Brisbane's Dedicated Lasagne Drive-Thru Has Returned for Lockdown
This time, it's also handing out free meals to hospitality workers doing it tough during the pandemic.
Sometimes, getting out of your car to purchase food is just too much effort. For those occasions, humanity invented the drive-thru. It's a fast food staple, and the concept has been getting quite the workout during the pandemic — so, when a drive-thru dedicated to lasagne first popped up, it felt inevitable.
Now, with Brisbane back under stay-at-home conditions until at least 4pm on Sunday, August 8, Brisbane's lasagne drive-thru is back. From Wednesday, August 4, it'll be serving up layered pasta with bechamel sauce again right through until Saturday, August 7. If lockdown is extended again, though, the drive-thru will stick around longer.
The venture is the latest project from Jerome Dalton, owner of Dalton Catering and — since July 2021 – of CJ's Pasta as well. The latter no longer operates as a bricks-and-mortar business, instead focusing on selling pasta to restaurants and wholesalers. But for folks at home who love a bit of lasagne, CJ's Pasta now lets you roll up to Fortitude Valley's Prospect Street in your car, remain seated, and take home one of three different lasagnes (or a mixture of the trio).
The idea first came about in response to Brisbane's March lockdown, with the drive-thru kicking into action while everyone was staying at home for three days. When it proved popular, Dalton brought it back every Friday afternoon. And now, with a longer lockdown currently in place, it's clearly prime drive-thru lasagne time.
Brisbanites can choose from beef lasagne, sand crab lasagne, and black truffle and beef ragu lasagne, all of which come in one-kilogram servings paired with focaccia. Prices range from $50–60, or you can grab all three for $120.
Different types of freshly made pasta are also on offer, ready for you to cook and add to sauce at home. So are salumi boxes filled with mortadella, salami, aged pork, bread and pickles.
If you're keen, you'll need to order in advance via phone, then motor on over to pick up your ready-to-eat meal. You can still try your luck by just showing up with without preordering, but you'll be getting a chilled lasagne that you'll need to heat up at home.
Also, this time around, the drive-thru is also setting up what it's calling a 'slide-thru' — which'll give free meals to hospitality workers every Saturday during lockdown, from 5.30pm until there's no lasagnes left. Ordinary customers can also donate to the 'slide-thru' fund to help CJ's Pasta give out even more dishes to folks doing it tough in the hospo industry.
Find the CJ's Pasta Lasagne Drive-Thru at 22 Prospect Street, Fortitude Valley from 2–5pm on Wednesday, August 4, and from 12–5pm from Thursday, August 5–Saturday, August 7. The 'slide-thru' will operate from 5.30pm on Saturday, August 7.
If lockdown continues, the drive-thru will run from 12–5pm Tuesday–Saturday weekly, and the 'slide-thru' will pop up every Saturday from 5.30pm.
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