Overview
This post is presented by the All New Toyota Corolla Sedan.
There's plenty of fun to be had in this city each week, but there's only a small handful of truly fresh urban adventures to be had. We've partnered with Toyota to bring you a series showcasing the very best of these shiny-new experiences in Melbourne. Presented by the All New Toyota Corolla Sedan, these are our picks to put you on the road to a lifetime of goodtimes. Now your only challenge is getting to them all.
This week we recommend you visit Texas, Louisiana and New Orleans without getting on a plane; discover the significance of Cuban baseball; and make friends with a contrarian Hungarian.
Eat: Le Bon Ton
Le Bon Ton, from the American brothers behind Chignon, is the latest to jump on the southern-style bandwagon. As soon as you step inside you'll be hit with the smell of the meat smoker that lives in the courtyard, supplying luxuriously tender beef, pork and sausages. The meat is smoked as if in Texas, fish is prepared with thoughts of the Louisiana Gulf Coast, and there's an underlying ode to the French-influenced city of New Orleans. There's a sophisticated authenticity here that other venues lack. Also a saloon, cocktail bar and absinthe house — with a 24-hour license, no less — Le Bon Ton is a real all-rounder.
51 Gipps Street, Collingwood
Drink: Los Barbudos
Think Cuba. Loud, warm, filled with rum and bound to result in good times. This small space boasts a wall of framed pictures which make you feel as though you've stepped into a place rich of history, and the bar is stocked to the brim with great booze. Well-known rum cocktails like the mojito ($10) and the daiquiri ($16) mix in with others like the Nacional ($16) or the Amor y Sabor, a combination of kaffir lime leaf, guava, rum, campari and lime ($16). Baseball is the theme here — staff are decked out in outfits reminiscent of baller uniforms, harking back to baseball's popularity in Cuba and the fact that members of Castro's army were once invited to a Havana Sugar Kings game. These men were called barbudos — the bearded ones. Hence the name of the venue.
95 Smith Street, Collingwood
See: Neighbourhood Watch
Neighbourhood Watch, the newest production from the Melbourne Theatre Company, is first and foremost a character study. Firstly, there's Catherine (Megan Holloway), a struggling young actress and altogether flimsy stereotype of the troubled millennial. Then Ana (Robyn Nevin), a headstrong Hungarian migrant who lives alone with her ravenous German Shepherd, Bella, after surviving a World War and outliving two husbands. No prizes for guessing who steals the show. Based on a real-life friendship of the playwright, Lally Katz, this endearing story is a masterful creation of unlikely friendship and strong character. Nevin's bittersweet and fierce portrayal of Ana is undeniable — a show unto itself.
March 17 - April 26; The Sumner, Southbank Theatre, 140 Southbank Boulevard
Do: Meet the Makers
When curator Bernadette Alibrando travelled to New York in 2006, she discovered an amazing non-profit organisation, TOAST, that started discussions between emerging artists and the general public. Meet the Makers is a Melbourne version of that same event. From March 27-30, artists from Fitzroy and Collingwood are inviting you into their studios and working spaces to talk about art, free of charge. A simple booking via email gets you a VIP ticket into the heart of spaces like Strange Neighbour, Fehily Contemporary and SLOPES to talk to makers as diverse as iPad artist Rebecca Jones and stencil painter Ha Ha. Discover some new and exciting work straight from the source.
March 27 - 30; Various locations around Fitzroy and Collingwood