The Garage folds into Twin City Hotel’s Downtown Bar and Kitchen to free up function space

One of Townsville’s most popular burger joints has closed its doors but you won’t have to go far to find their latest menu. See why.

After building a cult following for its burgers and bar snacks, The Garage has been closed, with its most popular dishes shifted to the nearby Downtown Bar and Kitchen’s new menu.

Located at 12 Hervey Range Rd, the space occupied by The Garage had only been intended to be used temporarily as a pop-up burger shop in the first stage of the massive Twin City Hotel development, before it was transformed into a function centre.

The Star Hotels Group’s chef Jay Bhatt invested eight years in researching and fine-tuning burger recipes in the lead up to The Garage’s opening in late 2023.

Rabid support from the burger-loving community prompted the original function room plan to be kept on ice until a fortnight ago, when the burger joint was finally closed.

Twin City Hotel general manager Chris McNeill acknowledged there had been some disappointment about the change, but reassured patrons that their crowd pleasing recipes would live on.

The Garage built a cult following from diners over the last 1.5 years. Picture: Supplied.

“The Garage has been a great offering that we’ve been able to do here in Thuringowa but the demand from our guests and customers about having a function space to book has been overwhelming,” Mr McNeill said.

“I think the fit-out, that Australiana, Americana, retro, quirky kind of style space is nice and entertaining in itself.

Twin City Hotel general manager Chris McNeill. Picture: Leighton Smith.

Holly Brown at The Garage. Picture: Evan Morgan

“We’ve just had so many inquiries about being able to book out The Garage for a function. We’ve been pushing that back for 6-8 months, but at the end of the day, The Garage falls under the Twin City precinct, and we’re trying to have an offering for everybody.”

Mr McNeill said they purchased additional equipment for the Downtown’s kitchen to continue delivering the beloved menu items.

The Garage built a cult following from diners over the last 1.5 years. Picture: Supplied.

Since opening booking for the function space, he said they had been inundated by inquiries already.

The Downtown recently completed construction of a stage which will showcase live music every Friday, Saturday and Sunday night.

This Wednesday, aspiring singers will be invited up onto the Downtown’s stage for the first Karaoke night, which will be a regular fixture between 8pm-11pm, excluding State of Origin nights.

The Twin City Hotel's staff are looking forward to karaoke every Wednesday night. Picture: Supplied.

The hotel’s all you can eat The Buffet section continues to attract hundreds of diners, the new Plaza Bar is just waiting on furniture before serving whiskies and cocktails, while plans still remain under wraps about the Music Hall section, with an estimated capacity of over 1000.

For more information or bookings, visit: twincityhotel.com.au.

Originally published as The Garage folds into Twin City Hotel’s Downtown Bar and Kitchen to free up function space