It’s going to be a big month for the Thomas Dixon Centre. In March alone, the heritage-listed former shoe factory turned world-class performing arts hub (home to Queensland Ballet since 1991) will welcome two brand-new dining concepts. On Thursday March 27, Melbourne-born hospitality heavyweight Shane Delia will open Layla, his first Queensland restaurant, at the centre. While Layla’s opening is deservedly generating a lot of buzz, the Thomas Dixon Centre’s other new resident – all-day eatery Tom’s Kitchen, operated by the centre’s hospitality partner VenuesLive – might be a dark horse contender for Brisbane’s best new brunch spot.

Nestled inside the Drake Street end of the Thomas Dixon Centre’s original red-brick building, Tom’s Kitchen marries the stately nature of the structure’s Georgian Revival-style design with modern elements, creating a striking juxtaposition between new and old that echoes the centre’s recent revitalisation. The cafe’s 80-odd seats are spread across three distinct areas. A high-ceilinged interior space is where you’ll find the white-tiled service counter and kitchen pass, which is offset by exposed brick, pressed-metal ceilings and timber tables. Overlooking Montague Road is a sun-dappled alfresco terrace, where a scattering of tables are shaded by green umbrellas and leafy foliage, while a strip of seats can be found on the other site of the building, just near the Thomas Dixon Centre’s main entry.

Framed as a go-to destination for brunch bites and laid-back lunches, the magic of Tom’s Kitchen is the approachability of its offering. The man tasked with the conception and execution of the cafe’s fare is Thomas Dixon Centre’s executive chef Jorge Palacios, who tells us that his overarching goal was to deliver a menu of healthy eats that would satisfy the tastes of those working in the building, as well as locals living nearby.

“Healthy means something different to everyone,” says Jorge. “It can be very hard to please absolutely everyone, but we’ve been working really hard over the last few months to put a menu together that pleases as many people as possible. The Queensland Ballet is very proud of its community, so it likes to take care of the people around here.”

Food & Drink

Tom’s Kitchen

406 Montague Rd, West End

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Tom’s Kitchen’s debut offering is well-rounded, with familiar breakfast and lunch items given some savvy, salivation-inducing twists. Queensland produce is pushed to the fore, with Jorge engaging a number of top suppliers to source and deliver fruit and vegetables at their seasonal peak to ensure maximum freshness.

“The sort of close relationship that we have with our suppliers helps use ingredients that are as fresh as possible, and that rotation [of ingredients] I think will make us unique in terms of what everyone else is doing,” says Jorge.

The all-day offering is stacked, featuring winning dishes like warm oat porridge with poached seasonal stone fruit and medjool dates, brulee brioche toast with Chantilly cream, dulce de leche and torched bananas, a brekkie muffin with a longganisa pork patty, cheese, egg, hash brown and banana ketchup, guacamole on croissant toast with scrambled egg, pecorino and toasted sesame, and potato hash with smoked salmon, poached eggs and tomato bearnaise sauce. Bread is supplied by Sprout Artisan Bakery, while Tom’s Kitchen uses ST. ALi as its specialty coffee provider.

After 11:00 am, the menu expands to include The Goodness Bowl with beetroot felafel, miso pumpkin, avocado, spiced hummus and ancient grains, crispy fried-chicken burgers with hot honey, lettuce, pickles and garlic mayo, and The TK Smash – a weighty cheeseburger boasting provolone cheese, pickles, mustard, tomato sauce, and fries with shaker seasoning. Around this time a tight booze menu comes online, featuring Balter beers, three wines (one sparkling, one pinot gris and one sangiovese) and a clutch of spirits.

Being only a few days old as of publication, Jorge stresses that Tom’s Kitchen’s offering will continue to evolve as the seasons change and as the team takes onboard feedback from locals. There’s even a possibility of Tom’s Kitchen becoming a late-arvo locale on weekends – a pit stop for those visiting the Talbot Theatre for a performance, or one of the Thomas Dixon Centre’s other event spaces.

“This is just the first step,” Jorge tells us. “In the next five to six months, we’d like to open for afternoons on Sundays, where you can have a drink on the beautiful terrace. There might be a function on, you could come in and have a drink before you head inside.”

For operating hours and other important details, click on over to The Directory.