Jenna Holmes’ Pasta Club events became a sold-out COVID-era sensation in Melbourne and Sydney. Now, she’s bringing Pasta Club back to Brisbane for the second time, taking over Simon Martin’s Flying Colours bar in West End.

Holmes will be in the kitchen this Saturday from 1pm with the Flying Colours chefs for a DJ-driven lunch, preparing a three-course menu that includes dishes such as slow-cooked beans with sage, shallot and pecorino; fried zucchini with ricotta, lemon and chilli; and pasta with beef ragu and parmesan.

Holmes is still deciding on the two types of pasta she’ll use for the event, but will source it fresh from a local supplier on the day.

“We like to say it’s the middle ground between a dinner party and a restaurant,” Holmes says. “You get to stay three to four hours. You don’t choose the food, it all just comes out … The idea is that you just worry about who you want to sit at the table with, and we take care of all the sensory elements: the music, the tablecloths [designed by Holmes]. You’re eating a meal, but it’s a curated experience, so it’s a little bit different to a normal restaurant.”

Drinks on the day will be an abridged list of cocktails such as a frozen lemon margarita and a peach and macadamia sour, with Flying Colours’ low-intervention leaning wine list available for those who want to stick to vino.

“It’s really a pasta event at Flying Colours,” Martin says. “They’ve designed the menu, and we’re designing drinks to complement.

“The event will seat about 70 people all up. So it’s relatively intimate but enough people to have a good time. We’ll have a DJ, Twin Sister, playing from 1pm.”

Toowoomba-born Holmes, who has a background in design and creative direction, held her first sold-out Pasta Club in Melbourne in 2019, the concept turning heads with its freewheeling cross between a restaurant and private dining experience.

The events became even more popular during the pandemic years, when landlocked southern diners were looking for imaginative ways to scratch their Italian itch. The first Brisbane Pasta Club was a sold-out event at Coppa Spuntino at Eagle Street Pier in mid-2022.

Throwing larger events and takeovers was one of the inspirations for Martin to close his iconic CBD bar, Super Whatnot, at the beginning of last year, and open the larger and more food-focused Flying Colours on Vulture Street the following July.

“That’s always been the intention,” he says. “We’re looking forward to doing more of these kinds of events in the future.”

Tickets to the $130pp event are on sale now.