You might possibly think that there are two things that the central Fortitude Valley area doesn’t need any more of – and that’s coffee outlets and certainly no more convenience stores.
But they keep coming – and seem to thrive – which just goes to show that this silly old fossil knows diddly-squat about what makes a good business decision. But seeing these places keep opening– and supposedly thriving in the process – could I be just a little indulgent for once and give a shameless plug to a new venue being run by two very close friends of mine.
I was going to say “old” friends, but as you can see from the photos, Annette Gillespie (that’s her on the left in both photos) and Christina Hatzepetrou are far too young and sweet to deserve that moniker.
To me, they’re like the granddaughters I never had, so I’m delighted to mention their new little venue, Flamingo, in a little laneway behind the Zoo musical establishment on Ann Street.
To my mind, the venue seems so very Melbournian in style and look, with arty-farty (if you’ll excuse the French) fittings and not much more than a “hole in the wall” feel to it.
It’s going to be interesting to see if these sweet young things can make a go of it, seeing Flamingo is a little away from the main mall traffic flow. But they should do okay, for it’s not as if they are new to the hospitality scene.
Christina used to run The Main Squeeze in nearby Brunswick Street, and I did enjoy a mango/eggplant smoothie there on many occasions. Proud newish mother Annette also has a lot of barista work under her belt. She was a popular staffer at Fat Boys for quite a while – long enough to feature on our front page celebrating one of our birthday editions – and she was a co-owner of the Cantina at West End. So please go and say hello. Tell them Ivor sent you!
Blues goes off with a bang ... without Asa
Now that the 18th annual Brisbane Blues Festival at the Jubilee Hotel last weekend is just a fading memory of a hangover, spare a thought for one of the event’s main acts, Asa Broomhall.
The gig’s owner Rob Hudson tells me that while the rest of the bands on the bill tried to out do one another with the number of hot sweaty bodies they could coax onto the dance floor, poor Asa was at home under doctor’s orders and on serious meds trying to tame a raging throat and chest infection.
“He was the first act to miss their set in the event’s entire eighteen-year history but all was not lost,” Rob explained. “Asa being the stand up guy that he is had already sent in a ringer to take his place, a band called The Delta Monarchs and they duly keep the punters happy and busy shaking their hips.
“Doug Wilshire (pictured below) tried out tracks from his brand new album Cuz Of You to a great response and Mojo Webb was on fire and had a large segment of the female population up on stage with him helping to push the music to new heights.”
Rob also reports that elsewhere Doc Span and Ross Williams filled the Jube with an amazingly full sound considering they performed as only a duo, Jimi Beavis and the 385s had the crowd eating out of the palms of their hands and The Hipshooters brought the night to a rousing close.
“The weather gods were kind almost the entire night and the heavens didn’t really open up until most people were on their way home.
“It seems the blues are still alive and a post gig phone call confirmed that the unfortunate Asa was still with us as well.
“Next year I’m making sure he stops kissing babies and shaking hands at least three weeks before the festival.”
