It's easy to just appreciate Sydney for its beautiful beaches and sunshine — when La Niña isn't cramping our usual style. But, as we kiss some of our precious sunlight goodbye and welcome in the cooler months, there is still a lot to be excited about. For example, our thriving after-dark scene. This autumn, there is no excuse to stay at home when there is a plethora of music, art, entertainment, delicious food and drinks to discover. Autumn is the perfect time to spruce up your after-work ritual or create a truly memorable weekend. Here are our top picks to curb those daylight savings blues and make autumn in Sydney something special. [caption id="attachment_779831" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Cassandra Hannagan[/caption] HEAD TO GOLDEN AGE CINEMA AND BAR FOR COCKTAILS AND A MOVIE Step into the gorgeous Paramount House in Surry Hills, an original 1940s art deco building where you will find Golden Age. Enjoy old Hollywood charm by grabbing a cocktail at the David Lynch-inspired bar before the movie begins. While you admire the lush interiors, we suggest cosying up with a Maple and Pecan cocktail and a three-cheese toastie. Then, grab your Gelato Messina choc-top and head to your flick. Golden Age Cinema has everything you want to see and then some — from new releases to retrospectives and cult favourites. Check out Pedro Almodóvar's latest masterpiece, Parallel Mothers or snag tickets to a special screening of Baz Luhrman's Romeo + Juliet on Saturday, April 30. EXPLORE A HISTORICAL SYDNEY MONUMENT AFTER DARK Taking place on Thursday, April 28, at the world-heritage listed Hyde Park Barracks is After Dark. This one-night-only event will allow you to explore Sydney's long history of artisans and artists and see how traditional crafts are being recreated using contemporary methods. There'll be demonstrations in Indigenous weaving techniques, glass blowing and blacksmithing, plus live tattooing, banjo making and intimate musical performances. FBi Radio has put together an exciting lineup of live acts including local DJs, dream pop duo Royel Otis and two-piece indie band Bridge Dog. Enjoy the music around a fire with food from The Nighthawk Diner and drinks from Archie Rose. Get tickets for $30 per person over here. CATCH SYDNEY'S TOP STAND-UP COMIC TALENT AT THE COMEDY STORE Sometimes the only remedy to a tough day at work is to laugh it off (with a stiff drink in hand). Give your TV a night off and catch some live stand-up that'll leave you in stitches. The Comedy Store, located in the Entertainment Quarter, has been showcasing Sydney's freshest talent every week since 1981. It's range of upcoming shows and events, which you can check out here, covers everything from live podcast recordings to performances by some of Australia's funniest people, including Dilruk Jayasinha and Tom Cashman. Not sure where to start? Catch the Sydney Comedy Festival Showcase to see a lineup of Sydney's most hilarious and exciting emerging acts. The showcase will be running from Thursday, April 28 until Saturday, May 23. You can get tickets now ranging from $30–45 which include a well-deserved drink. [caption id="attachment_672373" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Stockade Brewing Co, Leticia Almeida[/caption] COMPLETE A MINI PUB CRAWL OF MARRICKVILLE'S MICROBREWERIES Marrickville is home to some of the city's best craft breweries with plenty of experimental drops to sip. Start your night off at the beloved The Grifter Brewing Co where you can try an exciting range of beers — the Serpents Kiss watermelon pilsner is a crowd fave — and snack on Mexican treats from Ricos Tacos. A short walk will take you to Sauce Brewing Co for a refreshing peach berliner weisse in the spacious beer garden. Feeling adventurous? Give the Flat White, a creamy milkshake-style IPA, a go. Then head to Stockade Brew Co and sip some of its small-batch beers. Got more in the tank? Have a read of our DIY brewery walking tour for more suggestions. Or, check out the newly opened Bob Hawke Beer and Leisure Centre, the 1980s-style spot with a pool room and Chinese-Australian bistro Lucky Prawn. [caption id="attachment_686088" align="alignnone" width="1920"] The Midnight Special, Tamara Dean[/caption] OR, TRY A BAR HOP ALONG ENMORE ROAD If craft beer isn't your thing, then explore Newtown's thriving nightlife scene instead. Enmore Road has everything you need for the ultimate night on the town. Listen to live music at neighbourhood bar, The Midnight Special. Soak in the moody and tropical vibes of Jacoby's with a rum cocktail or some natty wine. If you're after a good pub feed with a lively atmosphere, The Duke of Enmore is your next stop. Then, end the night feeling ultra-cool sipping whisky in the sleek and sexy Cottonmouth Records — record store by day and dive bar by night. FLEX YOUR ARTISTIC MUSCLE WITH A NUDE LIFE DRAWING CLASS Want to get those creative juices flowing? Switch up your routine with a life drawing session. The historic Art House Hotel hosts life drawing workshops every Monday from 5pm in The Graffiti Lounge. Don't worry if you aren't a pro, this event welcomes all skill levels. Plus, you can always grab a couple of drinks if you need to calm your nerves. Or, for a more punk-rock experience, check out Nudenight at SthSthKingSt every Wednesday and Thursday night from 7–9pm, and Sundays from 2–4pm for $25. Beginners are always welcome, but if you need a bit of guidance, then it's recommended to join on a Wednesday. GET YOUR GROOVE ON AT A RETRO-STYLE DANCE CLASS If you aren't exactly feeling inspired at the gym, why not try a dance class to get the body moving and have some wholesome fun? Dig out the lycra leotard and cosy leg warmers hiding in your wardrobe, then head along to one of Retrosweat's classes around Sydney. This 80s aerobic-style workout is a fan favourite, where you can dance to some classic beats and get your heart pumping. If you're a little more serious about mastering your dance skills, have a look at Sydney Dance Company's adult introductory short courses. You can spend a weeknight learning ballet, hip hop, contemporary dance and more. Or check out Dancing Under the Influence's studios in Newtown, which has a range of night classes and courses on its timetable, covering latin fusion, afro, reggaeton, street jazz and more. [caption id="attachment_676980" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Kopper Finch[/caption] MAKE THE MOST OF WHAT THE CBD HAS TO OFFER While heading straight home after a day in the office is tempting, we promise if you stick around the CBD you won't regret it. Start by heading to the Ivy Precinct for 5pm drinks at Bar Topa. Here, you'll find a charming hole-in-the-wall serving delicious tapas and $9 cocktails. Or, if you are a mezcal fan (who isn't?), head to Cantina OK!, a micro-bar hidden down a laneway with the best margaritas in town. After working up an appetite, a plate of life-changing pasta at Ragazzi is a must, best enjoyed with a bottle of delicious natural wine. Then, you can dance the night away to live music at the iconic Frankie's, or enjoy the fresh air and ambience in the Since I Left You courtyard. TEST YOUR GENERAL KNOWLEDGE AT TRIVIA Get your smartest pals together and book a table at The Noble Hops in Redfern for trivia, which kicks off at 7pm every Tuesday. You and your crew can battle your way to snagging serious prizes and bar tabs while sipping on seasonal craft brews from the curated menu. Plus, once hunger strikes you can order from pizzeria La Coppola across the road. Your Sicilian-style woodfired pizza will be delivered right to your table — so, even if you bomb out on the trivia questions, you're still a winner. POP BY MAYBE SAMMY FOR A HAPPY HOUR TIPPLE (OR TWO) If you're feeling a little classy, head to Sydney's top cocktail bar Maybe Sammy to take advantage of its very appealing happy hour special. Located in The Rocks, this glamorous 1950-inspired spot offers an award-winning selection of cocktails — some of which you can sample for just $7 during happy hour from 4.30–5.30pm, Wednesday to Saturday. If you happen to swing by on a Friday then, after you quench your thirst, take a quick stroll to the Museum of Contemporary Art. Every Friday night, the museum stays open late to help you welcome the weekend with exhibitions, performances, live music and drinks. Catch live tunes with harbour views at Sounds on the Terrace or see some exciting works from the 23rd Biennale of Sydney. For more information on Sydney Living Museum's After Dark event and to purchase tickets, visit the website.
This year's Oscar winner for best documentary, Free Solo took viewers into the nerve-wracking world of rock climbing, charting Alex Honnold's epic quest to scale Yosemite's El Capitan without ropes. But he's not the only superstar climber endeavouring to literally rise to great heights — and the film about him wasn't the only rock climbing doco to reach the big screen recently. Last year, another movie called The Dawn Wall started doing the rounds, chronicling another couple of daredevils. Tommy Caldwell and Kevin Jorgeson are also considered among the globe's best climbers, and their feats are mighty impressive. Now they're coming to Australia to talk about their efforts. On Friday, July 26, the duo will take to the stage at the State Theatre — providing live commentary while The Dawn Wall plays on the big screen, chatting about just why they do what they do, and answering all of your other questions. It's their first time in the country, and they'll talk you through their inspirations, motivations and, again, why they took on the world's hardest rock climb. This goes without saying, especially if you're not fond of heights, but prepare to be both in awe and mighty tense. Image: Brett Lowell.
We've adopted her as one of our very own, and now, the ARIA Award winning songstress Ladyhawke (real name Pip Brown) has embarked on an Australian tour in support of her latest release, Anxiety. The New Zealand-born singer/songwriter made a name for herself back in 2007, with her stunning collaboration on PNAU's single, Embrace. She went on to release her explosive self-titled record – featuring stellar hits My Delirium, Paris Is Burning and Back Of The Van – which saw her receive a number of accolades. Her second record continues with the brand she created for herself on her debut, lush, '80s-inspired electronic pop, as heard in the first two singles Black, White & Blue and Sunday Drive. All The Colours will be supporting her at her Metro Theatre show. https://youtube.com/watch?v=RAX3yqiCqTE
If your dream getaway involves staying in your favourite movie, walking in your music idol's shoes, hanging out with celebrities and once-in-a-lifetime pop culture-themed experiences all round, Airbnb has had you covered for a few years. You've seen the accommodation platform's special listings in the past, including being able to slumber at Shrek's swamp, Barbie's Malibu DreamHouse, the Ted Lasso pub, the Moulin Rouge! windmill and Hobbiton — and also Bluey house, the Scooby-Doo Mystery Machine, The Godfather mansion, the South Korean estate where BTS filmed In the Soop, the Sanderson sisters' Hocus Pocus cottage, the Paris theatre that inspired The Phantom of the Opera and a Christina Aguilera-hosted two-night Las Vegas stay. The list goes on — and it's only set to grow. Now, these kinds of Airbnb listings have a name and a category: Airbnb Icons. And to celebrate, the company has unveiled the next 11 spots that money normally can't buy (and in some cases, still can't, with most reservations free). [caption id="attachment_953321" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Ryan Lowery[/caption] If getting some shuteye in the Up house is your idea of vacation bliss, you're in luck — located in Abiquiu, New Mexico, and taking bookings until Tuesday, May 14, it's a newly unveiled Airbnb Icon. Yes, the balloons are all there. Yes, you'll feel like you've walked into the gorgeous animated film. And yes, gazing at the stars is one of the activities on offer while you're on the premises. Still on Pixar, the latest chance to get excited about Inside Out 2 comes via the opportunity to sleep in the flick's headquarters, aka where the emotions convene and try to keep Riley's mood in check. It'll be taking bookings in June, which is when the movie releases in cinemas. [caption id="attachment_953323" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Eric Ogden[/caption] Still on cinema, maybe you'll find out what it sounds like when doves cry at Prince's Purple Rain mansion when it hits Airbnb Icons in August. This is the actual house from the inimitable film, as decked out in purple aplenty. You'll sleep in The Kid's bedroom, hear rare Prince tracks and go crazy with love for the flick and the late, great artist behind it, of course. Stepping inside X-Men '97 is also on offer, with the X-Mansion open for reservations until Wednesday, May 15. Guests will undertake student orientation, give Cerebro a whirl, get a superpower and stay in Wolverine's room. This one has a cost, setting you back AU$149.51 per guest, and can welcome in eight wannabe heroes. [caption id="attachment_953325" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Max Miechowski[/caption] Doja Cat, Bollywood star Janhvi Kapoor and Kevin Hart are all also on the Airbnb Icons list, each hosting stays. Available to book from October, Doja's listing includes a living-room show. Coming from Sunday, May 12, Kapoor's will see you spend time at her Chennai holiday home. And as for Hart, as available to reserve from August, he'll get you giggling at him and other comedians at his Coramino Live Lounge. Checking into the Ferrari Museum for an evening will be open for bookings from Monday, May 6 — and it covers sleeping in a bed made with the same leather as Ferrari car seats, doing a hot lap and eating at Cavallino, Enzo Ferrari's favourite restaurant. Or, from Wednesday, May 22, you'll be able to reserve a night at the Musée d'Orsay, snoozing in a bedroom designed around its clock, watching the Paris 2024 Olympic Games Opening Ceremony from its rooftop terrace and nabbing a private look at its impressionist collection. [caption id="attachment_953327" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Thomas Prior[/caption] The initial 11 Airbnb Icons offerings also include a gaming loft hosted by TikToker Khaby Lame, which is taking bookings now until Tuesday, May 14 — and, with reservations launching on Friday, May 3, being part of reggaeton star Feid's tour for a full week. Here's how bookings work: whether they're free or not, you need to book through the app. If you are selected for a reservation, you'll get a digital golden ticket — of which there'll be 4000-plus available in 2024 alone. Folks will be drawn at random after they put in a submission for a property, then they'll be judged as semi-finalists, all of which will take place within seven days of the booking period closing. You can only put your name up for each listing once. And if you're picked, you have 24 hours to accept the invite. As has always been the case with these listings, even before they had the Icons category, you'll also need to pay for getting to the property — that isn't included in the reservation. Still, some of your fantasy holiday spots just became a reality. [caption id="attachment_953329" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Frederik Vercruysse[/caption] [caption id="attachment_953330" align="alignnone" width="1920"] House of Pixels[/caption] [caption id="attachment_953331" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Sismatyc[/caption] [caption id="attachment_953334" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Federico Ciamei[/caption] [caption id="attachment_953324" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Ryan Lowery[/caption] [caption id="attachment_953326" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Holly Andres[/caption] For more information about Airbnb's Icons stays, and to make bookings, head to the Airbnb website. Top image: Ryan Lowery Feeling inspired to book a getaway? You can now book your next dream holiday through Concrete Playground Trips with deals on flights, stays and experiences at destinations all around the world.
If you've ever felt uncomfortable in Sydney at night, you're far from alone, with a new study by Plan International Australia finding a huge 90 percent of the city's young women share those fears. Of course, this won't be all that surprising to those who've been subjected to some kind of street harassment. But it's statistics like this that have spurred the creation of the NGO's new Free To Be map, which has just launched in Sydney. The interactive map feature is aimed at 15 to 25-year-olds, and allows girls and women using the app to drop 'bad' pins on spots around the city where they feel unsafe. 'Good' pins are also used to show locations they consider safe. While the responsibility to prevent street harassment shouldn't land on the victim, Plan believes, by giving young women a platform to anonymously report incidents and collecting that data, that it can help make Sydney's streets safer. "This data will be provided to city planners, public transport authorities, police and groups responsible for urban safety, so they can make positive changes to make cities safer places for women," said Plan International Australia CEO Susanne Legena. The map is now open for submissions — and while it looks like most people have been taking it seriously, there's already a number of entries that appear to have come from trolls. Plan is now working with police, local councils and Metro trains in tackling issues of harassment head-on. The findings will also be shared with local businesses in an effort to instigate change at that level and make more of the city's spaces safer. The Free to Be map can be found here. You can add to it up until May 28, 2018.
The Flavian Amphitheatre, otherwise known as the Colosseum, is one of the great attractions of Rome. It’s unlikely any Christians were torn apart by lions there and the chariot races happened around the corner at the Circus Maximus. But none of that matters, because this one’s made out of Lego. While its getting easier to piece together your own ambitious constructions, the Lego Colosseum on show at the Nicholson museum was painstakingly pieced together out of white bricks in real life by Ryan McNaught — retaining all of the modern decay and ruin of the real thing. Within its cutaway interior, benches are covered in ancient roman spectators, gladiators fighting on the arena and animals emerging from authentic looking trapdoors. The centre-piece of an exhibition about the Colosseum, a visit to this lego simulacrum is complemented by a visit to the Nicholson’s A History of the World-inspired 50 Objects 50 Stories. The Nicholson Museum is open 10–4.30 Monday to Friday and 12–4 the first Saturday of the month. The Lego Colosseum has now moved on, but there's a Lego Acropolis to keep you going.
The brains behind Bourke Street Bakery, one of Sydney's most popular bakeries, have continued to knead the idea-dough and create new wholemealsome fun for the city's residents, this time launching a micro-winery within their Potts Point establishment. Paul Allam and David McGuinness, the bread moguls behind Bourke Street, have teamed up with Potts Point local Alex Retief of boutique NSW wine label A. Retief Wines to create the suburb's only micro-winery, which perfectly suits their highly successful After Hours program. They have transplanted half a tonne of Cabernet Sauvignon grapes from Tertini Wines in the Southern Highlands to the floor of Bourke Street Bakery Potts Point where they are currently fermenting, waiting to be transformed into delicious croissant-complementing wine. Bread and wine go together perfectly — just ask Jesus — and this is the perfect spot for wine production, with the wild yeast spores from the bakery's air allowing for natural fermentation. Alex also frequents the store daily to plunge the grapes, but you do not need expert wine-making hands to join in the fun. "We are keeping the plunger beside the grapes and we encourage anyone in the area to pop in, have a peek and to plunge the grapes themselves," says McGuinness. This interactive initiative will also feature a series of evening talks held on site with a range of winemakers, including Centennial Vineyards, BK Wines and A. Retief Wines themselves, where locals will be able taste the bakery's produce throughout the fermentation process. Finally, a chance to smell your wine, swirl your glass and practice being a wine expert.
In Westeros, and in books and TV shows that head to the fictional location, some things are simply inevitable. People saying "winter is coming" is one of them. Creepy relationships, whether because of gross age differences or blood ties, is another. Flowing long blonde hair is yet another certainty. People stabbing each other in the back for the Iron Throne ranks right up there, too. Indeed, there are so many predictable eventualities, you could make a drinking game out of watching new Game of Thrones prequel House of the Dragon — and we did. Here's something we should've included but didn't, though: House of the Dragon proving such a hit straight away that HBO has already renewed it for a second season. If you already been enjoying the show's jump back into House Targaryen's history, to 172 years before the birth of Daenerys and her whole dragon-flying, nephew-dating, power-seeking story, then rejoice — like winter, more is coming. Again, the news is hardly surprising, especially given that House of the Dragon's debut episode, which arrived on Monday, August 22, gave the US cable network its largest American audience for any new original series in the history of HBO. Yes, House of the Dragon is basically a case of new show, same squabbles, as it was easy to foresee it would be. Yes, it's pretty much Game of Thrones with different faces bearing now well-known surnames — and more dragons. And yes, this latest adaptation of George RR Martin's popular fantasy books is bound to continue on for more than just two seasons, but that's all that's confirmed for the moment. If you haven't yet caught up with the series, it dives into the battle for the Iron Throne before the one we all watched between 2011–19. Paddy Considine (The Third Day) plays King Viserys — and it's exactly who should be his heir that sparks all the Succession-style fuss. The words "succession" and "successor" (and "heir" as well) get bandied around constantly, naturally. The king has a daughter, Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen (played by Upright's Milly Alcock, then Mothering Sunday's Emma D'Arcy), who is also his first-born child. But because putting a woman on the throne isn't the done thing, the King's younger brother Prince Daemon Targaryen (Matt Smith, Morbius) considers that spiky iron chair his birthright. And, this wouldn't be Westeros if plenty of other people didn't have an opinion, including Ser Otto Hightower (Rhys Ifans, The King's Man), the Hand of the King; his own daughter Alicent (The Lost Girls' Emily Carey, then Slow Horses' Olivia Cooke); and Lord Corlys Velaryon (Steve Toussaint, It's a Sin), who is married to Princess Rhaenys Velaryon (Eve Best, Nurse Jackie), who had a better claim to the throne when Viserys was named king instead. All that feuding over the realm's spiky metal seat will continue across House of the Dragon's ten-episode first season, of course, before returning for a second go-around. HBO hasn't announced a date for the show's second patch of episodes, but you could bet all the wine in King's Landing on it arriving around this time in 2023. House of the Dragon is the culmination of years of planning to extend the GoT franchise by HBO. Firstly, the American cable network announced that it was considering five different prequel ideas. It then green-lit one to pilot stage, scrapped it and later picked a contender to run withL House of the Dragon. It has also opted to give novella series Tales of Dunk and Egg the TV treatment, too, and to work on an animated GoT show. And, it's been reported that another three prequels are also under consideration — plus a Jon Snow-focused sequel series. Check out the full House of the Dragon trailer below: House of the Dragon streams Down Under via Foxtel and Binge in Australia and SoHo, Sky Go and Neon in New Zealand. Read our full review of season one. Images: Ollie Upton/HBO.
In mid-March, the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a pandemic. In mid-March, Four Pillars' first Sydney bar was midway through construction. "We couldn't stop even if we wanted to," reflects Stuart Gregor, who co-founded Four Pillars alongside Cameron Mackenzie and Matt Jones. So, the team powered ahead — and opened to the public on June 12, just weeks after Sydney's hospitality scene begun emerging from a months-long lockdown. Located in the 30s-built Bussell Bros building opposite Bartolo, Four Pillars Sydney is split into three parts: a shop, selling the brand's signature gins, gin-spiked snacks and merch; the Lab, which is home to an experimental still called Eileen after Jones' mother; and the matriarch's bar: Eileen's. You'll often find Gregor in the Lab, hosting masterclasses or distilling Surry Hills-exclusive Sydney Winter Gin made using lots of juniper, coriander, roasted wattleseed, lemon myrtle, Tasmanian pepperberry and 'locally foraged' ruby red grapefruit. No, it's not growing on trees in Harmony Park, but hidden inside Crown Street Grocer. "We go in there and fight with all the local hipsters and we get on our hands and knees and, between the Strangelove and the organic eggs and the pasta, we find ourselves our ruby grapefruit and some fennel," says Gregor, tongue planted firmly in cheek. Taking it out, he says the gin is "delicious". And it's available at the shop or in a Gin Lab Martini upstairs at Eileen's (until sold out). [caption id="attachment_774867" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Anson Smart[/caption] The gin is stirred down into said martini by Four Pillars' Creative Drinks Director James Irvine. No stranger to the Sydney bar scene, Irvine previously worked for the Swillhouse Group, which oversees favoured Sydney establishments such as Shady Pines, Restaurant Hubert, Alberto's Lounge and Frankie's. Upstairs at Eileen's, Irvine stands behind the juniper-blue central bar mixing the Innerbloom (with davidson plum, macadamia and blood lime), the Tash Sultana (Sherry Cask gin, muscatel, pineapple botrytis and fig vinegar) and, this writer's favourite, the Big Dill. Dill, rhubarb and negroni-spiced gin may not immediately hit you as the three ingredients you need for a near-perfect cocktail, but, as Irvine shows you, they, in fact, are. Irvine's role at Four Pillars doesn't just involve defying cocktail preconceptions — he also helped design the back bar in collaboration with Oslo-based design agency Behind Bars. The rest of the space, designed by YSG Studio (who's also behind Edition and Ume Burger), is filled with blue-stained Cult's Nau bar stools, chairs by Tom Fereday, navy banquettes by Kvadrat Maharam and a wall of two-person timber tables dubbed 'Tinder Lane'. With NSW's COVID–19 restrictions, Eileen's can currently seat 24 gin-loving guests (compared to the 90-person maximum). While Gregor says the team has had an "overwhelming response" to the bar and it's been full every session, it wasn't the booze that helped keep Four Pillars afloat during the pandemic. It was hand sanitiser. [caption id="attachment_774862" align="alignnone" width="1920"] James Irvine and Stuart Gregor by Steven Woodburn[/caption] When the team in Healesville — the Four Pillars HQ — realised there was a demand for hand sanitiser, it was able to produce its first batch over night. "We were lucky, we suppose, in that we had everything we needed to make hand sanitiser at hand," says Gregor. "We had these things called 'heads' and 'tails', which is the high-proof spirit that we never used in gin, and then we also had a whole lot of really talented and hard working staff who were in hospitality, but didn't have anything else to do, so we were able to put them to work almost immediately making, bottling, packaging and, often times, delivering hand sanitiser." Making hand sanitiser was only a two-month endeavour for the team — before the market was "flooded by much less expensive imported hand sanitiser" — but it was an important development. "It kept lots of our people employed, it served the community, which is probably the most important thing. We were able to do something really important and valuable and now we're back doing what we love, which is making gin and hopefully making people happy." Back making gin the team is, but not quite as much as it had hoped for 2020. Last year, the Victorian distillery sold 50 percent of its business to beer behemoth Lion and announced grand plans to produce more than one million bottles of gin a year. The global pandemic threw a small spanner in that plan, though. "The fastest growing part of our business is what you call global travel retail, which is duty free," explains Gregor. "That has gone from heading towards 20 percent of our business to zero. So, no matter how many bottles of Sydney Winter Gin I make, I can't replace Sydney Airport, Melbourne Airport, Changi, Hong kong, Auckland, Brisbane, Heathrow — it's going to take a lot to replace that." Especially if, as predicted, international travel isn't back to normal until 2023. Despite the lack of duty free, the distillery is pumping out around 70 percent of its usual bottles — and the team is looking to the future, with hopes of expanding the Healesville distillery quite dramatically over the next 18 months, as well as continuing to grow its Surry Hills location. If that ends up being a success, the team might look further abroad — to other Aussie cities or overseas. For now, though, the team is "knuckling down and sticking to what [its] good at". So, expect plenty more near-perfect cocktails and gins made with 'locally foraged' ingredients coming out of the Surry Hills bar and distillery in the coming weeks — and the latest batch of the brand's bloody good Bloody Shiraz gin. Four Pillars Surry Hills is now open at 410 Crown Street Surry Hills. The gin shop is open from 10am–6pm Monday–Sunday, Eileen's Bar is open from 5pm–12am Wednesday–Saturday and the Lab is bookings only. Four Pillars is part of Concrete Playground's new series 52 Bars in 52 Weeks, exploring COVID-19's impact on the city's bars and encouraging Sydneysiders to pull up a seat, every week. Top images: Anson Smart
Most of us have our go-to eateries in and around Chinatown, whether it's Mamak for fresh roti or the Chinese Noodle House for affordable yet fresh house-made dumplings. But among the area's secretive laneways and bustling squares, there are so many more culinary surprises awaiting you. And the City of Sydney is encouraging you to make some discoveries this Good Food Month, with an event series dubbed Asia on Your Doorstep. To sample a generous selection of Chinatown's tastiest food while getting to know local chefs, get on board a food tour. On Wednesdays from 8pm, the two-hour Night Thaim Street Food Tour will show you the best in Thai cooking; on Thursdays from 6.30pm, the Chinatown Evening Tasting Tour will introduce you to a diverse range of cafes, restaurants and shops; and on Fridays, from 5.30pm, the Food Court Crawl will help you navigate your way around Chinatown's chaotic food courts. Also happening on Fridays are the Little Eat Street Night Markets, which transform Haymarket's Dixon and Little Hay Streets into a lantern-festooned foodies' wonderland, offering food from all over Asia — from the steaming pho of Vietnam to Japan's tepanyaki to Chinese yum cha. Then there are the meal specials at this list of eateries. Readers on a shoestring budget might start with these ten.
If you don't care for waving around flags and singing the national anthem on 26 January, then consider spending the day at Barangaroo Reserve. Proceedings will kick off at dawn, with a Sunrise Ceremony conducted by the Metropolitan Aboriginal Land Council, followed by Bayala-Bayara: Sing Up Country, a Sydney Festival performance that's all about reinstating Sydney songlines. Next up, a mourning fire will travel from Me-mel (Goat Island) to Barangaroo Reserve. From 8:30am, celebrity chef Jared Ingersoll will be serving up an all-day brunch, featuring both international and local dishes, including meat pies, bacon-and-egg rolls and avocado on toast. You'll be munching to a diverse soundtrack, directed by DJ Peewee Ferris and including a live performance by singer Casey Donovan. Finally, roll up your sleeves as the sun goes down, as you'll be creating a frozen fish out of sea water, to contribute to Four Thousand Fish, a massive Sydney Festival installation celebrating Barangaroo, the Cammeraygal fisherwoman from whom the reserve gets its name.
Sydney sugar fiends can finally prepare their tastebuds for the return of one of Australia's biggest doughnut chains. Since closing down its 30 stores in 2018 during the well-documented collapse of then-owner Damien Griffith's hospitality empire, Doughnut Time has returned to Brisbane under new owners and managers, and to Melbourne, too. Now, it's Sydney's turn — but only for a six-day pop-up. From 10am–4pm between Tuesday, December 8–Sunday, December 13, you'll find Doughnut Time at Macquarie Centre — on level three on the corner of Herring and Waterloo roads in North Ryde, that is — serving up six-doughnut ($38) and four-doughnut ($26) packs. The difference between the two, other than the price? The smaller pack features all-vegan doughnuts. You'll need to pre-order in advance, though, rather than just stop by to pick up a circular dessert. Only a set number of packs are available each day — and you don't want to disappoint your tastebuds. Flavours include 'Love At First Bite' (filled with Nutella and dusted with cinnamon sugar), 'It's Always A Gaytime' (a milk chocolate glazed doughy filled with honeycomb custard, topped with crushed biscuits and caramelised crepes) and the all-vegan 'Liam Hemsworthy' (a red velvet doughnut frosted with cookies and cream, crushed chocolate ripple biscuits and a chocolate glaze drizzle). With the chain now overseen by Queensland entrepreneur Peter Andros, Doughnut Time is eager to put the brand's past behind it — a situation that not only saw its previous stores shuttered without warning, but left many of its staff unpaid. "We think what happened to past employees is unacceptable," the company wrote on Facebook. [caption id="attachment_619757" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Doughnut Time's original Surry Hills store.[/caption]
Nigella Lawson, Adam Liaw or David Chang? When all this time inside, at home, away from bars, pubs and restaurants comes to an end, which culinary whiz will you most resemble? We know you're getting plenty of practice, hopefully making something other than just sourdough — and we're betting your kitchen skills are stepping up a level with each iso meal you whip up. We're also certain you're eager for culinary inspiration. This isn't the time to live on two-minute noodles, grilled cheese on toast or that one dish that's always been your speciality ever since you moved out of home, after all. Whether you're eager to emulate one of the aforementioned chefs, focus on a certain type of food or just have some fun with your cooking, there's plenty available to stream to help — not only tempting your tastebuds, but your cooking abilities, too. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZ1Rd5HOEK4&list=LLV8ReLqD50OV_hnTTQgFFZg&index=417 NIGELLA AT MY TABLE AND NIGELLA FEASTS More than two decades since Nigella Lawson published her first cookbook and hosted her first cooking show, Britain's kitchen goddess is still going strong. That means she's racked up more than two decades worth of fantastic recipes and excellent culinary TV series — so you could probably make a different Nigella dish for every day you spend in quarantine. It also means there's plenty to watch, whether you fancy heading back to 2006 for Nigella Feasts or catching her most recent series, 2017's Nigella at My Table. The former will give you dinner, leisurely weekend and all-day brekkie ideas, while the latter features puddings, brownies, waffles, lamb kofta and chicken marsala. Nigella at My Table is available to stream via ABC iView, while Nigella Feasts is streaming via SBS On Demand. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9wKIOTJtLdQ CHEF'S TABLE Scrolling through Netflix, you might start feeling hungry. While the streaming service is known for many things, it has also become a hub for culinary-themed docuseries over the past few years. There's nothing quite like the original though: Chef's Table, the platform's first step into the foodie game. Created by Jiro Dreams of Sushi filmmaker David Gelb, each of the series' 30 episodes to-date focuses on a different chef, a different restaurant and a different place around the world — taking your stomach on a global tour. Watch Massimo Bottura do what he does best, spend time behind the scenes with Attica's Ben Shewry, and journey everywhere from Argentina and Sweden to Slovenia and Turkey. The US also features heavily, but this acclaimed show never repeats itself. Chef's Table is available to stream via Netflix. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hxlVVL-Hzks DESTINATION FLAVOUR Once, he was a lawyer. Now, Adam Liaw is one of Australia's top culinary talents. The winner of MasterChef Australia's second season back in 2010, he's become a mainstay on TV and in various publications' recipe pages for a good reason: his dishes aren't just delicious and creative, but they ensure that even the most complex-seeming meals are a breeze to make at home. And, he celebrates international cuisine, as his SBS program Destination Flavour demonstrates. While the first series, as co-hosted with Renee Lim and Lily Serna, kept a local focus, Liaw has since taken the show to Japan, Scandinavia, Singapore, China, and then back to Australia and New Zealand — and it's the perfect travel/food series hybrid. Destination Flavour's original season, as well as its Japan, Scandinavia, Singapore, China, and Australia and New Zealand-focused seasons, are all available to stream via SBS On Demand. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pb7CBZ952zs NAILED IT! Admit it: while you've been spending all your time indoors, you've put your oven to good use. And, you've whipped up more than just bread — because who hasn't been hankering for cakes, brownies, muffins and all manner of other sweet baked goods? If you've been trying to take your cake-making to elaborate extremes, or you've always wanted to, then Nailed It! is the show for you. In each episode, the competitive Netflix series tasks three amateur bakers with creating complex cakes, then watches as they succeed and/or fail. As hosted by comedian Nicole Byer and pastry chef Jacques Torres, the show proves particularly fun when the contestants don't hit the mark. In fact, ensuring that the series is incredibly relatable, Nailed It! focuses on bakers who definitely aren't going to be jumping over to MasterChef anytime in the near future. Nailed It! is available to stream via Netflix. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KxKrJYsZnCU THE PIZZA SHOW AND THE ICE CREAM SHOW One can be topped with almost any ingredient you can think of, tastes divine when it's fresh out of the oven and also goes down mighty well eaten cold for breakfast. The other is the ultimate in frosty, creamy desserts — and it's just as versatile. Obviously, we're talking about pizza and ice cream. Yes, they pair nicely together, too. Thanks to the aptly named Viceland duo that is The Pizza Show and The Ice Cream Show, you can devote your hours to learning all about each dish. Spend your time feasting your eyes on everyone's favourite Italian meal, and you'll be hanging out with Brooklyn Pizzeria owner Frank Pinello as he ventures across the US and Italy. Opt for a chilled sweet treat, and you'll follow third-generation ice cream maker Isaac Lappert around America as well. The Pizza Show and The Ice Cream Show are available to stream via SBS On Demand. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1eyFq3addMs UGLY DELICIOUS Food and travel: if there's a combination that's better suited to today's current situation, we're yet to find it. Any TV show that combines both not only provides viewers with a whole heap of culinary suggestions, but lets everyone cooped up at home indulge their wanderlust. That's the case with Ugly Delicious. It's the case with the bulk of Netflix's cooking shows, including fellow David Chang-hosted series Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner; however Ugly Delicious' focus on a different type of food per episode is a winner. Chang also weaves in the history of each dish in the spotlight, so prepare to learn more about tacos, Korean barbecue, fried rice and Indian cuisine — as well as steak, fried chicken, skewered meat, and shrimp and crawfish. Ugly Delicious is available to stream via Netflix. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f4fx6V7ura0 DISHMANTLED Given that Dishmantled's episodes clock in at less than ten minutes each — it's a Quibi show, and that's what the new streaming platform specialises in — don't expect a step-by-step walkthrough explaining how to make each dish in detail. Instead, this amusing spin on the culinary TV genre's competitive strand literally throws food at its blindfolded competitors, forces them to guess what kind of meal they're now covered in, and asks them to make said dish in 30 minutes. Expect quick meal ideas, an entertaining and enjoyably over-the-top concept, and plenty of attitude, with the latter coming from host Tituss Burgess. If his Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt character Titus Andromedon hosted a silly cooking show in bite-sized pieces, it'd look exactly like this (although it could use more pinot noir). Dishmantled is available to stream via Quibi. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xzSTqVUWEzU THE GREAT BRITISH BAKE OFF Fifteen years ago, if someone had suggested that Noel Fielding host a cooking show, you would've started laughing. Or, you would've thought that they were dreaming up a hilarious scenario for a new episode of The Mighty Boosh. But co-hosting The Great British Bake Off is exactly what Fielding has been doing since 2017. He's great at it, too. And, if watching British cooks compete for glory by baking up a storm isn't entertaining enough for you, then Fielding's involvement will be. Combined, though, you're in for a big dose Fielding being Fielding, plus oh-so-many delicious-looking baked goods that you'll instantly want to whip up at home. The Great British Bake Off is available to stream via Foxtel Now. Top images: Chef's Table, Ugly Delicious and Nailed It! via Netflix; Destination Flavour: China via SBS.
A massive multi-dimensional Christmas festival is coming to the Royal Botanic Gardens for 16 nights from Friday, December 9. The free festivities will bring lights, projections, Christmas carols, a pop-up market, food trucks and a drone show to the gardens, running all the way until Christmas Eve. As you arrive at Noël Sydney, you'll be treated to the Noël Night Trail, a luminous journey that has consumed the buildings surrounding the festival with immersive light projections. A digital reimagining of The Nutcracker will guide you through Macquarie Street, past iconic buildings like the State Library of NSW, the Hyde Park Barracks and the Sydney Conservatorium of Music. Each night, the festival's Christmas market will open from 6pm, boasting stalls from 40 different local businesses. Squeeze in a spot of Christmas shopping before you explore the remainder of the Digital Christmas Forest. This festive hub of the festival has transformed the Royal Botanic Gardens into a Yuletide wonderland full of music, art and activities. Heading up the performance lineup will be David Campbell, Katie Noonan Trio and Chris Sebastian alongside the Noël House Band, juggling and circus acts, and dancers. A spectacular drone show will take to the sky each night at 8.15pm and 10pm featuring hundreds of colourful drones, and hands-on entertainment like decoration and wreath-making workshops will be a part of each night's program. Completing this multi-day feast for the senses will be an array of hospitality stalls, food trucks and a pop-up bar ensuring that festival-goers are well-fed. Images: Noel Sydney
After 2019's One Night Stand, music lovers in regional Australia waited till 2024 for the event to return. Thankfully, there's no five-year delay between festivals this time. The Triple J initiative is back in 2025, returning this autumn and boasting Spacey Jane as its headliner. You'll have to hang out a little bit longer to find out where it's taking place, however. As well as Spacey Jane, 2025's lineup includes LUUDE, Ruby Fields, 3%, Blusher and Velvet Trip. There'll also be a Triple J Unearthed winner, although exactly who is still to be announced. Whichever talent rounds out the bill, the full roster of acts is taking to the stage somewhere in Australia on Saturday, May 24. [caption id="attachment_996056" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Cole Barash[/caption] With that May date, One Night Stand is returning just over eight months since 2024's festival, which took place in the Victorian town of Warrnambool in September with G Flip, Ruel, What So Not and Thelma Plum leading the lineup. The Aussie location doing the honours this time will be revealed on Thursday, March 27. While Victoria hosted the most-recent One Night Stand and also the first — 21 years ago, Triple J gave the town of Natimuk a day to remember when the spot 300 kilometres out of Melbourne welcomed its very own major music fest — it has been known to spread the love around destination-wise. When the ABC radio station put on the festival every year between 2004–2014, then again from 2016–2019, it hopped around states. Ayr, Dalby and Mt Isa in Queensland; Port Pirie, Tumby Bay and Lucindale in South Australia; Cowra and Dubbo in New South Wales; Collie and Geraldton in Western Australia; Sale and Mildura back in Victoria; Alice Springs in the Northern Territory; and St Helens in Tasmania: they've all enjoyed the One Night Stand experience. There's no prizes for guessing why One Night Stand pressed pause from 2020–23. It was true in 2024 and it remains the case in 2025: the all-ages event is returning at time when the Australian live music scene has been suffering, and after a spate of festivals have been cancelling or saying farewell forever, including both Splendour in the Grass and Groovin the Moo sitting out 2024 and 2025. Tickets for 2025's One Night Stand will cost $15 plus booking fee, and all proceeds will be donated to charity. One Night Stand Lineup 2025 Spacey Jane LUUDE Ruby Fields 3% Blusher Velvet Trip Triple J Unearthed winner to be announced [caption id="attachment_996060" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Savitri Wendt[/caption] 2025's triple j One Night Stand will take place on Saturday, May 24, 2025, with the town playing host set to be announced from 3.30pm AEDT on Thursday, March 27, 2025. Tickets will go on sale from 5pm AEDT on Thursday, March 27, 2025. For more information, head to the radio station's website. Top image: Mitch Lowe.
Following two successful stores in Marrickville and Mount Druitt, Slim's Quality Burgers has arrived in the Sydney CBD with a new helping of affordable burgers and real ice cream thickshakes. Now open on Level 5 of Westfield Sydney, the third outpost for the burger chain comes just six months after it first launched at Marrickville Metro. Slim's is the creation of three ex-Betty's Burgers staff members. Like Betty's, the focus is on classic-style burgs rather than OTT numbers with the Shake Shack-style aesthetic swapped out for a 50s and 60s diner-style set-up. There's also a greater focus on affordability with a cheeseburger starting at just $6.50. The chain is all about a lean menu of options made with simple but quality ingredients. Burger-wise, customers can choose between original, cheeseburger, deluxe cheeseburger and 'the works' burgs all made with angus beef, plus five different chicken varieties — including a crispy fried or grilled chook — and a veggie option using a plant-based patty. "In the vast Australian burger market, we too often see venues that are built on gimmicks and fads," Slim's Director Nik Rollison said. "Whether it's the cheesiest burger or doughnut buns, we think Aussies have come full circle and want something that is simple, affordable and made from only the highest quality ingredients." Sides focus on fries either with sea salt, loaded with cheese and grilled onion, or featuring maple-smoked bacon. As for those sundaes, they come in hot fudge, salted caramel and strawberry flavours. And to wash it all down, there are spiders — because plonking a scoop of ice cream in some soft drink never gets old — or chocolate, vanilla and strawberry thickshakes. With CBD lunch options increasingly rising in price, the simple but high-quality approach to burgers is sure to be appealing to inner-city office workers. Slim's Quality Burgers new CBD outpost is located at Level 5, Westfield Sydney, corner of Pitt Street and Market Street, Sydney. It's open 11am–7pm Sunday–Wednesday and 11am–8pm Thursday–Saturday.
The world's greatest artworks belong in galleries where everyone can see them. With Lego's help, however, you can also put a few on your walls. The brand has already turned Vincent van Gogh's The Starry Night into plastic bricks, then Katsushika Hokusai's The Great Wave off Kanagawa. Next up: the one and only Mona Lisa. Lego's art range not only lets you display iconic works in your own home, but gets you building these masterpieces, too — so, in this case, you'll be taking Leonardo da Vinci's lead. Of course, while he used oil paints back in the 1500s, you'll be snapping together 1503 Lego elements. Maybe you've seen the real thing at the Louvre. In 2024 so far, perhaps you've hit up Melbourne's immersive da Vinci exhibition and the Gold Coast's Italian Renaissance Alive exhibition for a larger-than-life, multi-sensory Mona Lisa experience. Or, you could've only seen photos of the piece. Whichever fits, being able to construct your own version will ensure that you can look at it whenever you want. The Mona Lisa Lego kit features pieces in new colours — and if they look a bit brighter than the real artwork, that's because the hues are designed to reflect the tones that da Vinci actually used, not the paint as it looks today after 500-plus-years of ageing. We weren't kidding about hanging it on your wall, with a detachable frame in drum-lacquered gold included in the set. Once built, the full piece will measure 43 centimetres in height, 30 centimetres in width and four centimetres in depth. Also, while the eyes are a famous part of the work, Lego's iteration gives you two options with the peepers, including blank blocks to make the design more abstract. If you want to hear more about the Mona Lisa as you put it together, Lego is dropping an art podcast to coincide with the kit's release. Both will arrive on Tuesday, October 1, 2024, but you can pre-order the set now — it costs AU$169.99 and NZ $179.99. On Saturday, June 1, 2024, as part of the brand's architecture range, Lego is also releasing a Notre-Dame de Paris kit, which'll get you building the landmark from 4383 bricks. For more information about Lego's new 'Mona Lisa' kit, which goes on sale on Down Under on Tuesday, October 1, 2024, head to the company's website.
Australia Day is a-comin', day off and all. So, the savvy folks at brand new music event Extra Pulp are hosting a colossal dance party under the Sydney Harbour Bridge the day before. Brought to you by the combined forces of UNDR ctrl and I OH YOU, Extra Pulp promises a day of casually huge bangers: we're talking CC:DISCO!, Dreems, Juno Mars, Rimbombo and Simon Caldwell. To fuel all of the crazy dance moves that you'll invariably break out, there will be a conveniently placed, pop-up food shack, courtesy of The Kerrigan. For those of you not acquainted with The Kerrigan's food stylings, it's very much the carnivore's dream — kitted out with a charcoal grill, smokery and all. Head out of the office early, grab a chicken wing and party under the Harbour Bridge. What of tomorrow? Check our January 26 guide for more ways to spend the public holiday.
It isn't by accident that watching The Changeling feels like being read to, rather than simply viewing streaming's latest book-to-TV adaptation. Arriving from the pages of Victor LaValle's novel of the same name, this new horror-fantasy series is obsessed with stories, telling tales and unpacking what humanity's favourite narratives say about our nature, including myths and yarns that date back centuries and longer. Printed tomes are crucial in its characters lives, fittingly. Libraries, bookstores, dusty boxes stacked with old volumes, beloved childhood texts, a rare signed version of To Kill a Mockingbird with a note from Harper Lee to lifelong friend Truman Capote: they all feature within the show's frames. Its protagonists Apollo Kagwa (LaKeith Stanfield, Haunted Mansion) and Emma Valentine (Clark Backo, Letterkenny), who fall in love and make a life together before its first episode is out, even work as a book dealer and a librarian. The Changeling also literally reads to its audience, because LaValle himself wants to relay this adult fairytale. He doesn't appear on-screen with book in hand, but his dulcet tones speaking lyrical prose provides a frequent guide. "Once upon a time" gets uttered, naturally. Declarations that stepping through someone's story says everything about who they are echo, too. Deploying the author to say his own words here and there is an evocative and ambitious choice, and one that has the exact desired effect: this series doesn't just flicker across the screen, but burrows into hearts and minds. Within its narrative, The Changeling regularly muses on being caught between memories and dreams. Viewing it takes on that same sensation. Getting LaValle reading is savvy as well, then, helping the show's audience share a key sliver of Apollo and Emma's experience. Debuting on Apple TV+ on Friday, September 8, The Changeling believes in the power of tales — to capture, explain, transport, engage, caution and advise. In a show created and scripted by Venom, Venom: Let There Be Carnage, Fifty Shades of Grey and Saving Mr Banks screenwriter Kelly Marcel, there's nothing more potent and revealing than a story. They're how we share ideas, express emotions, pass on information and keep records. They spark our imaginations, help us make sense of the world and offer pure entertainment. As Apollo and Emma learn on an eight-episode first-season journey filled with haunting mysteries, told with eerie intrigue and painted through gorgeously entrancing imagery, they also convey warnings and encapsulate our darkest truths. Aptly, New Yorkers Apollo and Emma meet amid books, in the library where she works and he frequents. It takes convincing to get her to agree to go out with him — and while that leads to marriage and a child, The Changeling's astute thematic layering includes Apollo's repeated attempts to wrangle that first yes out of Emma. In-between early dates and domesticity, she takes the trip of a lifetime to Brazil, where an old woman awaits by Lagoa do Abaeté. The locals warn Emma to stay away but she's mesmerised. What happens between the two strangers sends the narrative hurtling, with the lakeside figure tying a red string around Emma's wrist, granting her three wishes, but advising that they'll only come true when the bracelet falls off by itself. The Changeling isn't a fairytale purely because it involves wishes. It hasn't been badged as an adult version of folklore's short stories just because it's set in the Big Apple this century — Apollo and Emma meet in 2010 — and centres on a couple's tumultuous relationship, either. Where the pair's romance takes them next is right there in the show's name, a term used to describe a baby that's believed to have been swapped out by fairies; however, knowing that, and that witches, curses, monsters and underground cities also pop up, is just scratching the surface of their tale as well. LaValle and now Marcel understand that happy endings, when they do come, are merely a minor part of the narratives that we call fairytales. Amid their supernatural elements, horror and trauma always lurks. That's true of everything from Hansel and Gretel, Cinderella and Little Red Riding Hood to Sleeping Beauty, Snow White and Beauty and the Beast, and of The Changeling. LaValle and Marcel's inspirations sprawl further, including to Greek myths, Scandinavian folklore, US history, Ugandan traditions, One Hundred Years of Solitude and Rosemary's Baby. The Changeling digs into parenthood's joys and stresses, especially for mothers. It lays bare the societal pressures, expectations and threats levelled at women constantly — and the myriad of male forces and reactions. In not only Apollo and Emma's story, but also in Apollo's mother Lillian's (Violent Night's Alexis Louder when she's younger, American Horror Story's Adina Porter when she's older), the series is intricately steeped in the immigrant and the Black American experiences. Courtesy of a stunning late episode solely devoted to Lillian, it recalls Angels in America while expanding upon the many tragedies inflicted upon folks on the margins. Directors Melina Matsoukas (Queen & Slim), Jonathan van Tulleken (Upload), Dana Gonzales (The Handmaid's Tale) and Michael Francis Williams (David Makes Man) make The Changeling as complex aesthetically as it is narratively and thematically. When the show's visuals glow, that's never solely a stylistic choice. When its imagery is shadowy and hazy, the series isn't just employing an easy way to get ominous. Meticulously framed, lit and composed, The Changeling knows the oft-quoted old adage that a picture is worth a thousand words, ensuring that every single frame deepens its storytelling. Sometimes that results in sights so unsettling that they're difficult to shake. At other times, Apollo and Emma's antics are positively ethereal to behold. It takes immense performances to weather everything that The Changeling throws at its characters, and to also guide audiences through each twist, turn, leap and jump. To fans of Short Term 12, Get Out, Sorry to Bother You, Uncut Gems, Knives Out, Atlanta and The Harder They Fall, it'll come as no surprise that Judas and the Black Messiah Oscar-nominee Stanfield is exceptional — soulful, simmering with emotion whether Apollo is falling in love or living a nightmare, and electrifying in his gaze alone. Backo, Porter and Louder are also excellent, anchoring a multifaceted portrait of both womanhood and motherhood. When she pops up midway, Malcolm in the Middle great Jane Kaczmarek is equally brilliant. What phenomenal storytellers this series has amassed. What an enthralling tale they help read to viewers, too. Check out the trailer for The Changeling below: The Changeling streams via Apple TV+ from Friday, September 8.
An ideal summer arvo of sipping should be two things: refreshing and aesthetically pleasing. Whether it's a grassy backyard or sunshine-soaked dining room, lo-fi picnic or no-expense-spared soirée, there are more than a few ways to elevate your summer cocktail hour, be it for yourself or if you're inviting all your faves. Well versed in adding fizz and flavour to a party is CAPI, the family-owned and -run Victoria-based bev company that works creatively and passionately to deliver liquids that hit the mark on flavour with all natural ingredients and locally sourced water. Its latest release? Three summery cocktail mixers, bottled beautifully and only awaiting a few shots of your preferred liquor. With a ready-to-go cocktails in the fridge, your friends on the way (or the next chapter of your book at the ready) and some of these aesthetically pleasing recs locked down, your at-home cocktail hour will be a true summer delight. START WITH THE SIPS Your afternoon drinks menu is looking persuasive thanks to CAPI's new cocktail mixers. A charred pineapple daiquiri, perhaps? With the tropical sweetness balanced with slightly charred caramel notes and the cocktail's signature squeeze of lime, all there's room for is ice, rum and summer thirst. Can't go past a marg? We get it. But when you're leaning into an arvo with good company, you don't want to be hitting pause on the fun to shake your libation. This margarita mix is almost certainly lower in sugar than your local's pour, and combines Aussie limes, a lick of orange and the sweet kick of agave. Like it hot? The best people do. The spicy watermelon margarita mix beckons for your bottle of tequila, slices of the melon alongside and a chilli-salted rim. Each eight-serve bottle is a fully recyclable (like each and every item in CAPI's lineup of more than 20), but that's just the start of the brand's sustainability specs: bottles are freighted aboard mostly electric vehicles, are made from a minimum of 40% recycled glass (and are then 100% recyclable) and the company partners exclusively with freight providers who are committed to reducing carbon emissions — we're into it. SERVE UP WITH A SIDE OF COLOUR Don't think properly plating up changes the flavour of your food? Well, it certainly doesn't hurt. This is something the glassware gurus at Fazeek can attest to. Its range is bright, bold, architectural and a treat to look at (and dine off). For a lo-fi touch, pre-prepare your cocktail of choice and house it in the Vice Versa Carafe, then nab the Pearl Platter and pile it high with pickled veggies, a hunk of hard cheese and some rough-cut focaccia. Serve a salad in style and grab some of the delightfully different vessels — think rippled coupes or highballs — in differing shades. Expecting to host well into the night? Keep it bright with these striped candles and structured holders, and lean back to enjoy the golden glow of a balmy summer evening. [caption id="attachment_878061" align="alignnone" width="1918"] Javi Trapero[/caption] SNACK SENSIBLY We're calling it, it's going to be the summer of snacks: the salty and delicious gilda (pictured above) is finding its way onto many a menu, we're looking to long share-style meals that allow us to try it all and our tendency to finish a weekend with a pot-luck picnic is a nice tag-along to daylight savings. If you've got guests, ensure you're all fuelled by requesting they bring a plate of bite-sized morsels. Suggest the aforementioned gildas, a briny pintxo classic that sees an olive meet the salty hit of an anchovy and a pickled pepper. Or take the reins and grab your jarred goods, skewers and a funky plate, and lean in to the Mediterranean art of grazing away the daylight hours. Crusty bread alongside is a non-negotiable. [caption id="attachment_877977" align="alignnone" width="1920"] @handsshopau[/caption] ADORN YOUR TABLE Flirty and fruity — everything you want your cocktail arvo to be. After you get one of your five-a-day from your cocktail, get another from your table accessories. This woven pear placemat is an attention-demanding balance of on-trend and kitsch. Grab enough for all and set your table, or nab just one and use it at centrepiece. There are crabs and cakes, yellow pears and apples — all available from the cuter-than-cute Hands Shop, which brings the wares of local and international makers to Newtown's Australia Street. [caption id="attachment_878038" align="alignnone" width="1920"] @kane_lehanneur[/caption] CREATE SHADE No one has the time (or desire) for burnt skin, so ensure you've got pockets of shade while you while away your arvo. If you're outside, opt for an expertly, sturdily crafted — and delightfully artful — umbrella. This one sees Basil Bangs join forces with Kane Lehanneur, the Sydney-based multidisciplinary artist known for his fluid, large-scale floral works. Lehanneur created the print exclusively for the shade-slinging Northern Beaches brand, delivering an aesthetically pleasing way to dodge the rays with a cocktail in hand. CURATE SOME BOPS Last yet absolutely not least, you'll want to elevate the vibes of your summer sipping with a playlist chock-full of bouncy beats. If you're looking for a goodie, wrap your ears around funk-lords Groove Therapy's Mood Booster playlist. Or if you're after something slightly more ambient (with some dancy undertones), chuck on Spotify's Pollen playlist for guaranteed good vibes. Take your summer sips to the next level with CAPI cocktail mixers. Head to the website to have your bottles delivered, or find them in your nearest Dan Murphy's or Coles.
Spring is (almost) in the air, and we all know what that means: it's time to kick back with some friends and a nice bottle of vino and enjoy a movie under the stars. We've been spoiled for choice when it comes to outdoor cinemas in recent years, and now The Greens in North Sydney is getting in on the action. Flicks at the Greens is your latest destination for classic, cult and new release cinema with a little bit of lawn bowling thrown in. The film program runs Wednesday to Sundays for four weeks across late September and early October, beginning with OTT action comedy Kingsman: The Secret Service. Other recent titles include Ant Man, Trainwreck and Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation, while those of you looking for a dose of nostalgia can enjoy the likes of Mean Girls, Dirty Dancing and Howl's Moving Castle. The movies start at sundown, but there'll be plenty to keep you occupied until then. The recently refurbished Greens Kitchen will be open for pre-film feasts, with a lot more than just stale popcorn on offer. Nothing like slow-cooked lamb or a thick rib-eye steak to put you in the mood for a screening of Jurassic World — although we can't imagine Indominus Rex would bother with the herb and garlic butter. They'll also be operating bars of both the candy and alcohol varieties, so there's no danger of you running out of things to eat or drink. Screenings on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays will be preceded by live music acts — and if you want to get really fancy, you can grab yourself a VIP ticket which gets you a bean bed in the reserved area along with a complimentary bottle of wine and box of popcorn. Wednesday to Sundays
Sydneysiders love a bake sale and, in delightful news for locals, three Sydney legends are teaming up for a special one-off event on Saturday, July 2. Bush will be hosting sweet treat experts Donut Papi and Mapo Gelato for a morning of next-level snacks on Saturday, July 2. "[Baked goods are] a great way to incorporate our native produce and coax out some nostalgia," said Bush when announcing the sale. On offer will be wattleseed creme patisserie filled and brulléed doughnuts, fermented honey and macadamia gelato, fermented honey joys and two damper sandwiches. The first features rare roasted kangaroo and horseradish cream, while the second is a cucumber, pepperberry and cream cheese sanga. There will also be mandarin soda and grapefruit granitas, plus — to warm your hands and your soul — lemon myrtle hot toddies and Reuben Hills coffee. The goodies will be available from 10am at Bush's Redfern home. Get in early as they're sure to sell out.
The Beach Road Hotel has now been bringing free music to the eastern suburbs for 21 years. Not just your run-of-the-mill covers bands, but the groundbreaking, original stuff — Coldplay, Public Enemy, Salmonella Dub and The Presets have all treated Bondi locals to a show at some point. Not too many of Sydney's live music venues can claim such a continuous history. It's definitely a milestone worth celebrating, and that's why the Beach Road has teamed up with party specialists SOSUEME DJs to organise its "once-in-a-lifetime" 21st Birthday Mega-bration. There'll be sets from Bloc Party's Kele, PEACE (UK), DZ Deathrays, the Thundamentals, a mystery headline DJ and loads of other acts, as well as everything you could possibly expect of any respectable party: kissing booths, tarot card readers, magicians, contortionists, face painting, hula hoopers, fairy floss, popcorn, jelly shots, a silent disco and free hugs. Doors open at 8pm. https://youtube.com/watch?v=n844ryqmh0c
If you're a fan of musical theatre, then you know the name Jonathan Larson, the creator and composer behind smash-hit production Rent. And, you likely know his story, too, with the playwright and lyricist passing away at the age of 35 on the day that that now-huge show premiered its first off-Broadway preview performance, and never seeing the Tony Award- and Pulitzer Prize-winning phenomenon that it would become. Before that, Larson also created another musical called tick, tick…BOOM!; however, it didn't chart the same path. Instead, the semi-autobiographical piece was performed as a solo work before his death, following a character called Jon who worried that he'd made the wrong decision by chasing his dream of becoming a composer. After Larson died, tick, tick…BOOM! was reimagined as a three-actor show, then made its way from off-Broadway to off-West End, as well as West End itself. And, in 2021, it took the leap to the screen, too, courtesy of Netflix — in a film directed by Lin-Manuel Miranda and starring Andrew Garfield, the latter turning in an Oscar-nominated performance as Larson. That's a whole lot of history behind Sydney's latest big musical announcement: that tick, tick…BOOM! will bring its Australian mainstage debut tour to the Harbour City in 2023. First, it'll run seasons at Melbourne's Comedy Theatre and Brisbane's QPAC Playhouse, before arriving at Sydney's Lyric Theatre from Thursday, April 20–Wednesday, April 26. If you're wondering about tick, tick…BOOM!'s narrative, the rock musical is set in 1990, with promising young composer Jon as its focus. He's almost 30, living in New York City, and life as an artist isn't turning out as he planned — so he has to decide what to do next. The production is an ode to theatre and a tribute to New York, too, and has kept proving popular since it premiered in its current format off-Broadway in 2001. Playing Larson in Australia: multiple Logie-winner Hugh Sheridan (Packed to the Rafters, House Husbands, Five Bedrooms), with Elenoa Rokobaro (Rent) as Susan, Finn Alexander (Urinetown) as Michael, and Sheridan Adams (Cruel Intentions: The 90s Musical) and Andrew Coshan (A View From a Bridge) also among the cast. Also, tick, tick…BOOM!'s upcoming Aussie seasons will be produced by Adrian Storey from StoreyBoard Entertainment (Chess the Musical, Barnum, Follies, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest) and directed by Tyran Parke (Chess the Musical, Barnum, Follies, Sunday in the Park with George). Check out the trailer for the Netflix film below: Updated October 31, 2022.
It's hard to get through Good Food Month without slipping into the fairyland that is Hyde Park's famous Night Noodle Markets. But, for a more boutique experience, try out Little Eat Street's offerings. This alternative night market takes over Dixon and Little Hay Streets every Friday evening throughout October from 5pm. Without walking more than a few hundred metres, you'll get to take a culinary journey from Hong Kong to Hanoi. Name an Asian dish and you'll find it — yum cha, teppanyaki, takoyaki, sushi and spicy Sichuan are all on the agenda. While you're there, give our Chinatown cheap eats list a test run.
A Star Is Born has already graced the titles of four different films, and Licorice Pizza isn't one of them. Paul Thomas Anderson's ninth feature, and his loosest since Boogie Nights — his lightest since ever, too — does boast a memorable Bradley Cooper performance, though. That said, this 70s- and San Fernando Valley-set delight isn't quite about seeking fame, then navigating its joys and pitfalls, although child actors and Hollywood's ebbs and flows all figure into the narrative. Licorice Pizza definitely births two new on-screen talents, however, both putting in two of 2021's best performances and two of the finest-ever movie debuts. That's evident from the film's very first sublimely grainy 35-millimetre-shot moments, as Alana Haim of Haim (who PTA has directed several music videos for) and Cooper Hoffman (son of the late, great Philip Seymour Hoffman, a PTA regular) do little more than chat, stroll and charm. The radiant Haim plays Alana Kane, a Valley dweller of 25 or 28 (her story changes) working as a photographer's assistant, which brings her to a Tarzana high school on yearbook picture day. Enter the smoothly assured Hoffman as 15-year-old Gary Valentine, who is instantly smitten and tries to wrangle a date. Alana is dismissive with a spikiness that speaks volumes about how she handles herself (a later scene, where she yells "fuck off, teenagers!" to kids in her way, is similarly revealing). But Gary keeps persisting, inviting her to the real-life Tail o' the Cock, a fine diner he claims to visit regularly. In a gliding ride of a walk-and-talk sequence that's shot like a dream, Alana says no, yet she's also still intrigued. As a smile at the end of their first encounter betrays, Alana was always going to show up, even against her better judgement (and even as she firmly establishes that they aren't a couple). Her demeanour doesn't soften as Gary interrogates her like he's a dad greeting a daughter's beau — a gag Anderson mirrors later when Alana takes another ex-child actor, Lance (Skyler Gisondo, Santa Clarita Diet), home to meet her mother, father and two sisters (all played by the rest of the Haims, parents included) and he's questioned in the same manner. That family dinner arises after Gary enlists the new object of his affection to chaperone him on a trip to New York, where he's featuring with Lance in a live reunion for one of their flicks. Upon returning to Los Angeles, Gary is heartbroken to see Alana with Lance, but all roads keep leading her back to him anyway. Charting Alana and Gary's friendship as it circles and swirls, and they often sprint towards each other — and chronicling everything else going on in the San Fernando Valley, where PTA himself grew up — Licorice Pizza is a shaggy slice-of-life film in multiple ways. Spinning a narrative that Anderson penned partly based on stories shared by Gary Goetzman, an ex-child talent turned frequent producer of Tom Hanks movies, it saunters along leisurely like it's just stepped out of the 70s itself, and also sports that anything-can-happen vibe that comes with youth. It's a portrait of a time, before mobile phones and the internet, when you had to either talk on a landline or meet up in person to make plans, and when just following where the day took you was the status quo. It captures a canny mix of adolescence and arrested development, too; teen exuberance springs from the always-hustling Gary, while treading water is both an apt description of Alana's connection with her would-be paramour and a state she's acutely aware of. Set to a soundtrack that bounces between Paul McCartney and Wings, Suzi Quatro and Chris Norman, and David Bowie ('Life on Mars' is put to transcendent use), it all breezes about like a relaxed 1973 summer, but plenty fills Alana and Gary's time and PTA's glorious feature. Gary auditions for TV ads, runs a PR firm with his mum (Mary Elizabeth Ellis, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia) and opens a waterbed business. Alana becomes his partner in the latter, meets with his agent (Harriet Sansom Harris, Atlantic Crossing), catches the attention of a Hollywood veteran modelled on William Holden (Sean Penn, The First) and volunteers for Joel Wachs' (Benny Safdie, Pieces of a Woman) mayoral campaign. As a backdrop to the pair's exploits, Richard Nixon implores Americans to use less petrol, and as the gas crisis kicks in. And when Cooper pops up, it's as Barbra Streisand's fiery then-boyfriend Jon Peters, who isn't impressed with his waterbed delivery. Cue one of Haim's most stunning moments, driving a truck after the drop-off, where she conveys more with her face and posture than words could ever express. As the film's two starriest vignettes make plain — plus another incident involving a not-quite-Lucille Ball (aka Lucy Doolittle, played by Search Party's Christine Ebersole) — Anderson is happy to both nod to and toy with reality. Licorice Pizza is firmly fiction, despite riffing on Goetzman's experiences, but it's also gleefully cognisant of how nostalgia for one's teenage and twenty-something adventures can feel slippery, starry-eyed and surreal. It'd make a great double with Once Upon a Time in Hollywood for exactly that atmosphere, although it'd also pair well with PTA's Boogie Nights, his woozily romantic Punch-Drunk Love and his daylight noir Inherent Vice. Alas, it does also include pointless scenes with a restaurant owner (John Michael Higgins, Saved by the Bell) who speaks to his Japanese wives (New Bear Tours' Yumi Mizui and Good Girls' Megumi Anjo), plural, in a caricature of an accent — calling out what passed for acceptable in the 70s, but also landing flatly and clunkily. Nothing else in Licorice Pizza could be described as gawky — not even Gary's posse of pals, who are rarely far from his side — or as anything less than effervescent. This marvellous coming-of-age comedy is as masterfully made as all of Anderson's work, and yet also far roomier than the likes of There Will Be Blood, The Master and Phantom Thread; as he showed with Inherent Vice, he can be meticulous and freewheeling at once. Licorice Pizza wouldn't be the film it is without either Haim or Hoffman, though, who PTA peers at devotedly, including in closeups, as frequently as he can (he's also one of the movie's two cinematographers). With Radiohead's Jonny Greenwood providing the score once again, he adores nothing more than seeing them run towards each other — figuratively and literally, blue daylight skies blazing and purple twilight hues twinkling behind them — and he makes everyone watching savour every slice.
Oh, hey. How's it going? *Sighs. Pulls self off couch. Rubs eyes.* So, ah...this...this just wasn't a great film, you know? I mean...it tried, definitely. Well, kinda. Okay, not really. In fact it seemed pretty lazy across the board. And that's...*yawns*...that's kind of an infectious sensation. Even when Jason Bateman appeared on The Daily Show to spruik Identity Thief, he casually dismissed it and set off talking about something else entirely. The problem with the film, in broad terms, is that there's nothing new about it. The 'odd couple road movie' has been done so many times before, and usually far better (Planes, Trains and Automobiles, The Sure Thing), as has the 'life ruined by identity theft' plot (Trading Places, The Net and Enemy of the State). Even worse, Identity Thief's point of differentiation — Bateman having to bring his thief across America to prove to his boss he's not a criminal — is so frustratingly unbelievable that you're annoyed before things even get going. Speaking of Bateman, he offers up a predictably deadpan performance as the nice but hapless guy who falls victim to circumstance and horrible people. Naturally he's got some terrifically funny lines, yet even he comes across as less likeable than usual on account of his bland conversations with the thief, Melissa McCarthy. Like Bateman, McCarthy is a fantastically funny comedian and actor; however, in Identity Thief her principal job is to scream as loud as possible and occasionally throw up. This is a clear-cut case of unrealised potential, and no matter how much you will the plot to lend these actors some good scenes, it rarely delivers. The film was directed by Seth Gordon, whose last film, Horrible Bosses, not only made far better use of Bateman but also kept its more farcical moments at least close to the realm of plausibility. In Identity Thief you have gangland assassins, bounty hunters, animal attacks and high-speed car crashes — all coming into the life of someone who we're repeatedly told to think of as a regular family man/accountant. Identity Thief also offers Jon Favreau and Amanda Peet in supporting roles, with the latter putting in perhaps the only believable performance of the bunch. Bottom line *stretches back*, don't fall victim to Identity Thief by letting it steal two hours of your time.
A great bar isn't just about the tap count, but that figure can be a sign of a more-the-merrier situation for beer lovers. When the number is hefty, usually so are your drinks choices, including trying tipples that you mightn't have had a chance to otherwise. So when a 120-tap bar awaits, it really is a case of imagining the possibilities. The Great Australasian Beer Spectapular, aka GABS, loves getting creative with beers — and loves letting attendees at its annual festivals sip and sample over 100 different varieties each year. In 2025, when the fest returns to Sydney in May, it'll set up that 120-tap bar, all in a straight line. Exactly 100 of those taps will pour beers, and the weirder and wilder the flavours, the better. The other 20 will feature spirits, cocktails and other beverages. For many of the brews on offer at GABS, this is either the first time or the only place that you can taste them. Think: sushi beer, cookie stouts and lollipop sours, which have featured in the past. Think of a foodstuff — peanut butter, coffee, earl grey tea, chicken salt, pizza, fairy floss, bubblegum, doughnuts, red frogs and sour gummy bears, for instance — and there's likely been a brew made to taste exactly the same at GABS. This year, GABS is hosting two-day fests, including at ICC Sydney from Friday, May 30–Saturday, May 31. If you're a newcomer to GABS, it started off as a Melbourne-only celebration of ales, lagers, ciders and more. Then it began spreading along Australia's east coast capitals, as well as to New Zealand. The event surveys both Australian and New Zealand breweries, plus sometimes some guests from further afield — Schlenkerla and Weihenstephan, both from Germany, are the first names on the list in 2025 — with more than 60 normally showcasing their wares annually. Also on the bill: other tipples, including non-alcoholic beers, seltzers, whiskey, gin, cocktails and wines. GABS is known for dishing up a hefty lineup of activities to accompanying all that sipping, too, which usually spans a silent disco, roaming bands, circus and sideshow performers, games and panels with industry leaders, plus local food trucks and vendors to line your stomach. And you might just find a ferris wheel or a mullet bar — yes, dispensing the haircuts — as well, as they've popped up in the past.
Last time the Yeah Yeah Yeahs came to Sydney charismatic frontwoman Karen O traded in her jet-black bowl cut for a platinum wig and Jesus robes — just one of the elaborate costumes featured in her ambitious "psycho opera" Stop the Virgens. Unusual, sure, but live performance has always been an integral part of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs' magnetism. When the band comes back to play Big Day Out 2013 there may or may not be kaleidoscopic kimonos and headpieces the size of hot air balloons, but it's the band's infectious sound that won them critical acclaim and a Grammy nomination. "Maps" isn't just an adolescent anthem 'cause there aren't enough lyrics to mess up. However seeing the band's frontwoman writhe around on stage is undoubtedly a bonus, and if your vision is obscured by the inevitable sea of frenetically surging bodies on the 18th you can always catch their Metro Theatre sideshow. Tickets for that one go on sale Friday, 21 September. https://youtube.com/watch?v=auzfTPp4moA
Scribbling on the walls used to be a top ten reason for grounding. Now NGV wants you to scribble all over their White Cube. Design duo Matheny Studio have created a brand new kids space at the National Gallery of Victoria called Pastello Draw Act — without a fun-quashing parent voice (or airport official) in sight. Kids can gear up in futuristic crayon-studded helmets and crayon-soled shoes and let the rainbow destruction run rife; allowed to colour, scribble, sketch, draw and obliterate every surface in the space with whatever hue's on the menu. Tables aren't safe. Walls can't run. Footstools quiver in fear. It's not every day kids are allowed to make as much mess as they want. "Pastello Draw Act is a new immersive kids space focused on transforming perception surrounding the simple act of drawing," say Matheny Studio on Vimeo. The studio designed the space and crayon accessories specifically for NGV, seeing an opportunity for unbridled artistry by our most abstract expressionist of citizens: children. Via Gizmodo and KNSTRCT. Pastello Draw Act will be open at the NGV until August 31.
As if Aesop didn't already lure us in with their disarmingly aromatic street samples, they've gone and fitted out their newest store with rich, glorious cedarwood. Teaming up with Japanese design and architecture firm Torafu Architects, Melbourne skincare and all-the-nice-things brand Aesop has unveiled the interiors for their latest chapter in Osaka. Snuggled in the Grand Front Osaka Mall, the seven square metre space is a delightfully minimal celebration of cedarwood, with shelves, islands and counters all super sleek blocks of once-baked pillars. Pairing down their interior design to match the stripped back branding of the products, Aesop worked closely with Torafu to be the prettiest kids on the block. "We wanted to create a natural feeling against the cold glass and stone materials decking the promenade. Looking for local materials, we found the once-baked Japanese cedar wood pillars," said Wei Ting of Torafu Architects. "When we presented the material choices to Aesop, they suggested using the pink colour for the walls. "While the rough veneer of the Japanese cedar creates a contrast with the homogenising effect of its surroundings, the top surface of the squared logs of varying length are punctuated by aptly placed sinks, thereby bringing about a soothing sense of rhythm to the store." Gotta love an aptly placed sink. Started in Melbourne in 1987 and seeing its first in-store customers in 2004 at a former underground carpark ramp space in St Kilda, Aesop are slowly infiltrating the world skincare market one unique store at a time, from Berlin to London's Covent Garden, the Hamptons to Shibuya, Tokyo. The makers of mindblowing moisturiser opened a rustic, oak and copper-clad store in Hong in February 2014, covered the roof of their December 2013 Chelsea, NYC store with one thousand different covers of literary journal The Paris Review and just months earlier used fruit picking ladders to quaintify their Marylebone, London store. Not to mention the myriad of pop-ups they've cranked out over the years, Aesop has realised over 25 instalments worldwide now. Founder Dennis Paphitis told Dezeen he was "horrified of the thought of a soulless chain," and aimed to invest time and significant funds toward unique design for each store. "There's a direct correlation between interesting, captivating store spaces and customer traffic within a store," he said. "I’ve always imagined what we do as the equivalent of a weighty, gold charm bracelet on the tanned wrist of a glamorous, well-read European woman who has travelled and collected interesting experiences. I felt and still do that it should be possible to grow in a lateral way without prostituting the essence of what the company is about." Now for some solid design porn. Here's Aesop's new cedarwood-clad, super sleek Osaka joint: Via Dezeen. Images by Takumi Ota.
Whether it's a dog in a superhero costume or a cat wearing, well, whatever you can manage to get a cat to wear, animals donning outfits ranks among the cutest sights your eyes can ever see. Puppers popping on Santa hats and baubles and posing for portraits might just raise the adorable stakes beyond previous levels, however — and it's not only on offer on Saturday, November 23 and Sunday, November 24, but you can also take a souvenir home with you. If your pet pooch deserves to be the on the front of this year's Christmas card, march on down to Surry Hills' Standard Store between 10.45am–4.45pm. That's when Dog Photog will be snapping pics of your four-legged furball as part of its two-day pop-up. It'll also be giving out free treats for all of the very good doggos, courtesy of Santa Paws. If you missed out last time, then you'll want to be there. Bookings are essential, and getting a gorgeous portrait of your cute canine will set you back $45 — or $70 if you have two dogs in the same household. You'll receive a 15-minute session, plus a jpeg per dog. And if you'd like to order a print to hang on your wall, you can do so on the day.
Name an adored Australian movie or book — or a film that was adapted to a novel — and, in plenty of cases, there's a theatre version as well. The same works vice versa, too. As a result, we've all had multiple ways to enjoy Muriel's Wedding, Moulin Rouge!, The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, Wake in Fright, Bran Nue Dae, Jasper Jones and more. And, before 2022 is out, the same will prove true of Looking for Alibrandi. Melina Marchetta's beloved book was initially published in 1992, and has been devoured by teenagers for three decades since. In 2000, it hit the big screen, with Pia Miranda as Josephine Alibrandi — and the movie has been given a workout for two-plus decades now. But this year marks the first time that Looking for Alibrandi will make the leap to the stage, with Belvoir doing the honours. Playing the Upstairs Theatre from Saturday, October 1–Sunday, November 6, Looking for Alibrandi will still chart the same multi-generational story it has always told no matter the format, with 17-year-old Sydney student Josie at its centre. She's in her last year of school, dreaming of a bright future and trying to navigate the clash of cultures that comes with being Italian Australian. She also gets to know her dad, and falls in love for the first time. Director Stephen Nicolazzo (Loaded, Merciless Gods) is guiding this stage version of the best-selling book to theatres, as adapted by Vidya Rajan — and starring Chanella Macri (Australian Realness), Lucia Mastrantone and Jennifer Vuletic (Because The Night) as the Alibrandi women. And if you need something to tide you over until the play hits Malthouse and Belvoir, check out the Looking for Alibrandi film trailer below: Top image: Kristian Gehradte.
When your nine-to-five plays out like a well-oiled machine, it can sometimes feel like each week is a little same-same. But Sydney is brimming with a fine bounty of things to experience and explore each and every day. So aside from casual laziness and a little lack of inspiration, there's really nothing stopping you from squeezing some adventure and spontaneity into your schedule. We've teamed up with Mazda3 to celebrate the landmark 40th anniversary of their iconic small cars, and in turn, help you celebrate the little things that bring that sense of adventure to life. Shake things up, as we give you seven different detours to take each week in Sydney. From Monday to Sunday, enrich your everyday with one completely achievable activity that inspires you to take the scenic route as you go about your daily routine. This week, peek into the newly resurrected Lansdowne Hotel, find out who is the most viking of all your friends and learn how to smoke your own meats and cheese. Plus, we've got your future detours sorted for the new few weeks here. All require no more effort than a tiny break from the norm — what's your excuse for not trying them all?
Creativity never dies. In its eighth year, HIDDEN will showcase over forty sculptures installed all over the historic Rookwood Cemetery. The exhibition features artists from all over the country and overseas, including Japan. Tasked with celebrating history, culture, remembrance, and love, each artist has contributed to this outdoor sculpture walk that hides creativity amongst gardens and graves. The exhibition will be launched with some music and refreshments at a garden party on Saturday, September 24. On Saturday, October 1, join in activities at the photography workshop and learn how to experiment with lighting and special effects, then unleash your skills on the cemetery and capture some spirit photos. Then on Sunday, October 9, come along in the afternoon and meet the artists behind some of your favourite works. There will also be some free tours during the exhibition led by HIDDEN curator Cassandra Lawrie.
In the catchy theme tune to one of the best, wildest and most cathartic TV shows ever made, aka Billy on the Street, comedian Billy Eichner promised to make dreams come true. How? By taking to the New York City pavement to ask ordinary folks about movies, music and TV shows, often with a celebrity in tow. Each episode also involved Eichner yelling at his unsuspecting contestants about their questionable pop culture taste or utter lack of entertainment knowledge — yep, right there on NYC's streets, with a camera pointing their way — and the end result was a hilarious dream to watch for audiences, too. Now, thanks to new rom-com Bros, Eichner is fulfilling fantasies in a different way. The Parks and Recreation and Difficult People treasure becomes the first openly gay man to co-write and star in his own major studio film, which is set to hit cinemas Down Under in October — and its just-dropped, extremely self-aware first trailer hilariously plays up exactly what making a mainstream queer rom-com means. What does that entail? "Something a straight guy might like?" Eichner's character Bobby Leiber asks. "Am I going to be in the middle of some high-speed chase, then all of a sudden fall in love with Ice Cube?" he continues. Based on the first sneak peek, no, that doesn't happen. Also the first gay romantic comedy from a major studio to feature an entirely LGBTQ principal cast, Bros sees Eichner play a podcaster who has been asked to write exactly this kind of flick — hence those questions about how it might turn out. This isn't just a queer rom-com about penning a queer rom-com, though. Along the way, Eichner's Leiber falls in love himself (with Killjoys' Luke Macfarlane), and navigates the chaos that ensues. Eichner co-wrote the script with director Nicholas Stoller (Bad Neighbours and its sequel), while Judd Apatow (The King of Staten Island, Trainwreck) produces. On-screen, the cast includes Ts Madison (Zola), Monica Raymund (Chicago Fire), Guillermo Díaz (Scandal), Guy Branum (Hacks), Bowen Yang (Saturday Night Live) and Amanda Bearse (Married with Children). Check out the trailer for Bros below: Bros opens in cinemas Down Under on October 27.
You've heard the old adage that it's the little things in life that make us happy, right? Well, something as simple as a cheap but damn fine coffee certainly fits that bill — and given that new cafe Little Evie Redfern roasts theirs in house and charges an affordable $3 per cup, they must agree. Setting up shop on the corner of Bourke Street, the inner-west's latest boutique coffee spot will satisfy your daytime caffeine cravings every day or the week. They'll also serve up homemade cakes to go with it, because taking care of business on the premises is what this new eatery is all about. Fancy a just-baked peanut butter cookie with your fresh-roasted cuppa, anyone? If you're after something more substantial food-wise, expect banana bread with ricotta and strawberry, breakfast bruschetta with horizon and haloumi, and lemon myrtle-cured salmon with scrambled eggs on Little Evie's all-day brekkie menu. Lunchtime options include sandwiches, salads, burgers and soups, aka the perfect kind of homemade fare. And if you're not a coffee fiend — because they do exist — then jugs of house-made soda, six types of cold-pressed juices, a range of shakes and smoothies, a sizeable wine and choice of four Aussie beers should satisfy your thirst. Find Little Evie Redfern at 688 Bourke Street, Redfern. For more information, visit their website and Facebook page.
Inundated as we are by eroticised bodies selling the fantasy of sex and danger in magazines every day, the new exhibition The Fashion of Helmut Newton and Bettina Rheims may at first cause some to glaze over. But the work of these two iconic photographers has shaped the conventions of fashion imagery that our eyes read with such casual fluency today. Fifty black-and-white photographs, dating from the 1970s through 1990s, show each artist's approach to representing gender: Newton's fascination with the allure of powerful women, and Rheims' with the fleeting gender ambiguity of the human body as it blooms into adulthood. Photographs from the Private Property portfolios of Newton (b.1920-d.2004) conjure an opulent fantasy world of chandeliers and fetish gear. Some images are self-satirising, consciously theatrical and hedonistic, like By-Product of an Advertising Sitting, Paris, where a laughing woman's breast is groped by a man smoking a cigar. Masked Woman by the Sea, Naked and Masked Woman by the Sea, Dressed raises the question of which is the more powerful or objectified state: nude, or corseted in leather? Sigourney Weaver appears in a striking portrait that reminds you why she is famous, while the phallic imagery of Woman with Snake, Berlin is amusingly obvious. Alexander McQueen said in 2001 that Newton was "preoccupied with role play and crossing the divide between the masculine and feminine"; Newton himself respectfully said, "Women are stronger than men — in every possible way," even as he perhaps exalted to excess the eroticism of women's sexual availability to men. While Rheims (b.1952-) was Newton's protegee, her photography explores androgyny and shades of power between the sexes through a more naturalistic lens. Rheims launched her career as a portrait photographer at 26, having worked already as a model, journalist, and gallerist. Her acclaimed Modern Lovers (1990) series of low-contrast studio portraits offers a soft, understated counterpoint to the sensual decadence and spicy wit of Newton's glamorous tableaux. Rheims scouted her models, all under age 20, on the street. A wall of portraits shows slender boys sporting earrings and bee-stung lips, and pubescent girls with strong bone structure and diminutive buds for breasts. A glimpse of the child they all recently were is discernible. Among them is a most disarming portrait of Kate Moss peeking from behind lush, heavy tendrils of hair. It's reminiscent of artist Rona Yefman's photograph of her transgender brother Gil emerging from the sea, looking both assured and vulnerable. How much you read into a face like that is up to you.
After its Australian debut saw 1000 Sydneysiders board a cruise ship for last year's immersive Titanic Experience, Beyond Cinema has decided to go all in with their fantastical cinematic extravaganzas — having already announced three new events for 2018. Just earlier this month, the immersive cinema company announced it'll transform a Melbourne CBD building into a jail for The Shawshank Redemption experience on June 30, and takeover Sydney's sandstone castle at Curzon Hall, Mansfield for The Great Gatsby version on August 19. Tickets for both events are currently on sale, with tickets including the film screening and additional options ranging from canapés or 'prison food' to bottomless drinks and a full sit-down dinner. Now, the cinematic journey will take a leap down the rabbit hole for a Mad Hatter's Tea Party on Sunday, June 24. Transcending the boundary between film and imagination, the two-hour Alice in Wonderland-themed immersive experience won't screen the film, but will instead recreate it with an English afternoon tea, which, much like the film, is expected to go insanely awry. Tickets are $83 and include a high tea spread, as well as a coffee and a glass of wine in the Royal Botanic Garden. As with other events, fancy dress is required, which in this case will be your most colourful and bizarre outfit — each attendee will also be assigned a character to gear their costume toward. Just don't be late.
No matter which city you live in, if you have a fondness for trivia — and a head full of otherwise pointless tidbits just waiting to be scribbled down quickly — then you've likely been to one of the many nights dedicated to such knowledge. During stints at home, you've probably tested your skills virtually, too, to help fill all that time within your own four walls. In 2020, Isolation Trivia hit the scene as a lockdown-friendly trivia night. It's still running strong this year, too, which is particularly great news for Greater Sydney and Greater Brisbane residents under lockdown. No, all the questions aren't just about staying indoors — but because that's now a regular part of our lives, these trivia nights are live-streamed. Aimon Clark, from Brisbane's Man vs Bear and Not On Your Rider trivia events, plays quizmaster. As you join in, you'll jot down your answers at home — and everyone can compare scores virtually, and battle for trivia supremacy. Isolation Trivia pops up around once a week, but to keep an eye on the next sessions — and to play along — you're best to head to the event's Facebook page. Top image: Not On Your Rider
Cafes are no longer just serving great coffee. They're serving great locally roasted coffee in many forms (from cold drip to batch and single origin espresso), great fare that caters to all dietaries. They also boast interesting decors and are passionate about sustainability and the ethical sourcing of ingredients. And our favourite cafes of the year do an impressive job at covering it all. From charcoal 'sushi' croissants and house-baked bread to all-day eateries and a minimalist Japanese cafe serving pork katsu breakfast rolls, these six cafes are doing it all. At Concrete Playground we encourage exploration and showcase innovation in our city every day, so we thought it fitting to reward those most talented whippersnappers pushing Sydney to be a better, braver city. And so, we nominated these six newbies for Best New Cafe in Concrete Playground's Best of 2018 Awards. You can check out all the winners over here.
A month after becoming the first commercial airline to pilot a non-stop flight from New York to Sydney, Qantas has flown direct from London to Sydney in a trial run. The ongoing research tests are part of the company's efforts to assess the feasibility of the airline's Project Sunrise scheme, which aims to implement the routes by 2022. For the past five years, Qantas has been promising to eradicate one of the worst things about international long-haul air travel to and from Australia: the dreaded stopover. First, it announced and then implemented non-stop 17-hour flights from Perth to London; however if you live on the east coast, you still have to get to Western Australia. So, the airline revealed that it was exploring direct routes from Sydney, not only to London but to New York as well. Since then, Qantas has been pursuing the idea enthusiastically, widening its plan to also include departures to and from Melbourne and Brisbane. Last month, the Aussie carrier took the next step by starting test flights, which were initially announced a couple of months prior. The huge 19.5-hour journey New York–Sydney journey was just the first trip, with Qantas then flying a brand new Boeing 787 Dreamliner from London to Sydney between Thursday, November 14 and Friday, November 15. The UK–Australia trip took 19 hours and 19 minutes from Heathrow, cutting down the current travel time for east coast-dwellers by around two hours — not including the inevitable stopover time once you get from Sydney, Melbourne or Brisbane to Perth. And, it travelled 17,800 kilometres, which is longer than the 16,200 kilometres from New York to Sydney. The two flights took around the same time, though, due to prevailing tail winds between London and Sydney. If you know your aviation history, you'll know that the London to Sydney trek has actually been made before; however the last time it happened was back in 1989, when Qantas made the journey on a Boeing 747-400 with just 23 people onboard. This time, around 50 passengers and crew made the journey, with the aircraft flying across 11 countries: England, the Netherlands, Germany, Poland, Belarus, Russia, Kazakhstan, China, Philippines, Indonesia and, obviously, Australia. Like its New York to Sydney counterpart, the aim of the journey was to gather data about inflight health and wellbeing. Passengers and crew were fitted with wearable technology devices to monitor their monitor sleep patterns, food and beverage consumption, physical movement and use of the entertainment system during the flights. The results will then be assessed by scientists and medical experts from the Charles Perkins Centre, with minimising jetlag, and helping identify optimum crew rest and work patterns part of their research. Testing the impact on pilots is also part of the research. While spending nearly a day on one single plane to get to the USA or Europe is definitely better than jumping on and off different vessels multiple times, it's still a seriously long slog. Yes, you'll avoid the sometimes long, always painful stopovers, but the lengthy journey isn't without its physical, mental and emotional toll — as anyone who has made the Perth to London trip knows — which is what makes this testing so important. A third trial flight, repeating the New York-Sydney route, is planned in December. Qantas is expected to announce whether Project Sunrise will progress to making commercial flights, rather than just trial flights, by the end of the same month. If it proceeds, it'll eclipse the current record for the world's longest direct flight — which clocks in at over 19 hours on Singapore Airlines' 15,322-kilometre Singapore to New York route. Images: Qantas.
Pedro Almodóvar has made many a fantastic film over the past four decades. In 2019, however, the Spanish director added one of his greatest movies yet to his resume. We're talking about Pain and Glory. If you saw it, you likely loved it. And, if you hadn't already watched your way through the inimitable auteur's back catalogue before then, the Academy Award-nominee should've inspired you to do just that. You've had a couple of years to start your viewing, of course — and plenty of time over the past two years, in fact. But whether you still have some gaps or you're fond of the big-screen experience, the Randwick Ritz is giving you a chance to check out Almodóvar's entire filmography in a cinema. Every Friday night between January 14–June 10, you can swoon over the filmmaker's emotionally charged dramas and rove your eyes over his colourful frames. No one makes movies quite like him, as this retrospective shows. Get ready to spend plenty of time staring at two of his favourite actors, too, with Antonio Banderas and Penelope Cruz each popping up regularly in the director's work. On the lineup: Banderas being exceptional in Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down!, Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, The Skin I Live In and the aforementioned Pain and Glory, plus Cruz at her stellar best in Volver, Broken Embraces and Oscar-winner All About My Mother — and Almodóvar's also-phenomenal brand new movie Parallel Mothers, too. Yes, the list goes on.
Working at the exciting intersection of design, art and iced treats, American artist Wei Li has just embarked on a pretty interesting experiment. In an effort to understand how aesthetics dictate taste, she's crafted a range of ice blocks shaped like totally unappealing things. Her series, Dangerous Popsicles, features treats that resemble a range of cacti, influenza, E-coli, HIV and chicken pox. Yum! If you thought the plastic corners of Zooper Doopers were dangerous, this stuff is undoubtedly next level. Modelled exclusively after dangerous viruses and cacti, Li's popsicles are armoured with little bulbs and thorns that make them incredibly difficult to eat. But here's the catch. Though they're made with the help of silicon moulding, these little jerks are comprised of the simple sugar and water recipe you'd use for any standard ice block. Anyone who wants to devour their deliciousness has to first fight through the pain. This dichotomy is central to what Li is trying to explore. "What will happen when we put these dangerous thing on one of our most sensitive organs, our tongues?" she asks. "Does pain really bring pleasure? Is there beauty in user-friendly things?" The artist's concern with conflicting sensations is something she's explored in the past. Her hilarious (and totally disturbing) video work Machine Pornography is much the same. By filming tools and machinery equipment doing suggestive "sexual activities" — don't worry, it's not nearly as bad as it sounds — she tests the viewer's connotations of certain actions and presents something conflicting and unsettling. Though we doubt the Dangerous Popsicles will be hitting shelves any time soon, we'd love to give them a try. This is the only time we'll ever say this, but we could really do with some delicious influenza right about now. Via PSFK.
If you're programming an openair cinema by the beach, which movies are a must-see? When Sunset Cinema hits Bondi Pavilion from November 2023, Jaws, Blue Crush and Finding Nemo tick the oceanside picture palace boxes. If you're showing flicks in the lead up to Christmas, what else has to get a whirl? Cue Home Alone, Die Hard and Elf, of course. And, if you're setting up shop in a year where Barbie had Ken declare that his job is "beach", you really need to show that as well. Get ready, Sydney cinephiles — all of the above are covered in Sunset Cinema's debut Bondi program. As first announced in September, cinema will join sun, surf and sand as one of the best things to enjoy at Bondi from Friday, November 17, which is when Sunset Cinema heads to Dolphin Court. There'll be bean bags to sit on. There'll be a bar serving boozy beverages, food trucks dishing up bites and popcorn as a snack option. There'll be movies under the stars, of course, with the full lineup just dropping. The season will get started with My Big Fat Greek Wedding 3, then also show recent releases such as Asteroid City, A Haunting in Venice, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem and Past Lives. They aren't out yet, but Saltburn and The Marvels will be by the time that Sunset Cinema rolls around. Among the water-themed titles, Ground Swell: The Other Side of Fear and Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl are also on the bill. And, amid the festive flicks, so are The Holiday, Love Actually and The Nightmare Before Christmas. Also going retro: Dirty Dancing. In other words, there's plenty to watch — all under the beachside sky. Sunset Cinema is no stranger to Sydney. Over the summer of 2022–23, it screened in St Ives and also North Sydney, with a season at the latter also on the itinerary again from January 2024. Getting its projectors spinning at Bondi Pavilion is a brand-new addition to its lineup, however, and an exciting one. Film lovers can get their al fresco flick fix until Saturday, December 23, with Sunset Cinema screening from Monday–Saturday. BYO picnics are encouraged; however, the event is fully licensed, which means alcohol can only be purchased onsite. And if you don't pack enough snacks, that's where the hot food options, plus plenty of the requisite movie treats like chips, chocolates, lollies and popcorn, come in.
Here's a scary statistic: in Australia alone, three million coffee pods go into the bin daily. Over eight days, that's enough trash to fill an Olympic-sized swimming pool. Wish your caffeine habit weren't such a messy strain on the planet? We'd like you to meet Tripod Coffee's brand new coffee capsule. Not only biodegradable, these coffee pods are certified compostable, too. Plus, they fit into your Nespresso machine (or the like). After making yourself a brew, simply toss the pod into your green bin, and it'll break down within 90 days at a commercial composting facility — this handy diagram shows how the pod's transformation rate compares to traditional coffee pods. "Traditional capsules are aluminium or plastic with foil lids, but ours are a compostable biopolymer, with a paper lid," says Ed Cowan, who co-founded Tripod with fellow cricket star Steve Cazzulino while in between matches. For the unacquainted, biopolymer is a macromolecule (like protein) that grows inside a living organism. It comes from the Earth, so it's happy to make its return, without leaving a trace behind. That's why Tripod's capsules are different to most others. Sure, there are plenty of other biodegradable pods around, but most of them aren't compostable. "Every compostable capsule by definition is biodegradable," says Cowan. "But not every biodegradable capsule is compostable." The first of Tripod's coffees in the new capsules is The Green Gatsby, a 100% certified organic coffee from Papua New Guinea, and over the next few months, the brand's six other signature blends will follow suit. Find these mean green waste-fighting machines online here. Learn more about Tripod Coffee on their website.
If your pup has its own Instagram account and you refer to yourself as a 'fur parent', we're fairly certain you'll want in on this competition. Local pet food brand Ivory Coat wants to put your dog on the small screen. The luxe brand is currently running a Dog Search, which will see 20 lucky pooches featured in Ivory Coat's next TV commercial. All you have to do is enter your details here, along with a recent, personality-filled photo of your fur baby. All breeds and cross-breeds of all ages are welcome. Along with being featured on TV, your pup could win a portrait by a professional photographer, a pet profile on the Ivory Coat website and social media pages, and a one-year supply of Ivory Coat food. There is one catch, though: your dog needs to be an Ivory Coat consumer. So, if they've never tried the stuff, it's time to grab a bag online or head to one of your local stockists. If your pooch is a little hesitant about changing brands, Ivory Coat is made in Australia using locally sourced meat with no additives or fillers. Plus superfoods, fruits, veggies and wholegrains are mixed in or there's a grain-free option if you prefer. The pet food brand also has options for dogs (and cats) of every breed, size and age. The 20 lucky winners (humans and pooches) will need to be in Sydney for shoot between July 17–19. While NSW's borders are currently open to all domestic tourists, we suggest checking the Australian Government website before booking flights or locking in a road trip. Your doggo should be well-behaved and friendly, but it doesn't need to be dog show-level trained — understanding simple commands like 'sit' and 'stay' will do. If this sounds like your pup, now's the time to make 'em a star. Head to the Ivory Coat website for entry guidelines and T&Cs. FYI, this story includes some affiliate links. These don't influence any of our recommendations or content, but they may make us a small commission. For more info, see Concrete Playground's editorial policy.
As Sydney continues its obsession with Omakase and fine dining — despite the cost-of-living crisis — venues like The Star's Sydney hatted Japanese Omakase restaurant Sokyo Sydney are leading the charge in offering luxe culinary experiences without busting your budget. Developed by executive chef Daniel Kwak, Sokyo is serving up a limited-edition tasting menu inspired by Haku Vodka, a craft spirit from the House of Suntory. The $100 menu offers a taste of omakase dining for a third of the price and is available Mondays to Thursdays fin July and August. Where's This Special Offer Available? The special menu is being served at Sokyo, The Star Sydney's high-class Omakase restaurant. The usual Omakase experience is $300, but this special Haku Vodka-inspired menu will get you in the door for just a third of that, and it includes a bespoke Haku martini. Sokyo's culinary offerings are spearheaded by executive chef Daniel Kwak. Daniel joined Sokyo in 2013 and has been pivotal in establishing it as one of Sydney's top Japanese restaurants. Born in Korea, he grew up immersed in the restaurant industry. After studying culinary arts and working in Fiji, he moved to Australia in 2008, plying his trade at Waqu Japanese restaurant. Daniel joined Sokyo as a Junior Sous Chef in 2013, focusing on creating perfectly balanced, umami-rich dishes and has worked up the ranks. What's on the Special Menu? The experience begins with a delicate salmon tartare featuring fresh Tasmania's Storm Bay salmon, crispy senbei (rice cracker) and a subtle heat from karashi su miso. Next on the menu is the toro crispy rice, combining rich, fatty toro and spicy tuna with the crispiness of Hokkaido rice. It's dressed with a special Haku Vodka-infused soy sauce, made especially for this menu collaboration. Following this is the panko-fried oyster, where two crispy panko-coated Pacific oysters are matched with sweet and tangy piquillo peppers. Premium caviar can be added for an additional touch of luxury. The fourth dish features wagyu kushiyaki — a luxurious combination of wagyu beef and foie gras enhanced with salted maple syrup made with Haku Vodka. The meal concludes with the Sokyo Cornetto, a mini cone filled with spiced sultana ice cream and chestnut. It's a fun novelty dessert to end the decadent culinary journey. But if you're still snacky, you can add the house-made Sokyo mochi ice cream for an additional $7. What's the Special Martini? It wouldn't be a Haku Vodka-inspired menu without an elevated vodka cocktail. The signature serve for Haku Vodka is a martini. As part of this brand collaboration, Sokyo's bartenders have created a bespoke martini that complements the special tasting menu while celebrating Haku Vodka. The result, the Hana Momo martini, is a bright and zesty number with Haku Vodka, peach liqueur, yuzu, orange bitters and garnished with aromatic dehydrated orange. The bright citrus notes of yuzushu in the accompanying Hana Momo Haku Vodka martini cuts through the richness of the wagyu and fish dishes with a clean, smooth finish that refreshes the palate. What's Haku Vodka? Haku Vodka is a Japanese craft spirit made entirely from Japanese white rice. It boasts a soft, rounded and subtly sweet flavour profile. Named 'Haku', which translates to white' and brilliant' in Japanese, this vodka exemplifies the artistry involved in creating a clear, clean-tasting spirit. Filtered through bamboo charcoal, Haku Vodka serves as the ideal foundation for Sokyo's team to explore a symphony of flavours, textures, and aromas. Haku Vodka is produced at the Osumi Distillery in Kagoshima, Kyushu, a seaside city renowned for its pristine waters and traditional craftsmanship. This region imparts a sense of natural tranquillity and purity to the vodka. The serene coastal environment of Kagoshima has also inspired our culinary story at Sokyo. How to Nab a Spot? In order to sample this delectable menu at Sokyo, you must make a reservation on the website. The menu is only available until the end of August. Each reservation includes the five dishes plus a complimentary Momo Haku Martini and will set you back $100. You can always add another round of the tasty tipples if you like for $27. The Sokyo x Haku Vodka set menu is available Mondays to Thursdays in July and August. Make your reservation on the website. Haku Vodka's signature serve is the Haku martini — a drink that showcases the craftsmanship, nuanced flavour and exceptional quality of the premium Japanese liquid. To learn more, head to the House of Suntory website. Image Credit: Jude Cohen
UPDATE, October 26, 2022: The Good Nurse released in select cinemas Down Under on October 20, and streams via Netflix from October 26. It isn't called CULLEN — Monster: The Charles Cullen Story. It doesn't chart the murders of a serial killer who's already a household name. And, it doesn't unfurl over multiple episodes. Still, Netflix-distributed true-crime film The Good Nurse covers homicides, and the person behind them, that are every bit as grim and horrendous as the events dramatised in DAHMER — Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story. Such based-on-reality tales that face such evil are always nightmare fodder, but this Eddie Redmayne (Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore)- and Jessica Chastain (The Forgiven)-starring one, as brought to the screen by Danish filmmaker Tobias Lindholm (A War, A Hijacking), taps into a particularly terrifying realm. The culprit clearly isn't the good nurse of the movie's moniker, but he is a nurse, working in intensive care units no less — and for anyone who has needed to put their trust in the health system or may in the future (aka all of us), his acts are gut-wrenchingly chilling. Hospitals are meant to be places that heal, even in America's cash-driven setup where free medical care for all isn't considered a basic right and a societal must. Hospitals are meant to care for the unwell and injured, as are the doctors, nurses and other staff who race through their halls. There is one such person in The Good Nurse, Amy Loughren, who Chastain plays based on a real person. In 2003, in New Jersey, she's weathering her own struggles: she's a single mother to two young girls, she suffers from cardiomyopathy to the point of needing a heart transplant, and she can't tell her job about her health condition because she needs to remain employed for four more months to qualify for insurance to treat it. Then enters Cullen (Redmayne), the newcomer on Loughren's night shifts, a veteran of nine past hospitals, an instant friend who offers to help her cope with her potentially lethal ailment and also the reason that their patients start dying suddenly. There's no spoiler alert needed about The Good Nurse's grisly deeds or the person responsible. Cullen's name hasn't been changed in Krysty Wilson-Cairns' (Last Night in Soho, 1917) script, which adapts Charles Graeber's 2013 non-fiction book The Good Nurse: A True Story of Medicine, Madness, and Murder, and Loughren's similarly remains the same. The Good Nurse also opens with the quietly disquieting Cullen retreating as someone in a different hospital years earlier goes into convulsions — standing back motionless, he tries to appear anxious but instead looks like a creepy blank canvas. Accordingly, that he's the cause of much of the movie's horrors is a given from the outset, but that's only one of Lindholm and Wilson-Cairns' angles. As aided by centring Loughren's plight, The Good Nurse is also a film about institutional failings and coverups with very real consequences. Indeed, as set to an eerie score by Biosphere (Burma Storybook), there's a procedural feel to Lindholm's first feature in America; that he helmed episodes of Mindhunter beforehand doesn't come as a surprise. There are cops, too, in the form of detectives Baldwin (Nnamdi Asomugha, Sylvie's Love) and Braun (Noah Emmerich, Dark Winds), who are brought in seven weeks after a patient's passing just after Cullen arrives. But nurse-turned-administrator Linda Garran (Fear the Walking Dead), who summons the police, is hardly forthcoming — about the almost-two-month delay or with information overall. It isn't in the hospital's interests to be upfront, which is why and how Cullen has kept moving from healthcare facility to healthcare facility, and notching up a body count at each by spiking IV bags with fatal doses of insulin and other medications. No hospital wants to be seen to be at fault, and won't warn fellow institutions, either. Long before figures are splashed across the screen — the significant number of victims admitted to, and the far more vast tally authorities suspect Cullen has killed — The Good Nurse is distressing. Cinematographer Jody Lee Lipes (A Beautiful Day in the Neighbourhood) lights the movie like a horror flick, using darkness and shadows for a story filled with them, but there's more than just an icy tone and mood at play in that choice. Crucially absent is the vision of slick, gleaming medical setups seen in hospital-focused TV dramas and comedies, and in illness weepies, because nothing is softened or soothed here. Even if Cullen hadn't crossed her path, Loughren's own relationship with the health industry is disturbing enough. Doting on her patients with a dream of a nurturing disposition, she truly fits the film's title — and yet her own life depends upon her grinning and bearing her own sickness so that she doesn't lose her job, otherwise she won't be able to afford the treatment necessary for her own survival. Fresh from winning an Oscar for The Eyes of Tammy Faye after two prior nominations, and having a busy year with The 355, The Forgiven and Armageddon Time already in or bound for cinemas — and with TV show George & Tammy also soon to drop — Chastain is restrained but commanding as a woman in an excruciating situation several times over. Frequently, and with Lipes peering close to her face, she conveys The Good Nurse's engrained dismay and shock purely in her gaze. That expression is loaded with commitment and concern as well, in a performance that's always the movie's weathervane. Fellow past Academy Award recipient Redmayne is nowhere near as subtle, proving both forceful in Cullen's ordinary mannerisms and later histrionics; a frequent trait of his work in general, it mostly fits given his current part is needling from the get-go. In far different territory than the last feature boasting his involvement — that'd be Danish day-drinking dramedy Another Round, which he co-wrote — Lindholm lets unease drip from Redmayne as Cullen, rather than have it astonish. He isn't interested in endeavouring to explain the why of it all, either, accepting that something this awful can happen because it has, and serving up no attempt at finding motivations for Cullen's actions. Instead, he lays bare the human toll, including moments with two men whose existences are ripped apart thanks to trips with loved ones to the wrong hospital at the wrong time. Taking cues from the likes of Spotlight, Lindholm also exposes the system that enables such atrocities. Of course, swap nurses for doctors and viewers of Dr Death will feel like they're in familiar terrain, although that also helps make The Good Nurse more upsetting — knowing there are other true tales like this can only heighten the discomfort.
If the last couple of years in pop culture are to be believed, it mightn't be a great idea to go away with a character played by Cristin Milioti. In three of the always-excellent actor's most recent high-profile roles, she has decamped to idyllic surroundings, only to find anything but bliss awaiting. Palm Springs threw a Groundhog Day-style time loop her way in its titular setting. Made for Love saw her trapped by sinister futuristic possibilities. In The Resort, which hails from Palm Springs screenwriter Andy Siara, she now has the ten-year itch — and a getaway to Mexico that's meant to soothe it slides swiftly into a wild mystery. In this instantly twisty comedy-thriller — which brings its first three episodes to Stan in Australia on Friday, July 29, and TVNZ On Demand in New Zealand, then drops the remaining five weekly — Miloti plays Emma, spouse to William Jackson Harper's (The Good Place) Noah. After a decade of marriage, they're celebrating at the Bahía del Paraíso in the Yucatán, but they're really trying to reignite their spark. At this stage in their relationship, he recoils at her bad breath, she makes fun of him falling asleep on the couch, and they're rarely in sync; even when they're floating along the resort's lazy river, cocktails in hand, they want different things. And, they each tackle their matrimonial malaise in wildly dissimilar ways. She wants to find herself above all else, while he's desperate to reconnect. What they both find is a missing-persons case from 15 years ago, after Emma goes tumbling off a quad-biking trail, bumps her head and spies an old mobile phone. It belongs to Sam (Skyler Gisondo, Licorice Pizza), a guest at the nearby but now-shuttered Oceana Vista Resort, who was on holidays over Christmas 1997 with his parents (IRL couple Dylan Baker, Hunters, and Becky Ann Baker, Big Little Lies), as well as his girlfriend Hannah (Debby Ryan, Insatiable). As Emma learns via Sam's photos and text messages, all wasn't rosy in his romantic life. After running into fellow guest Violet (Nina Bloomgarden, Good Girl Jane), his SMS history skews in her direction. But the pair promptly disappeared, and any potential clues were lost when a hurricane struck and destroyed their getaway spot. Initially, Emma and Noah could've waltzed right out of The White Lotus, which also saw a sunny and sandy holiday turn sour — and surveyed couples looking to reignite their love, or solidify it, but getting caught up in thorny feelings and a murky death, too. When Emma takes to solving Sam and Violet's disappearance with the kind of enthusiasm she clearly hasn't shown towards Noah for years, she could been on loan from Only Murders in the Building as well. And, the more that the obsessed Emma and the reluctant Noah investigate, the more than The Resort has in common with Palm Springs. No one relives the same day again and again, but showrunner, writer and executive producer Siara displays the same sense of playfulness. Can bonding over a 15-year-old cold case fix a flailing marriage? Did a holiday romance end in tragedy all that time ago? They're The Resort's two key questions. It has more, many uttered by Emma and Noah as they track down every tidbit they can, but they're not the only people interested. In the series' flashback timeline, Oceana Vista Resort's head of security Baltasar (Luis Gerardo Méndez, Narcos: Mexico) tries to get to the bottom of things, while Violet's father Murray (Nick Offerman, Pam & Tommy) is understandably frantic. Also part this layered tale: Gabriela Cartol (Hernán) as knowing concierge Luna, Ben Sinclair (Thor: Love and Thunder) as erratic resort owner Alex, plus Parvesh Cheena (Mythic Quest) and Michael Hitchcock (Barb & Star Go to Vista Del Mar) as two married Teds dissecting their own long-running nuptials. The Resort's three main threads — a marriage in peril, holidays gone wrong and crime-inspired sleuthing — are as familiar as scenarios get on-screen in the past few years. Indeed, picturesque vacations taking turns for the worst have become a pandemic-era staple, as M Night Shyamalan's Old, the Tim Roth-starring Sundown, the aforementioned The White Lotus and fellow TV series Nine Perfect Strangers have all demonstrated. Siara moulds his addition to the landscape knowingly, though. He approaches all three of his well-worn setups with an understanding of why they're popular, and with a roguish eagerness to zig and zag all over the place. One of the show's biggest thrills comes from seeing just where it'll veer off to next, even while working with such recognisable beats. Surprises arise not just for Emma, Noah, Sam, Violet and company, but for The Resort's audience. Something that won't astonish: how quickly bingeable the series becomes, even though it's drip-feeding out its later episodes. Like Emma and Noah, getting drawn deep into the mystery is easy. Like Sam and Violet, too, getting caught up in the excitement comes just as naturally. The need to piece together puzzles kicks into gear while watching — something that Siara also cultivated on the tonally similar, criminally cancelled-too-soon Lodge 49, and rang true of producer Sam Esmail's Mr Robot as well. It helps that The Resort always looks enticing, not just via locations bound to inspire travel yearnings, but in the detail that resonates in its jungles, caves, hotel bars and lavish penthouses alike. The show's four directors, including Sinclair (High Maintenance), Australian filmmaker Ariel Kleiman (Partisan), and Daniel Garcia and Rania Attieh (Two Sentence Horror Stories), ensure that everything seen on-screen is lively, fascinating and probing in tandem. As guides through The Resort's many turns — as audience surrogates as well — Milioti and Harper are supremely well-cast, even if both have played these types of characters before (for the latter, see: season two of Love Life). The series could've focused solely their way and unearthed ample treasures, stirring insights into love and loss among them. That said, the same is true of the reliably engaging Gisondo (who keeps building on a resume that also spans Santa Clarita Diet and The Righteous Gemstones) and Bloomgarden as Sam and Violet find their own riddle to solve. Offerman's determined father adds poignancy, plus another excellent turn to his his name, but it's Méndez who best embodies The Resort. Sometimes he's tasked with teasing out minutiae and intrigue, sometimes he's delightfully goofy, and he's always impossible to look away from. Check out the trailer for The Resort below: The Resort is available to stream in Australia via Stan and in New Zealand via TVNZ On Demand. Images: Marisol Pesquera / Peacock.
