Maeve Wine Bar
South Brisbane
Maeve Wine Bar is a charming Euro-style wine bar and diner found upstairs in a landmark heritage-listed art deco bank on a South Brisbane corner.
Open 'til midnight every day, and conveniently located diagonally across the road from QPAC, Maeve Wine Bar makes the perfect spot for a pre-or-post show drink and bite to eat.
Take the stairs on the Melbourne Street side of the bank up to a cosy, high-ceilinged, light-filled room with pale timber polished floors, tea lights and bonsai plants on the window sills, a couple of leather booths along one wall and tables and chairs arranged to make the most of the views over the cultural precinct across the road.
The wine list at Maeve is an impressive curated tome of wines from around the world, including Georgia, Slovenia, Hungary, Austria, Germany, Spain, Italy and France, as well as NZ and all of the best regions within Australia (Queensland's own Granite Belt included). With pages upon pages to peruse, wines are categorised under playful occasion headings like 'Lively and Fun', 'Interesting and Unique' or 'Celebratory'.
As well as wine, there's a small selection of boutique beers and cocktails, including Aperol Spritz, Negroni, Old fashioned and Maire de Fish lane (grappa, chamomile, almond and pistachio milk).
Not to be over-shadowed by the wine offerings, Maeve Wine bar has a cracking hot creative food menu that has to be tried. Diners can snack on the likes of Sydney Rock Oysters with sherry vinaigrette and wild scampi caviar or the must-try sourdough crumpets topped with smoked duck, honey ham, hazelnut butter and thyme.
Then there are delectable small dishes such as buttermilk fava bean cassoulet with crispy kale; black garlic waffle, gelatina de vino and cashel blue parfatit; or saganaki cheese, fermented garlic honey and oregano.
For something more substantial, Maeve also has a handful of large plates (all under $30) such as charcoal grilled hanger steak, cafe de paris butter and fries or crispy skin goldband snapper, roasted mushrooms and gremolata. And for afters, there's rum baba with chantilly cream, creme caramel or a selection of cheese and accompaniments.
Good to know - Maeve Wine Bar is from the canny folk behind popular Asian street food eatery Hello Please (around the corner in Fish Lane).
Need to know - More than a wine bar, Maeve is the go-to for first-class food at a reasonable price.
The menu may have changed since our visit.
Check out our full guide to the best wine bars in Brisbane HERE
Take the Fish Lane Bar Crawl HERE
