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With a heritage James Street abode for the weekend, you are just walking distance from some of the best shopping and eating in Brisbane, from sprawling beer halls in the shadow of the Story Bridge to European tipples in a riverside nook.
We spend a Brisbane weekender at Miss Midgley’s, a boutique hotel in New Farm and one of the city’s most interesting hotels.
Discover Brisbane
Old-world charm in New Farm
There is a vintage wooden school desk in the corner of each room at Miss Midgley’s; the desk is home to the pink compendium, a history of the property and assorted information on things to do in the thriving area. This wooden relic is a nod to the eponymous former owner, Anne Midgley, an artist and teacher who turned the building into a private school in the early 1900s. It is also a statement about the hotel’s upcycled aesthetic, one that seeks to honour the building’s over 160 years of history: it’s been an orphanage, a Queensland premier’s home and a private hospital.
History is stashed around the storied abode like easter eggs. In the corner of our kitchen is a sliver of original hand-painted wallpaper discovered during restoration, we see a sign pointing to a “ghost” fireplace (since filled in) and at the hotel entrance is the framed, hand-written lunch order from the carpenter who worked on the renovation (they were partial to a pizza sub). Miss Midgley’s well-worn charm creaks and squeaks its way into your heart over the course of a weekend from the ornate, up-lit ceilings to the jars of Byron Bay Tea Co leaves and Iced VoVo biscuits on the kitchen table.
Each room is individually beautiful, some with two bedrooms, others with outdoor spaces and balconies; staying here feels like you are a real New Farmer, if only for a couple of days.
It’s easy being green
The hotel is a short walk from New Farm’s James Street precinct that combines high-end fashion with upmarket F&B. You can shop at Dinosaur Designs, grab a snack at recently refurbished Cru Bar & Cellar (try the apple martini) or you can do both – eat and shop – all at the Rodd & Gunn store located in a heritage Queenslander residential house.
We wander slightly off the main street to The Green which is on the cusp of Fortitude Valley and offers deli goods, ceramics and all-day dining, the latter with a Lebanese slant. It’s also Green by name and by nature as the place has more plants than a garden centre all of which are flourishing in the tropical weather.
My Byblos breakfast has a poached egg sitting on a bed of hummus and fried onion and drizzled with harissa oil and topped with za’atar. Roll up your sleeves, grab the oily toasted pita pillow and dive in.
A walk and a dip
Miss Midgley’s is the passion project of mother and daughter team Lisa and Isabella White. With both holding Masters of Architecture, their goal was to keep as much of the building’s history as they could, right down to the pink-and-terracotta palette that has long been a part of the James Street building’s story and serves to amplify the rosy hues of the famous Brisbane stone it is built from.
‘After brunch we wander the Brisbane Riverwalk that that runs out along the water from Howard Street Wharves (home to Felons Brewing Co.) to New Farm, then back along James Street to the hotel.
Down the side through a rust-coloured gate is the pool which is warmed to take the edge off the autumn temperatures, a popular space to hold weddings.
Cocktails sur mer
In the 1980s, my parents moved from Sydney to Brisbane, which I saw as a social death sentence and promptly moved out of home. But as we’re shown to our corner table on the Bar Miette terrace – overlooking the Brisbane River – I wonder if they were just ahead of their time. This European-themed bar is also a southern transplant; the first foray out of Melbourne from Trader House, the sharp hospitality collective from Andrew McConnell and his team.
Bar Miette plays by Parisian rules, opening from morning coffee to late-night digestif, but we are here for a pre-dinner tipple. I opt for a special cocktail scrawled on the mobile blackboard: a Sylvana with reposado tequila, raspberry, spring rhubarb and a dash of amaro; it arrives as pink as the walls of our boutique stay and as the lights of the Story Bridge tinkle to life – and our squiggly, art-on-a-plate anchovy toast arrives – I am making my own plans to relocate north.
Anything but normal
Beneath Bar Miette, its sibling venue Supernormal takes its cues from South-East Asia with some European flourishes. There are subtle differences to the Melbourne outlet, but you can still get the famous New England lobster roll. We opt for a more local spin, the Moreton Bay bug toast, a starter served on petite circles of bread topped with aioli and chopped chives; it looks like suburban Chinese prawn toast that has studied at the Sorbonne. Grilled octopus with fermented green chilli follows along with roast Yamba prawns in a shio koji sauce made with fermented rice, salt and a sinful amount of butter.
A shared main of Korean fried chicken with green chilli ranch, pickles and house-made hot sauce allows us to pack our own flavour bombs into soft, steamed bread piling condiments as high as a Story Bridge span. It’s a fantastic end to a weekend of fun, food and history in the Queensland capital.
