Celebrity chef and Street Food patron Luke Nguyen and Street Food Australia chief executive Helen Bird. During the pilot scheme, the bikes will be operated by experienced food vendors selling typical ethnic street food such as dumplings and banh mi, but once the bikes have permanent approval, the organisation will assist migrants and refugees to set up their own food bikes. So far there has been interest from Southbank for vendors to ply the streets that run into Stanley and Little Stanley streets, and the council has also offered a site in William Street and some laneways, which are yet to be specified. As a way of creating seed capital for the project, Street Food Australia are accepting donations from people keen to see the environmentally friendly project take off. In return, depending on the size of the donation, you'll receive lunch vouchers, t-shirts or your own street-food party. www.pozible.com/streetfoodaustralia FRENCH TWIST

Despite its riverfront location, Aquitaine Brasserie, which opened this week, is named after a region in France. The last of the Arkhefield-designed River Quay complex venues at South Bank to be taken up, its owners are Nick Pinn (of Malt in the CBD) and his father-in-law and managing director of Pershouse Produce, Peter Kedwell. James Guldberg (ex-Survey Co.) heads the kitchen. It's French, but "relaxed French", Pinn says. "It's not fine dining, but neither is it café food; rather it is authentic food delivered in a modern way." Expect traditional with a twist — steak tartare with brioche, horseradish, cognac mustard, or garlicky escargot from the Glasshouse Mountains with parsley, speck and olives, and desserts such as pear tarte tatin with cinnamon ice-cream and peanut brittle. The Bistro seats up to 70, including an al fresco area. There's an inside and outside bar area and a mezzanine with a private area for 20, as well as a wine alcove with a high marble-topped dining table. The wine list has been put together by Malt sommelier Lucy George and is divided into regional styles rather than varietals, mixing a few local drops with some well-priced French wine.

Aquitaine Brasserie, R2 River Quay, South Bank, Queensland Phone 3844 1888 BEER COUNTRY Cruising around the country tasting beer: it's a tough job. It was the fate of poor Geoff Davenport, who has just opened a brewery at the Happy Valley property he shares with wife (and designated driver) Dee Davenport. It's a brave move for the Stanthorpe couple, who live in the middle of Granite Belt wine country, but after a couple of weeks Dee says the business is ticking along well. “We are really happy with our first brew and the feedback has been that the beers are all really good."

Their range, from an Irish ale (a nod to Dee's Irish ancestry) to a Kolsch mid-strength and a porter are all available for tasting, at $12 for four glasses at 200ml or $7 for four glasses at 85ml each. There's a viewing lounge into the brewery to watch beer-making in action as well as a restaurant serving hearty German fare — if the antipasto and cheese platters fail to fill. Granite Belt Brewery, 146 Glenlyon Drive Stanthorpe Phone 4681 1370 ROOFTOP BEES

Fancy a spoon of West End or Wooloongabba honey on your porridge? Part-time bee-keepers Jack Wilson and Kat Skull are intent on winding back the food miles with urban honey that may come from a hive in a street near you. "At the moment we have experimental hives in four inner-city suburbs to see how they do and how susceptible they may be to the urban environment," Wilson says. "We're looking to expand the number and have hives sponsored by cafes and restaurants, or homeowners who might have a rooftop." Wilson and Skull's fledgling company, Beeonethird, has hives in a handful of inner-city locations. Wilson says each produces a honey with a distinct colour and flavour. "There's a lot of diversity — if one suburb like Red Hill, for example, has more natives, such as ironbarks, it will produce a deeper honey with a stronger flavour, while somewhere like New Farm, which has fewer old established trees and more flowers, produces something lighter and fruitier." Rooftop bee-keeping is already under way in Sydney and Melbourne, where restaurants have been giving up their rooftops not just for honey but to help ensure the survival of the honeybee. In the US and Europe, bee populations have been decimated by colony collapse disorder. It's believed that about a third of our crops are dependent, to some degree, on the honeybee for pollination. "We're lucky in Australia — so far that we are the only country not to have the varroa destructor mite, but we need to protect our bee population," Wilson says. "I'd love to have a hive in every suburb — it's just a matter of finding candidates to take them on."

One of the first venues to adopt a rooftop hive is the Cup Roasting House, soon to open in Woolloongabba. Wilson is now approaching other cafes and restaurants. "Bees are incredibly friendly creatures as well as being essential to our pollination of our crops. We want to be part of the world-wide push to ensure their survival." The honey, which will be ready for extraction from the hives next month, will be sold under the label "Neighbourhood Honey" and will be available from Sourced the Grocer in Teneriffe. hello@beeonethird.com.au FAREWELL AL