Little Itoshin
Miami residents, an exciting new Japanese dining spot is coming your way! Itoshin in Mermaid Beach, one of the city’s most renowned and longest-running Japanese restaurants, is expanding with a second venue currently underway in the bustling seaside pocket. While the original Itoshin enjoys pride of place on the Gold Coast Highway in Mermaid, its new offspring – aptly named Little Itoshin – will be located in Miami Shopping Village on Mountain View Avenue, the same precinct that houses popular cafe Hide n Seek Espresso, Italian restaurant That’s Amore and day-and-night eatery The Good Wolf. While Little Itoshin will retain the level of quality and authenticity that Itoshin has become renowned for, the new dining spot will adopt a more casual direction to create a convivial and truly local vibe. The menu will put a contemporary lean on traditional Japanese comfort food, with hearty old-
Brio Emporium
Gold Coast-born health hub and purveyors of healthy fats, Brio Emporium, is opening a new location in the Southport Park Shopping Centre. The new addition to the Brio Emporium stable also marks the end of an area for the brand’s flagship Broadbeach location, which will close on Monday April 8 – the owners opted not to renew the lease on the Gold Coast Highway-fronting site, rather choosing to renew focus on their ‘neighbourhood shopping centre’ model, seen in recently opened venues like Burleigh Waters and The Oasis. The Southport Park location will continue that model at its new digs, located along the high-traffic Ferry Road. You can expect all of the Brio Emporium goodness at the new northern location, including a grab-and-go cabinet, cups of piping-hot bone broth, and the full menu of gluten-free, refined-sugar free and anti-inflammatory cuisine that this ketogenic haven has become renowned for. Brio Emporium’s new Southport Park outpost is due to open in late April, just after Easter. We’ll give you a peek inside soon.
Ida’s Kitchen
A swish new cafe and daytime dining space named Ida’s Kitchen is set to grace the northern Gold Coast before Easter. Located along the bustling Olsen Avenue in Parkwood, the exciting new addition is the brainchild of brothers Jonathan and Nick Freeman, who named the venue after their grandmother, Ida. The concept pays homage to their grandmother’s kitchen by modernising the tastes, flavours and memories they experienced in the early days and bringing them into the 21st century. Breakfast and lunch will be served daily, with everything from kimchi waffles of a morning, to classic cheeseburgers with secret sauce at midday. Boutique Sydney coffee roaster Maloney St. will be providing the brews. The space is taking shape on Olsen Avenue, opposite Southport Sharks, with an opening expected before Easter. We’ll give you a detail look at the space, the food and the coffee very soon!
El Camino Cantina
Popular Tex-Mex eatery El Camino Cantina, which burst into Brisbane’s Bowen Hills in November last year with its giant frozen margaritas, unlimited corn chips and salsa, fat burritos, sizzling tacos, quesadillas, buffalo wings, moreish nachos and more, is venturing south with its newest cantina to open in Byron Bay this April. Situated in the soon-to-open Mercato on Byron entertainment and dining precinct, El Camino Cantina’s latest addition will boast a fun and eclectic fit-out, featuring bold and bright custom artworks by Australian punk-music and surf-art icon Ben Brown. The 250-seat casual dining spot will incorporate a large 130-seat outdoor area and will dish up all of its crowd favourites (we’re looking at you, brisket-stuffed burritos) alongside its signature series of 15 and 24-oz margaritas, sangria, specialty cocktails, local craft beers, Mexican draught beers and bottled cervezas. El Camino Cantina Byron Bay, the latest venue from Rockpool Dining Group, is due to open just after Easter. We’ll have more details for you in a few weeks time.
