Morsels: Tupelo Coffee Co opens; Canberra Beer Week; Gwyneth Paltrow; AA Gill

Tupelo Coffee Co
Another new cafe is opening up in Civic. This one is called Tupelo Coffee Co and it's coming to the Sydney building on Alinga Street, in the bus interchange. It's the brainchild of Nic Walker, who's been working in the speciality coffee game for about 10 years. Walker tells us he's aiming to open very soon, in early December. "I'm hoping to stand on the shoulders of giants and I've just been lucky enough to meet all of the great people in Melbourne and all the great people in Canberra," he says. "My idea of the place to do really, really high quality coffee in Canberra, in a really affordable way." He's getting his beans from a roaster in Melbourne called Code Black, a reasonably new outfit in Brunswick. Walker has previously worked at the Cupping Room and has been studying at university. I've been working in Canberra doing an environmental science degree at ANU and implementing a lot of stuff I've learnt at the ANU into a really considered approach to doing business and dealing with commodities." And why is the cafe called Tupelo? No, it's not because Walker is a big Elvis fan. "It is the town that Elvis was born in," he acknowledges with a laugh. "But I came across it through a particularly awesome Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds song."

Gwyneth, AA Gill, Tim, and Susan
A team from Canberra is heading to Hobart to rub shoulders with AA Gill, Alice Waters and Gwyneth Paltrow for the star-studded launch of Restaurant Australia, the tourism campaign designed to put the country on the international foodie map. And two Canberra chefs will be represented at the launch. David Black and Sam McGeechan from The Artisan in Narrabundah have created two dishes using local produce which will be served up at a Tourism Australia event in Hobart on Friday. More than 80 "food and wine influencers" have been invited to Hobart by the tourism organisation to sample Australia's culinary delights in the hope that they'll help spread the word about Australia as a foodie destination. The dishes include Poachers Pantry kangaroo prosciutto with a "swiss brown cappuccino" sprinkled with truffle and smoked chicken breast served with sorrel and watermelon radish. The food will be served at a "marketplace" event and matched with Canberra's cool climate wines. VisitCanberra is also sending a crack team of food and wine experts down to Hobart – director Ian Hill joins Tim Kirk, Ken Helm and Susan Bruce to represent the territory. The Restaurant Australia launch features several big food celebrities: our cover girl Alice Waters, who's also here for Fairfax's Good Food Month, British restaurant critic AA Gill, and Indian TV personality and chef Sanjeev Kapoor. The biggest celebrity guest of all is Gwyneth Paltrow, who will attend a special dinner at MONA which features all the firepower of Neil Perry, Ben Shewry and Peter Gilmore. On the homefront, a couple of foodie "influencers" – a Malaysian TV host, a Korean magazine editor and a travel writer – will head to Canberra for a taste of the region.

Beaujolais Nouveau
Practice your French and get some beaujolais nouveau into your system at the Alliance Francais on November 20 at 8.15pm. There'll be jazz, wine, cheese and charcuterie. 66 McCaughey Street, Turner. It's $30. Tickets from afcanberra.com.au.

Canberra Beer Week
Beer Week is this week and some restaurants around town are celebrating all things brewed. Rubicon is doing food and beer matching, Hopscotch, the Durham in Kingston, Temporada and Les Bistronomes are all putting on beer or cider meal deals. See canberrabeerweek.com for details.