new and seasonal offerings from friends of the brewery, while also allowing nomad brewers use of its brewing apparatus. Various kitchens across Craft’d Grounds and over at Collingwood Black (which is connected to the precinct via a subtropical-themed laneway) will offer a diverse range of eats to enjoy – details on the hub’s food vendors will be announced closer to Brewtide’s launch in September.

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