Just Open: Beef & Barley burgers, Kingston Foreshore

New burger and tinnie bar Beef and Barley is bringing gourmet burgers matched with craft beers to the Kingston Foreshore.

Owners James Hawketts and Lauren Hassall are young Canberrans who spent several years living and travelling around Europe and the UK, working as baristas and running cafes.

When they returned home they decided to open a place of their own, and found a perfect spot on the corner at the far end of the Kingston foreshore. They've got a breezy interior with bench seating, and feature walls covered in textural chipboard, and a big shaded outdoor area that doubles as a beer garden.

They'll do a range of burgers and will serve only tinnies or bottles - no beer on tap.

"We found a couple of cool places that inspired us overseas and we thought we would open something that we thought the Australian market would like," Hawketts says.

Hawketts and Hassall were particularly struck by Brewdog, the cult Scottish brewery with a chain of bars around the country.

"But we thought we'd swap what they do - they do a lot of beers and a couple of burgers, we thought we'd do mostly burgers and then pair it with Australian craft beers, just because the Australian craft scene isn't as far along as the UK's."

Their main craft brew is Young Henry's, but there will also be a range of other beers from around the country, such as Mountain Goat and Yenda.

Hawketts says they also learnt from the burger joints of Melbourne. "We thought we would bring a Melbourne style to Canberra, because Canberra's going a lot that way with our coffee and beers," he says.

"It's all eat with your hands sort of thing, but we do have gourmet flavours on the burgers. We wanted to have some fine dining flavours put on something simple and cheap. We didn't want it to be the standard burger."

They will serve ONA coffee, and then burgers and beers for lunch and dinner. On weekends, they'll do brunch with a couple of breakfast burgers, lots of French toast, poached eggs and the like.

Open 7am-10pm.

Beef and Barley, 45 Eastlake Parade, Kingston Foreshore, beefandbarley.com.au