Up until recently I had NO IDEA how close the King St dining precinct was to The Tivoli. (Mostly because I have a terrible sense of direction to be honest.) But thanks to a partnership between the Bowen Hills foodie haven and the Open Season Brisbane program, EVERYONE is sure to find out just how perfect King Street is for a pre-show feed.
King St Brisbane have paired some of the coolest acts with food specials to warm your stomach and hearts. Open Season runs until August 24, and is filled with fabulous live music acts, art and culinary delights.
We took the opportunity to experience one of the deals and take in a show to see what it’s all about (and how fast the walk to The Tivoli really is!)
Our Open Season & King St Brisbane experience
We grabbed tickets to go see Iniko, a super soulful artist from Brooklyn, NYC and started to plan our dinner and show evening. The King St food offerings are so tasty looking that we have a little trouble choosing which one we are going to commit to.
Do we go with beers and burritos at El Camino Cantina for just $25? Maybe bao buns and beer for just $16 at Xin Chao? Or at the fine dining end of the street there’s even a 400g T-bone steak, creamy potato mash and broccolini with a glass of Torbeck Shiraz for $65.
In the end—because it was a cold night and everyone knows cold nights are perfect for carbs—we decided on Il Verde. The Italian restaurant is offering any pizza or pasta (excluding seafood) and a glass of beer, wine or soft drink for $31.
I order a spaghetti bolognaise (because comfort food) and my friend goes with the gnocchi al tartufo e funghi (aka creamy, truffley, mushroomy gnocchi).
Both pasta and gnocchi arrive piping hot, with the steam coming off them a nice wintery touch. They’re both hearty and delicious (because of course I try both)—pasta on a cold day is such a warm hug.
We linger over our dinner, because we want to make it last—and we know that The Tivoli is supposedly just around the corner so we really want to test out just how fast it is. (Check out our whole Open Season King St experience on Instagram.)
After eating perhaps a tiny bit too much pasta, and chatting over a lovely glass of red, we grab our stuff and head out on the walk to our gig.
Honestly, it was over before it even began. The Tivoli was just one street over, so I am pretty sure I didn’t even work off a forkful of pasta. It was a tiny stroll, around three minutes, and then bam—we were at the door.
Iniko was fabulous in all her sparkly, celestial, soulfulness. And since we were full of delicious carbs, we had the energy to dance all night long.
King St really is the ideal place to grab a pre-show meal and we’re already thinking about what other deal we can get next time we head to an Open Season gig.
Check out the Open Season Brisbane lineup here, and see the full range of meal deals on offer at King St Brisbane here.
Il Verde, 2 King Street, Bowen Hills, QLD. p. (07) 3638 0494.
In her spare time, she likes long walks down the makeup aisle and performing in Brisbane theatre. You can follow her adventures on Instagram and TikTok @thebeautypalate.
