What's better than a freshly brewed cup of coffee? Only having to wait 15 seconds for it. Much-loved Surry Hills cafe Single O (previously Single Origin Roasters) has streamlined the filter coffee process, launching a first-of-its-kind coffee on tap. As well as being extremely fast, Single O's new filter coffee taps are also self-serve. Just tap your credit card (if you're not heading in on the free day), choose one of the four taps and wait 15 seconds while your reusable cup, or loan-a-mug, fills with freshly brewed batch coffee. You can choose from uniquely crafted brews such as the Sweet Sixteen Birthday Blend, with notes of peaches and cream; and the mango- and guava-heavy Nicaragua Cup of Excellence. It'll set you back between $4–5 a cup, or you can order a tasting flight of three for $7. It's also serving up a varied brunch and lunch menu, which includes everything from avo toast and bacon and egg rolls through to crocodile and corn croquettes. There are also a few gluten-free and vegan options, and a motherload of great sides to customise your eggs on toast. You'll also be able to check out the popular coffee spot's recently renovated and expanded interior, which was designed by Sydney architect Luchetti Krelle, who's also behind Barangaroo restaurant Banskii, lower north shore bar Manly Greenhouse and Marickville cafe Matinee Coffee.
If you're looking for a weekend getaway that feels like a holiday without costing too many kilometres, then New Zealand's west coast beaches are the ticket. Often regarded as one of Auckland's best-kept secrets, these black sand beauties are untamed, untouched and accessible. Just an easy 45-minute drive from Auckland airport, the only time constraint is fitting everything in. Explore the tousled beaches, charming eateries and countless outdoor activities that the west coast has on offer. Whether you'd prefer to conquer the rugged cliffs of Piha, surf Muriwai or take a stroll between vines at one of the many vineyards, it's the destination for all paces and palates. Here, you'll find the food you should sample, the wine you should drink, things you should do and the places you should stay while on this wild retreat. [caption id="attachment_664056" align="alignnone" width="1920"] The Hunting Lodge.[/caption] DRINK Rolling hills underfoot and glass in hand, fill your lungs with fresh air and your belly with wine. Kumeu is New Zealand's oldest wine region, so the wine is rich in tradition as well as flavour. Like its grapes, the options are plentiful when it comes to exploring the area's boutique wineries and orchards. Book a wine tour and while you sip, soak up plenty of west coast greenery, as well as (hopefully) a little bit of sunshine, too. Home to New Zealand's most-awarded sparkling wine, Soljans Estate Winery is definitely one to drop a pin on. Known as the gateway to Kumeu wine country, it may be proof that you never forget your first love. Take a tour of the winery and hear the rich history behind the vineyard, then seal the deal with a glass of wine and something to eat from Soljans Café, named as one of Auckland's top 40 restaurants and also one of the top 20 winery restaurants in the world. It's one for the memory bank. [caption id="attachment_664050" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Frederick Müller.[/caption] If you think true love doesn't come by twice in a lifetime, then you need to try Kumeu River Wines. Set in green pastures, it's a picture of paradise. While you're sampling the wine, be sure to have a tipple (or a large glass) of the chardonnay. Still made in the old-world style of classic French varietals and known as being world-class, what's not to love? Fit for families, couples or the lone wine ranger, The Hunting Lodge Winery has got what you need. The 80-acre estate features a winery and bottling works, a restaurant, cafe and a family zone. With a pétanque pitch surrounded by an olive grove and kids' play area, it's a winner for everyone. There's also an option to take a stroll in the vines for those looking for a bit of romance. From pasture to plate to your mouth, it's an experience not to miss. Other cellar doors worth checking out while roaming the west are Babich Wines, Coopers Creek Vineyard, Kerr Farm Vineyard, Mazurans and Twin Totora Wines. [caption id="attachment_664058" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Hallertau.[/caption] EAT While it may be wine country, the food on the west coast deserves a gastro tour of its very own. Whether you have a clifftop walk, a day at the beach or an afternoon of mountain biking planned, you must schedule some time to taste the best of the west. Known for its fresh seasonal produce, The Tasting Shed presents a unique experience for the palate. Owners and husband-wife team, Ganesh and Jo had a vision to offer the freshest ingredients and accentuate them with an array of wines by the glass. From start to finish, your tastebuds will be taken on an adventure, with food combinations that surprise and delight and an ambience so homely it'll almost be like you're dining in your own house (except that you will be dining at one of Auckland's best restaurants). [caption id="attachment_664054" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Riverhead Tavern[/caption] From countryfolk and townspeople to smugglers and clergymen, The Riverhead Historic Tavern has seen it all. Nestled on the shores of the upper Waitemata, The Riverhead is steeped in local history, acting as a gateway to lands in the north prior to the completion of roads and railway. Come and taste the offerings of this premium pub and be part of its unfinished story. For a helluva good time, visit Hallertau Brewery. Designed to bring people together over good quality German-style beer and the community feel of an Irish pub, it's a stop you'll want to schedule on your itinerary. On a sunny day, the expansive outdoor biergarten will have you covered, literally (no one needs a nasty sunburn when they're on holidays). The brewery was also featured as one of New Zealand's top 100 restaurants. Other eateries worth stretching your stomach for are the aforementioned Soljans Cafe, Blossoms Espresso Cafe and Murray at Piha for fresh tacos. And on the way home, grab a scoop of real fruit ice cream from Phil Greig Strawberry Gardens. [caption id="attachment_565445" align="alignnone" width="1283"] Woodhill Mountain Bike Park.[/caption] DO Water babies, wine connoisseurs and the daring weekenders won't be disappointed by the activities the west has to offer. If you're up for hanging ten and donning a wetty, take a surf lesson at the local Muriwai Surf School. You'll be pulling shakas and flicking that imaginary bleach blonde hair off your face in no time. If you'd rather stay out of the water, go horse trekking along the expansive beach instead. For more stunning black sand beaches, head to Piha to tackle Lion Rock or Karekare which is best known for its cameo in The Piano. For those who love a round of golf, try for a hole in one at the Muriwai Golf Links. Although we can't promise that you'll be able to play with the former Prime Minister and Obama, we can promise incredible views. If you're looking to pump a bit of adrenaline around your body, unleash your inner monkey among the treetops on Tree Adventures's high wires and flying foxes in Woodhill Forest. Or if that's not enough, try tandem skydiving over Parakai at Skydive Auckland. If you simply need another activity, race on over 100 kilometres of purpose-built tracks and jumps at the Woodhill Mountain Bike Park. But don't forget to visit the tranquil oasis that is the Corban Estate Arts Centre in Henderson for a little R&R to follow. Take a guided tour, have a look at the gallery shop and enjoy a treat or two from the Coffee Studio. [caption id="attachment_664055" align="alignnone" width="1920"] 216 Luxury Accommodation.[/caption] STAY The clifftops of Muriwai house gannet seabird colonies during the summer months and you too can wake up listening to the waves by staying at 216 Luxury Accommodation, self-contained luxury accommodation at Muriwai Beach. If you're after something a little more rustic, book into the Muriwai Beach Campground located just off the black sands of the beach. And for accommodation somewhere in between, there are several Airbnb cottages that'll set you up in the trees within the Waitakere Ranges, among the nikau palms near Piha or in the bush just near Muriwai Beach and the gannet colonies. Alternatively, you can opt to stay centrally in Auckland city in one of the many hotels or boutique apartments, just a 45-minute drive from the west coast — that way you'll get a chance to see more of the city, including its island of wine. LET'S DO THIS, HOW DO I GET THERE? Flights to Auckland from Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane are super short — around three-and-a-half hours on average — and Air New Zealand flies direct from all three cities and offers accessible fares. Once you arrive in Auckland, jump in a hire car and let your adventure begin. https://youtu.be/GsNKQwXRpC4 Book your flights to Auckland with Air New Zealand and start planning your next long weekend away. Header image: Russell Street.
When summer arrives in Australia, everywhere becomes a cinema — or so it can seem. After spending winter watching movies indoors, including when festival season is in full swing, film lovers get their pick of outdoor spots to catch a flick. No one should go throwing stones at random but, if you did, it wouldn't be hard to hit an outside picture palace in Sydney and Melbourne when the weather warms up. One such movie-adoring mainstay is Sunset Cinema, which has locked in its return for the summer of 2024–25 (and for the end of spring and beginning of autumn in some locations). This time around, it'll set up its big screen in six places. Bondi Beach is the first — but seasons in Canberra, North Sydney, Wollongong and Abbotsford in Melbourne will also start before the year is out. Then, come January, it's St Kilda's turn. For Sydneysiders keen to watch a film with a beachy backdrop, you'll be heading to Dolphin Court at Bondi Pavilion again between Thursday, November 14–Saturday, December 21. The six-week season is fittingly opening with The Pool, the new documentary about Bondi Icebergs, before screening a mix of new, recent and classic titles Tuesday–Sunday weekly. On the list: Smile 2, Deadpool & Wolverine, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, Gladiator II, Saturday Night and Wicked among 2024 releases; the retro likes of The Princess Diaries, Lords of Dogtown, the OG Freaky Friday, Finding Nemo, 500 Days of Summer, Dirty Dancing and Shrek; and Christmas viewing via Elf, The Holiday, Love Actually and Home Alone. Canberra's run stretches across Thursday, November 21–Saturday, February 22 at Australian National Botanic Gardens, with The Wild Robot, Memoir of a Snail, Paddington in Peru, Moana 2, Better Man and Kraven the Hunter on its lineup, plus festive fare and plenty of the same flicks as Bondi. There's no lineup out yet for Sunset Cinema's return to North Sydney Oval from Thursday, December 5–Saturday, March 15 — or for its Wollongong Botanic Garden stop across Thursday, December 12–Saturday, March 22. Also, there's no program or set location for Abbotsford's Thursday, December 5–Saturday, January 4 season or St Kilda's Thursday, January 9–Saturday, March 8 counterpart. Accordingly, watch this space. Whatever gets the projectors whirring at each site around the country, BYO picnics are encouraged, but the event is fully licensed, so alcohol can only be purchased onsite. Didn't pack enough snacks? There's hot food options, plus plenty of the requisite movie treats like chips, chocolates, lollies and popcorn. Sunset Cinema 2024–25 Dates Bondi Beach, NSW: Thursday, November 14–Saturday, December 21, 2024 at Dolphin Court Canberra, ACT: Thursday, November 21, 2024–Saturday, February 22, 2025 at Australian National Botanic Gardens North Sydney, NSW: Thursday, December 5, 2024–Saturday, March 15, 2025 at North Sydney Oval Wollongong, NSW: Thursday, December 12, 2024–Saturday, March 22, 2025 at Wollongong Botanic Garden Abbotsford, VIC: Thursday, December 5, 2024–Saturday, January 4, 2025, venue TBC St Kilda, VIC: Thursday, January 9–Saturday, March 8, 2025, venue TBC Sunset Cinema's 2024–25 season runs at various venues in New South Wales, Victoria and the Australian Capital Territory from November–March. Head to the Sunset Cinema website for further details.
Darlinghurst's The Strand Hotel reopened last year after a full-venue transformation. The ground floor had become a luxe French bistro, the accommodation had been given a boutique makeover and the rooftop is now a sunlit cocktail oasis. Not content with this swathe of exciting additions to William Street, the venue has now added one of Sydney's best happy hours to its menu. The Strand is offering $1 oysters for 90 minutes every single day. The deal is available each afternoon Monday–Friday, 4–5.30pm, so swing by for a post-work or weekend afternoon dose of oysters. There are a couple of caveats to consider. In order to claim the deal, you have to also order a full-priced drink. Plus, you have to order a minimum of six oysters — but who's complaining about a half-dozen oysters for just $6? There are plenty of drinks to satisfy any oyster occasion. You can keep it simple with a beer on tap, or throw caution to the wind with one of the signature cocktails like the French Tart (which combines vodka, elderflower liqueur and rosemary syrup) or The Camus ( a peated whiskey, dark rum and chocolate bitters combo). There are also mocktails and non-alcoholic beers on offer for non-drinkers. Head to The Strand's website if you want to make a booking during the happy hour times.
Founded in 1998, the National Young Writers' Festival is this year celebrating its sweet sixteenth. Of course this doesn't mean they'll be spending the whole festival talking about blogs and feelings while chugging cheap champagne. Although, come to think of it, there is this panel on blogging and this thing all about feelings. And okay, sure, this fake formal is bound to have some Passion Pop on hand. But contrary to the testimony of anyone who's actually met a 16-year-old, being around for that long does give you a bit of wisdom. NYWF consistently delivers an appealing free program and offers amazing insight, advice and assistance to young creatives from all over the country. Like migration, hundreds of wide-eyed literary types descend on Newcastle for it each year — Moleskines in hand. From October 3-6, this year's festival will host 75 free events featuring over 100 young artists including the likes of Tom Ballard, Lorelei Vashti, Benjamin Law and Anna Krien. Over just three days, this can all be a bit overwhelming. NYWF offers frank and honest discussions with the best and most relatable voices in Australian writing, but how can we take it in with everybody talking at once? With the program just released and our fingers poised over Jetstar's 'confirm' button, here's a little of what you can expect from the blossoming festival — Passion Pop and all. Workshops and Panels First and foremost, NYWF is a time for the country's up-and-comers to get together and hone their craft. Ever feel like the lit nerd or the outsider? Don't worry. Everyone sitting next to you at this festival fawned over Vonnegut in high school; for these three days no one's going to give you shit for doing an arts degree. Writing can often be an arduous process so the best events are the ones that force you to put pen to paper. Get each morning started with the Everyday Flash Fiction workshop — breeze down from the seaside, pick up a coffee, and let Scum, The Lifted Brow, and Seizure put a (metaphorical) gun to your head to get you writing. You'll feel productive for the rest of the day, I promise. Plus, if you pen a really touching love poem you can head along to the Speed Writing event and share it. That's right, it's a mix between speed dating and writing — it should be fun because writers are really outgoing and not awkward at all. For the shier amongst us, there will also be a series of more introspective workshops: why do we write, why do we want awards — hell, why do we even go to these festivals? If those are a bit too Inception for you, there's also a handy session called How to not be a douche. Once that's covered, there's not too much else you'll need to know. Parties All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy, and the same goes for writers. Just look at Jack Kerouac. That's not a great example, but you get the idea. As much as NYWF is a great place to learn, it's also an excellent place to get loose. This isn't class. The panellists won't care if you slur a question over your pint of beer. Actually, I wouldn't take the chance of that at the douche workshop — you'd really be asking for it. But hey, it's spring, you're by the sea, and most events are held in licensed venues — you should take advantage of it. At last year's launch, The Lifted Brow put a naked man on the stage to welcome in their new edition; there was a big party at the Great Northern themed 'Hip Hop Safari'; and it was very much encouraged to bring longnecks and bottles of tequila to the Late Night Read. This year will offer similar opportunities with another mixed bag launch, a session of oddly specific '90s literary trivia, and the most excellent idea of all, a Paranormal Formal. Even with all the civilised panels and writing workshops, I promise the best chances you have of wooing your favourite writer or editor will be as they're dressed as a magician drinking goon punch out of a plastic cup. Readings What would a writers festival be without hearing some of these much-praised words spoken aloud? My highlight of last year's festival was the Late Night Read — an intimate event where writers came together to share their work with midnight beers and mayhem. Lawrence Leung read a story about touching his housemate's underwear, Ben Law talked about old penises, and Tom Walker told an animated story about time travel — it was pretty great. This year, the event is back, with each night having a designated theme: Closer Each Day, Home and Away, Hi, Heartbreak, and Everybody Needs Good Neighbours. I can't say for sure that all the works will be about primetime Australian drama, but I also can't say they won't be. Sydney group Penguin Plays Rough will also be bringing their readings event to the festival, taking a select audience into the tunnels of Fort Scratchley. Underground, you can hear seven writers tell stories of Australia's military history. If you like your entertainment a bit lighter, there will also be readings about first times, trolls and a three-part exploration of memory. The Great Unknown Most things at writers festivals are pretty straight forward. The panels usually oscillate somewhere between 'Who Even Are We?' and 'Where Are We Going?', and the parties often turn into cringe-worthy soirees designed for 'networking' — the single worst word in the world, perhaps only with the exception of 'moist'. NYWF is different. Maybe it's just the sea-air, but things are a little more weird and a lot more fun. The element of the unknown or unexpected is what makes the festival so great. There's the Paranormal Formal and the Speed Writing — there's the 90s literary trivia. But there's a whole host of odd things to look out for over your three-day stay. To start with, there's a real-life sleepover. Yep, you actually have the opportunity to don a onesie and play truth or dare with your favourite writers. You can even sleep alongside them if they're cool with it — seriously, please get their consent. If that's not weird enough, Freya Wright Brough is going to be making you feel guilty about your lack of productivity by writing for 24 hours straight, and there's a workshop dedicated to scribbling all over Gina Rinehart's biography. After all this, you'll find the best events by meeting some new friends and stumbling into something unexpected. NYWF is only one element of the This is Not Art Festival after all, so hold tight, you haven't even heard the half of it. Photographs: Lucien Alperstein and Lucy Parakhina
Over the past few years, the south coast's Shoalhaven region has gone through a bit of culinary revolution. Long the source of some of Australia's best oysters, it's now also home to a bunch of top-notch cafes, restaurants and eateries. And many of them come with views — from sweeping oceanscapes to rolling farmlands. In summer 2019/2020, however, the region was hit by devastating bushfires — with many local businesses taking a hit. So, grab some mates and head on a road trip this summer with hungry stomachs, an empty boot and money to spend. From coastal getaways to outback adventures, Australia is home to a wealth of places to explore. Every trip away offers the chance to not only reconnect and recharge, but also to support the communities that have been affected by bushfires. Your visit plays an important role in Australia's recovery, which is why we've partnered with Tourism Australia to help you plan your next Holiday Here This Year. Some of the places mentioned below may still be closed due to COVID-19 restrictions. Please check websites before making any plans.
After more than a decade of trade in Sydney's CBD, Lotus The Galeries is preparing to close its doors for good this weekend, with its final service scheduled for Sunday, April 12. Located inside The Galeries on George Street, the modern-Asian restaurant has long been a reliable go-to for everything from quick corporate lunches to group dinners and celebratory feasts. But in an announcement shared to Instagram, the team confirmed the venue's time is up, thanking diners and staff for years of support while signalling that the broader Lotus brand isn't going anywhere just yet, with existing venues Lotus Barangaroo, Lotus Pearl, and Lotus Dumpling Bars, staying put. As for why now, the timing isn't happening in a vacuum. The steady evolution of Sydney's dining landscape, particularly the ongoing revitalisation of Haymarket Chinatown, may be a contributing factor. With a wave of new openings, late-night energy and sharper, more diverse offerings reshaping the precinct, diners have been pulled a little further south for their dumplings, noodles and banquet spreads. That shift has arguably intensified competition for CBD giants like Lotus The Galeries, especially those positioned within retail precincts rather than destination dining strips. There's also the broader pressure facing city venues post-pandemic: fluctuating office occupancy, changing dining habits and rising operational costs have all made large, centrally located restaurants harder to sustain, particularly those that once relied heavily on weekday corporate traffic. Still, Lotus The Galeries leaves behind a legacy as one of the CBD's early adopters of elevated, design-led Asian dining that helped define the genre in Sydney. And while this particular chapter is closing, the group's remaining venues suggest the Lotus name isn't disappearing from Sydney's dining conversation anytime soon.
With Bad Bunny gearing up for back-to-back Sydney shows this weekend, the Puerto Rican superstar is officially in town. For those hanging around Darlinghurst earlier today, you might have even caught a glimpse, with the 'King of Latin Trap' sitting down for breakfast with his team at The Rusty Rabbit. "We're all about good coffee, good food and good vibes, so we were thrilled to welcome him in," said Josh Khoury, owner of The Rusty Rabbit. "This is what hospitality is about, creating a space where anyone feels welcome, whether you're a local regular or a global superstar." Following the global attention his Super Bowl performance drew, Bad Bunny has most recently been finishing off a run of shows in Brazil. But before he even touched down in Australia, the artist was already making headlines. That's because aviation geeks — the kind who spend their free time keeping tabs on Flightradar24 — spotted a Qantas A380 flying nonstop from Sydney to São Paulo. With this route unavailable to your everyday traveller, speculation kicked off about who or what was behind the pricey charter. As it turns out, the superjumbo picked up Bad Bunny's entire crew and stage setup following the last leg of his Brazilian tour. At an eye-watering cost of well over $1 million for the tailor-made charter, it's said that AC/DC helped split the bill, as they made the reverse trip en route to Buenos Aires. Performing for Aussie fans for the first time at Sydney's Engie Stadium on Saturday, February 28, Bad Bunny will run it back on Sunday, March 1. In the meantime, keep your eyes peeled for the modern-day icon checking out more of Sydney's cafes and bars. Find out more information about Bad Bunny's 2026 Australian tour.
If we had to name just one inner city suburb to best represent what makes Sydney special, then a strong case could be made for Redfern. It combines slices of Sydney history and cultural heritage with buzzing hospitality and modern creative arts scenes. Some of the area's greatest offerings are hidden right in plain sight. To help you explore more of this part of Sydney, we teamed up with City of Sydney to ask Concrete Playground readers what businesses they love to visit and support around Redfern and Waterloo. Here are some of your top picks. Read on to discover some of the most popular picks to visit during the day. Then, flick the switch above and we'll dim the lights to show your favourite things to do once the sun goes down.
Joining the ranks of North Sydney's flourishing food and beverage scene is Bar Lettera, a lavish new venue sporting a modern Australian and Italian fusion menu. As of this month, North Sydney has officially established itself as a new dining precinct with the launch of UpTown — the CBD's up-and-coming district set to revitalise the area — and restaurant launches like Bar Lettera to expand the district's dining options. Opening its doors on Saturday, April 27, the North Sydney newcomer will boast an all-day food and drink offering from inside the lavish Citadines Walker North Sydney hotel. Led by Head Chef Ryan Perry (ex-The Bridge Room and Momofuku Seiobo), the aim is to celebrate the best of Australian produce. "North Sydney is a brilliant place to do an opening as there's a real opportunity to elevate the local dining scene," said Perry. "Bar Lettera is all about honest ingredients, there's no hiding." The concept behind Bar Lettera's menu is to revamp Italian classics, curating inventive dishes where local produce shines. Perry's take on a caprese salad features heirloom tomato with kombu oil and Geraldton wax, while the fritto misto is a deep-fried bay bug paired with a semolina crust and XO sauce. The Head Chef's personal favourite is a Wollemi duck rag rigatoni accompanied by a Davidson plum gin sauce. The drinks selection offers sips that also reimagine the classics using native Australian ingredients and art-fuelled inspiration, while the wine list consists of local drops honouring their European heritage. Expect the likes of a Granjoux Chardonnay from Beechworth and a Joshua Cooper Cabernet Sauvignon. As for the fitout, Sophie Jordan, the director of Jordan Design Studio, has brought the chic 90-seat space to life. Also drawing from North Sydney's local artistic heritage, the restaurant takes inspiration from Australia's first female sculpturist, Theodora Cowan, and the apartment of a modern-day artist. Bar Lettera dons an inviting light pink hue, taking reference from the Aussie landscape, paired with smooth marble, raw hardwood and ceramic sculptures. "We use pendants within the canopy to throw a welcoming warm glow in tandem with inviting table lamps," said Jordan. "Intricate lighting fixtures illuminate the travertine stone bar to infuse a sense of warmth, inviting guests to linger and savour every moment." You'll find Bar Lettera on the mezzanine floor (level 5) of the Citadines Walker North Sydney at 88 Walker Street, open daily from 7–10.30am for breakfast, 12–2.30pm for lunch and 5–8.30pm for dinner. Image credit: Born Social.
Located in the ever-expanding Darling Square, this neon-lit Japanese street food kitchen is bringing a fun and vibrant menu to the inner-city dining precinct. Tsukiyo's menu is succinct, split between two primary dishes. The first is takoyaki, crispy golden fried balls of batter topped with bonito flakes and takoyaki sauce. The original flavour is also topped with kewpie mayo, but you can also order it spicy with mentaiko mayo and katsuobushi, or rotating special varieties like the Barcelona takoyaki featuring LP's chorizo, smoked paprika, aioli, tomato, fried parsley and lemon. The second style of dish is the cute fish-shaped taiyaki. These waffles come made in the shape of Japanese tai fish and are packed with a variety of fillings. The flavours include red bean, vanilla bean custard and chesnut, with each taiyaki coming with your prefered flavour of gelato and toppings. There's also a far less traditional croque monsieur taiyaiki on the menu that is filled with ham and gruyere. The final element of the menu is fruit sandos, made with fluffy slices of white bread, locally sourced Australian fruit and Calpis whipped cream. The restaurant has been developed by Zach Tan's Devon Hospitality Group and Hidetoshi Tsuboi (Hakatamon Ramen) with the help of former Zumbo pastry chef Markus Andrew. Appears in: The Best Japanese Restaurants in Sydney
Newtown has a lot going for it, and its standout bar scene is right up there at the top of the list. Some have been around forever and are still packing out the house every night, others are newcomers that have already won a spot on our go-to list. From natural wine bars, speakeasy-style haunts and cocktail spots to tiki bars and rock 'n' roll burger joints, King Street has it all. Here's our list of the best of the bunch.
Since first making the jump from the page to the screen in 2019, The Boys has never been afraid to splash OTT violence — gory carnage, too — across its frames. The same proved true in 2020's second season and 2022's third, and also in college-set spinoff Gen V in 2023. That isn't changing in The Boys season four, which will hit streaming in June. But the show will reckon with why fights and frays (and killing as well) are always a solution for its characters, no matter whether they're meant to be good or evil. "Look, we've all done bad shit. What's insane is that our solution to every problem is murder," says Hughie Campbell (Jack Quaid, Oppenheimer) in the fourth season's just-dropped full trailer, which follows an initial teaser back in 2023. "Violence isn't brave," he continues. The counterpoint, coming from The Deep (Chace Crawford, Gossip Girl): "violence is power". Fans will know that Hughie is part of the show's titular crew, becoming a member after his girlfriend died at the hands of a superhero. The Deep sits among the caped crusaders and, specifically, The Seven. The latter is comprised of the superheroes that are placed above all superheroes in this vision of a world where superpowers are a regular occurrence, and therefore where the kinds of tales that Marvel and DC bring to cinemas and TVs are real. Chaos is still set to ensue, of course, as this new glimpse at season four makes plain. Cue: a supe-slaying virus and superheroes as "wrathful gods", for starters. The Boys' latest episodes will begin streaming Down Under from Thursday, June 13. The season will also see its world dealing with Homelander (Antony Starr, Guy Ritchie's The Covenant)-versus-Starlight (Erin Moriarty, Captain Fantastic) factionalism, and just being ready to tear itself apart in general. Victoria Neuman (Claudia Doumit, Where'd You Go, Bernadette) is getting closer to the Oval Office, too, with Homelander pulling the strings. Also on the way: no-nonsense Brit Billy Butcher (Karl Urban, Thor: Ragnarok) facing the fact that he's only got months left, and that he's no longer leading The Boys — aka the eponymous ragtag team intent on bringing down Vought International, Homelander, and the company's caped-crusader industry and dominance. And, there's a new face, with Jeffrey Dean Morgan (The Walking Dead) joining the cast, adding another Supernatural link after Jensen Ackles did the same in season three. The Boys has always stood out as an antidote to narratives about powerful folks who are supposedly better than most, by both parodying and questioning that very idea. Here, superheroes work for Vought. They're still the main form of entertainment, but they're real, the most famous celebrities there are and inescapable in daily life. While The Seven are the absolute top talent, most are hardly role models when the public isn't looking. That has made quite the change from the usual cinematic universes as the Prime Video show has kept notching up the seasons, all coming to the small screen from Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson's comics series of the same name. As well as Quaid, Crawford, Starr, Moriarty, Doumit and Urban, Jessie T Usher (Smile), Laz Alonso (Wrath of Man), Tomer Capone (One on One), Karen Fukuhara (Bullet Train), Colby Minifie (I'm Thinking of Ending Things) and Cameron Crovetti (Goodnight Mommy) all return — with Susan Heyward (Hello Tomorrow!) and Valorie Curry (The Lost Symbol) set to be season four newcomers. Check out the full trailer for The Boys season four below: The fourth season of The Boys will start streaming via Prime Video from Thursday, June 13, 2024. Read our reviews of The Boys season three and Gen V.
There's usually not much to love about the airport. After all, you're spending most of your time waiting for your flight to take to the skies. However, a brand-new update to Sydney Airport means your wait won't feel so long, as a collection of health and beauty businesses have officially touched down. Marked as an Australian first, T1 International Arrivals will now be home to Barber's Lounge, ensuring you can get a feel-good trim before or after your flight. Whether you need a precision cut or a clean shave, freshening up is made easy, bringing a much-needed sense of calm to your airborne commute. "Arriving after a long flight often means heading straight into meetings, events or home life. Barber's Lounge at Sydney Airport gives travellers the opportunity to refresh and feel their best as soon as they land," says Omar Choukchouk, Owner of Barber's Lounge. This update also includes Australia's first airport-based gym, with Anytime Fitness set to launch soon. Spread across 300 square metres, this fully kitted gym is the ideal way to squeeze in a workout or limber up after a long-haul flight. Plus, if you're getting ready to board, pumping iron or crushing a few k's on the trendline might help you get straight to sleep. What's more, ProfessioNail will also descend on T1 towards the end of the year. Rather than sitting around the terminal staring out the window, you could pamper yourself with an express manicure or expert nail care. With these new services easing your travel experience, a little self-care before or after your journey might go a long way. "We know that after a long flight, people want things to feel simple and seamless," says Sydney Airport General Manager Retail, Gail Taylor. "Whether you're arriving in Sydney for the first time or coming home, our focus is on making the experience smoother and more enjoyable." Barber's Lounge is now open at Sydney Airport T1 International terminal, with Anytime Fitness launching soon and ProfessioNail expected to open before the end of Q3. Head to the website for more information.
UPDATE, Wednesday, May 15, 2024: After two new Olivia Rodrigo shows for October were added at midday today, another two have been announced at 4pm. This article has been updated to reflect all four new gigs — two each in Sydney and Melbourne. Great news if you're a fan of Olivia Rodrigo and the first four tour dates announced for her first-ever Down Under visit didn't suit: four more shows have just been added to the singer and former Disney talent's Australian itinerary. She's still only playing Sydney and Melbourne, adding a third and fourth gig in both cities — and doing so before punters can even buy general tickets, which starts on Thursday, May 16. Big-name acts have a habit of doing this; see also: Taylor Swift, blink-182, Lizzo and The Weeknd, for some recent examples. So, it shouldn't come as a surprise — but it will give you more chances to head along to Rodrigo's huge GUTS world tour Rodrigo has a date with Australia in October, and will now take to the stage at Melbourne's Rod Laver Arena from Wednesday, October 9–Thursday, October 10, and also from Sunday, October 13–Monday, October 14. In Sydney, you can catch her at Qudos Bank Arena dates from Thursday, October 17–Friday, October 18, and also from Monday, October 21–Tuesday, October 22. When we say that this tour is big, we mean it. With the Aussie dates alongside gigs in Bangkok, Thailand, Seoul, Hong Kong, Tokyo and Singapore, the tour spans more than 80 concerts around the globe. Fans Down Under who aren't in Sydney and Melbourne, however, you'll be needing to travel. In support of her second studio album that's also called GUTS, this marks three-time Grammy-winner Rodrigo's first arena tour. The 'Drivers License', 'Good 4 U' and 'Vampire' singer will have her debut album SOUR to work through as well. The GUTS tour started in Palm Springs in February, saw Rodrigo do four shows at Madison Square Garden in April, and is currently making its way around the UK before heading to Europe, back to the US, then to Asia and Australia. Olivia Rodrigo GUTS World Tour 2024 Australian Dates: Wednesday, October 9–Thursday, October 10 + Sunday, October 13–Monday, October 14 — Rod Laver Arena, Melbourne Thursday, October 17–Friday, October 18 + Monday, October 21–Tuesday, October 22 – Qudos Bank Arena, Sydney Olivia Rodrigo is touring Australia in October 2024. Ticket presales start at 1pm on Wednesday, May 15, and general sales at 1pm on Thursday, May 16 — head to the tour website for further details. Images: Chris Polk, Polk Imaging.
The Royal Botanic Garden Sydney, with its urban oasis scenery and immersive natural beauty, is one of the best places to find serenity in the heart of the city. Deep within this leafy green wonderland is The Calyx, a self-contained glasshouse with even more wonders to be found — including, during the August-exclusive return of Fleurs de Villes, the world-renowned floral art show behind exhibitions in Canada, the US, the UK and Australia. From August 9—18, it's popping up with a new show, Fleurs de Villes VOYAGE, a celebration inspired by destinations around the world. The travel-themed exhibit features 15 unique fresh floral mannequins, each carefully crafted by Sydney's most talented floral designers. Visitors will be taken on a floral journey of discovery, enjoying creations inspired by the likes of Morrocan souks, thrilling South African safaris, the beautiful Moulin Rogue in Paris and so much more. You have ten days to visit and take it all in before Fleurs de Villes VOYAGE bids us a fond adieu. Enjoy the exhibit plus the surrounding indoor glasshouse and the largest green wall in the Southern Hemisphere. As well as enjoying the stunning floral creations, you'll be able to catch free botany talks and demonstrations from expert florists and horticulturists. Be sure to grab a bite to eat from the Leaf Dept. Cafe, still surrounded by floral splendour, and cast your vote for your favourite mannequin design. Fleurs de Villes VOYAGE runs from Friday, August 9 to Sunday, August 18. See here for instructions on how to access The Calyx. For more information or to book your tickets, visit the website.
Situated at the south end of King Street in Newtown, this heritage-listed watering hole has long been a favourite spot for locals. Revamped by the Reilly Group (the team behind Marrickville's The Henson) in mid-2016, this working-class boozer has maintained its old-school charm, with a few smart touches to keep things relevant. The food is straightforward pub grub but done properly. And the chicken burger ($19) here is worth a visit alone. It features fried chicken, iceberg lettuce and chipotle mayo, with the option of adding streaky bacon for $3 (yes, please). Drop in on a Monday for the $20 burger and beer deal, plus pints at schooner prices. Images: Alana Dimou
It's a decades-old inner-west tradition: watching the Newtown Jets' home footy game from up on the hill at Henson Park, that is. But things have been dialled up a few notches over the years with the introduction of The Beer Footy Food Festival. In 2023, the annual event returned with its biggest set of festivities to date, transforming into Welcome Day in partnership with The Music and Booze Co and Heaps Gay. Now, in 2024, it's going on tour, with not one, not two, but three days of Beer, Footy and Food coming to Sydney. It will all kick off with a new expansion to North Sydney Oval. The hallowed North Shore suburban ground will host a special NSW Cup Magic Round across two days in May: Saturday, May 18–Sunday, May 19. Much like the NRL's Magic Round, which sees all 17 clubs descend on Brisbane for a week of back-to-back games at Suncorp Stadium, the Beer Footy Food Festival has linked up with the North Sydney Bears to host a full round of reserve-grade rugby league at North Sydney Oval. Across the weekend, you can catch classic match-ups like the West Magpies taking on the Parramatta Eels, the North Sydney Bears and the South Sydney Rabbitohs going head-to-head, and the Newtown Jets battling it out with the Newcastle Knights. Then, on Saturday, July 27, the Beer Footy Food Festival will return to its spiritual home at Marrickville's Henson Park for its usual day of good feeds, brews and a little bit of rugby league, with the Parramatta Eels and Newtown Jets hitting the field for the main event. As usual, Pro Wrestling Australia will be back to deliver some half-time entertainment. And, while the roster of breweries and food stands popping up at Henson Park hasn't been revealed yet, it's safe to say beloved mainstays like Yulli's, Grifter, Philter, Hawke's and Happy as Larry will more than likely be making an appearance. If you're heading down on July 27, make sure you pack your footy so that you can take part in the post-match kick-around on the hallowed turf of Henson Park. Tickets for Magic Round at North Sydney start from $30 for one day or $55 for a two-day pass. And entry for the classic BFF Festival at Henson Park will set you back $25 (or $60 for the whole family). If you want to wrap your head around the full schedule, head over to the festival's Instagram account. Top image: Tom Wilkinson.
Hoppy and full of flavour, IPAs date back to the mid-19th century. Modus Operandi's version doesn't boast quite that lengthy a history — the northern beaches brewery opened in 2012 itself — but it's a fine addition to the fold. An American-style tipple that has picked up both awards and a hefty following, the Sonic Prayer IPA started as a limited-edition brew; however it has now firmly found its place among Modus' year-round core range. That's great news if you're looking for a malty beer with a hint of citrus, peach, passionfruit, stone fruit and pine, and if you're a fan of Mona Vale-based outfit. When it comes to the latter in general, this brewery takes its US influences seriously — even flying in live yeast from America to use in its beers. Located on Harkeith Street, Modus' HQ also features a brewpub, so you can settle in and drink beers onsite — and tuck into mac 'n' cheese croquettes, salt and vinegar wings, soft shell crab burgers and eight types of pizza. Expect specials each week night, as well as regular ticketed masterclasses.
Scaling the Sydney Harbour Bridge is a breathtaking experience — both because of the stunning views and the 1332 steps it takes to reach the summit. But to fully appreciate this icon and the surrounding region, you need to understand the Indigenous culture and history it stands within. Burrawa, meaning 'upwards' or 'above' in local language, is a bridge climb led by Indigenous tour guides. As you ascend the Coathanger, your guide will explain the significance of Indigenous landmarks around the harbour, share local Dreamtime stories and detail the history of prominent First Nations figures, like Bennelong, Barangaroo and Patyegarang, who interacted with early European colonists, sharing knowledge, language and resistance. Images: Destination NSW
A Michelin-trained chef has brought a new authentic Mexican taqueria to Pyrmont. Nativo is now open above the John St Square Rail Station, bringing tacos and Mexican street food from highly travelled and experienced chef Manuel Diaz to the waterfront suburb. Focusing mainly on takeaway — with just 14 al fresco seats available for dining — the menu at Nativo is concise, with four flavours of tacos and a range of antojitos and snacks making up the entire menu. Born in the city of Oaxaca, Diaz has worked across some of the most renowned restaurants in Mexico, as well as the Michelin-starred restaurant La Chevre d'Or in France. Since moving to Australia, he's occupied kitchens across the Milpa Collective Group's collection of Mexican favourites like Sonora and Carbon, and headed up Bar Patron as the Executive Chef. Diaz is bringing this wealth of experience to a fun and vibrant menu, with a local twist to it — the use of native Australian ingredients. Order the Cochinita Pibilfeatu and you'll find slow-cooked pulled pork paired with a saltbush morita salsa, while the guacamole has been complimented with lemon myrtle oil. "The best of Mexican gastronomy is inspired by ideas developed by the Indigenous communities and ancestors of the country," says Diaz. "I have crafted a menu that honours these flavours and traditions, and we celebrate our union with the Australian community by complimenting these recipes with native Australian ingredients to create a unique fusion that brings these roots together." Other taco varieties include a classic beef birria starring a 12-hour cooked brisket, a vegetarian fried potato and mushroom chorizo combo, and a chimichurri octopus option. Accompanying these are the aforementioned guac with corn chips, tostada takes on the pork and vegetarian tacos, and quesadilla rolls packed with your choice of protein, oaxaca cheese, guacamole, coriander and orange-chipotle salsa on pita bread. Nativo continues a boom Sydney has been experiencing around Mexican-born chefs opening standout restaurants in the city. In the last couple of years, we've seen central Mexcian cuisine arrive in Newtown courtesy of Maiz (one of Concrete Playground's 15 best Sydney restaurants) and Rosa Cienfuegos has opened her pair of beloved hole-in-the-wall eateries in Dulwich Hill and Redfern, just to name a few. Nativo is open 11am–8.30pm Tuesday–Saturday at Shop 6/45–55 Harris Street, Pyrmont.
It's a classic case of east meets inner west as hospitality heavyweights Merivale open modern Cantonese restaurant Queen Chow at Enmore's Queens Hotel. Located at the back of the first level of the old pub, the new eatery serves Hong Kongese street food and yum cha-inspired delicacies in a glamorous old-school imperial dining house. As usual, Merivale has the very best in kitchen staff — this time it's executive chefs Patrick Friesen and Christopher Hogarth from Manly's Papi Chulo, as well as dumpling master Eric Koh (ex-Tim Ho Wan and Mr Wong). Their menu, which can be ordered throughout the venue, includes dim sum, barbecued meat platters, live seafood and decadent desserts — definitely not your usual pub Chinese (and thank God for that). After 30 years of pastry parcel packing, Koh has his dough down to a fine art. His dumpling menu features a range of more-exotic-than-usual fillings beyond the basic pork and chive, including jade seafood, crystal pumpkin, Alaskan crab, and lobster and asparagus, each one pleated and pinched to perfection ($12-16). The dim sum menu also includes plenty of deep-fried goodness such as crispy duck spring rolls ($12) and the cloud-like pork and prawn 'footballs' ($12) made with chewy gelatinous rice flour and coated in toasted sesame seeds. In sport speak, this dish really kicks a goal. Beyond the bamboo baskets, highlights from the menu include a peppery black Angus beef, baby king oyster mushroom and potato stir-fry ($32) — the restaurant's clever take on a pub steak and chips — and the South Australian pippies in a garlicky swamp of black bean, chilli and Young Henrys Natural Lager ($36); the smooth rectangular shells make the perfect spoon for slurping up leftover sauce. For large groups it makes sense to order the combination roast meats platter ($75), which includes their signature roast duck and honey-glazed pork neck and spare ribs. It's the perfect middle-of-the-table dish for picking and sharing, although I can't guarantee that it will last very long. Need a drink to wash it down? Forget the Chinese tea, this is Young Henrys territory. The front bar serves a respectable selection of tap beers and aromatic wines from $8 a glass. From the cocktail menu, we recommend skipping the apple and rhubarb Chow Sour — which, for the restaurant's namesake cocktail, is overly sweet and unmemorable — and going for the Genghis Can ($17). More than just a gloriously punny name, the bloody mary-inspired bevvy contains Wyborowa vodka, tomato juice, hoisin sauce, Sriracha and shiitake juice served in a tin can. For a larger selection of drinks and an enchanting garden rooftop terrace, head one level up to The Smelly Goat, The Queens' cocktail bar.
Movie lovers of Australia, rejoice: New York-born arthouse cinema chain Angelika Film Centre is making the leap Down Under. A film-showing favourite in the US since 1989, starting in Soho and expanding to nine American locations since, the brand is launching its first-ever Aussie location on Thursday, August 24. In fact, when it opens its doors in Brisbane, it'll mark the chain's first picture palace outside of the USA. First announced earlier in 2023, and now set to welcome in filmgoers to its Woolloongabba site, Angelika Film Centre's Australian debut will land in Woolloongabba, in the inner-city suburb's South/City/SQ precinct. On offer: an eight-screen, 400-seat cinema complex that spans 2500 square metres. Three of those screens are SoHo Lounge cinemas, which means full-recliner seating, table service, and access to the SoHo Lounge Bar for wine, spirits and signature cocktails. When it starts ushering in patrons, Angelika Film Centre will screen a heap of current hits, with Asteroid City, BlackBerry and Gran Turismo: Based on a True Story all on its launch slate. Yes, so is Barbenheimer, aka Barbie and Oppenheimer. Plus, viewers can check out advance screenings of Past Lives before it officially releases the following Thursday. And, in excellent news for your wallet, the cinema is doing $10 tickets for all sessions — including SoHo Lounge — across its opening week. The above lineup will be joined by the likes of Theatre Camp, Biosphere, My Big Fat Greek Wedding 3, Ego: The Michael Gudinski Story, A Haunting in Venice and Scrapper in coming weeks, following the style of programming that's served the chain well in the US. In New York, Angelika Film Centre's clout in the independent, foreign and specialty film space has seen it help make titles like Lady Bird, Moonlight, I, Tonya, Pain & Glory and Free Solo box-office hits. Woolloongabba's outpost also has retrospective flicks such as Searching for Sugar Man, Roman Holiday, Fight Club, Fargo and The Third Man on its slate. And, it'll do gin-inspired sessions, with Casablanca, The Great Gatsby and Casino Royale all locked in. "We look forward to joining the Angelika family, and being part of the exceptional reputation that comes with the Angelika name. More so we are incredibly pleased that we get to open our doors in such an impressive and elegant complex as South/City/SQ. We are really looking forward to being part of the community" said Mark Douglas, Reading International's Australia and New Zealand Managing Director, with Angelika Film Centre hitting Australia via Reading Cinemas Group. The venue has been in the works since 2017, and also boasts a lolly station among its snack selection. And yes, it's a case of another week, another Australian-premiere movie experience landing in southeast Queensland, after Event Cinemas launched its 270-degree ScreenX setup on the Robina in mid-August. In Brisbane specifically, new cinemas have been popping up with frequency over the past decade, including New Farm Cinemas, The Elizabeth Picture Theatre, Red Hill Cinemas, Dendy Coorparoo, Reading Newmarket and Reading Jindalee. There's no word yet as to whether Angelika Film Centre has more Aussie sites in its future. Film lovers in other cities, cross your popcorn-grabbing fingers. [caption id="attachment_893537" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Markus Ravik[/caption] Angelika Film Centre will open at level one, 160 Logan Road, Woolloongabba, on Thursday, August 24 — head to the cinema's website for tickets and further details.
On Sunday night, March 22, Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced that all non-essential indoor venues had to close the following day at midday. Gyms, cinemas, casinos, and places of worship were some of the venues on that list, as were pubs, club, bars, restaurants and cafes. While restaurants and cafes were allowed to continue offering takeaway and delivery food, bars without a separate off-premise liquor licence didn't have a way of continuing to make an income. To help fix this, Liquor & Gaming NSW has temporarily lifted its restrictions on takeaway and home-delivery alcohol. In a statement released on Monday, March 23, the regulatory body said that due to the "unprecedented pressures on industry" during the COVID-19 pandemic, it would take a "supportive and educative approach" to licensed venues — such as small bars, cafes and restaurants — selling alcohol for consumption at home without the appropriate licence. [caption id="attachment_758605" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Big Poppa's by Kitti Gould[/caption] "The COVID-19 pandemic has created an exceptional set of circumstances and will have significant impacts on the businesses we regulate," Liquor & Gaming NSW said in the statement. "Not all licensed premises are authorised to sell alcohol for consumption off the premise. In these circumstances, Liquor & Gaming NSW will take a common-sense and pragmatic approach to enforcing the liquor and gaming laws. In particular, it is recognised that the risk profile of certain venues has changed and measures put in place to manage these risks are, in the current environment, largely redundant." It has said it'll step in "in cases of significant risks to patrons or the community" and says venues offering takeaway and delivery should have a system in place to ensure alcohol is not sold to minors or intoxicated people. The lifted restrictions are expected to remain in place until the non-essential indoor venues are allowed to reopen, which, according to the Prime Minister, could be another six months. Top image: Arcadia by Kitti Gould
Sydney has been waiting patiently for the opening of its second international airport for over a decade now — but now, seven months away from its projected opening date for commercial flights, a key piece to the Western Sydney Airport puzzle is caught between a dispute and a hard place, as first reported by the Sydney Morning Herald. The airport site, located in Badgery's Creek, is planned to be connected to the wider Sydney Metropolitan area through multiple transport arteries. For drivers, the brand new M12 Motorway will connect to the existing M7 via a direct line to the airport. That's due to open this coming weekend, but public transport is a different story. The airport is due to be included in Sydney's expanding metro lines, with a projected December 2027 opening date, but as SMH reports, that's now in limbo. [caption id="attachment_1082387" align="aligncenter" width="1920"] SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA - OCTOBER 28: A general view of the passenger terminal under final construction at Western Sydney International Airport on October 28, 2025 in Sydney, Australia. Western Sydney International (Nancy-Bird Walton) Airport (WSI), located at Badgerys Creek (Photo by James D. Morgan/Getty Images)[/caption] The 23 kilometre line is planned to connect the airport to Sydney via St Marys, Orchard Hills, Luddenham and the new city of Bradfield in a mix of tunnels, open tracks and viaduct — but Sydney Metro warns the opening date now hinges on the outcomes of a major negotiation with the contractors that's been ongoing since 2024, and threatens to extend the cost by an additional $2.2 billion — drawing the total cost to $12 billion for taxpayers. Said contractors are a consortium known as Parklife Metro — which is comprised of Italian construction group Webuild, the German-based multinational technology company Siemens, an international arm of French-state-owned public transport enterprise RATP and Australian infrastructure investors Plenary Group. The disputes? Claims have been filed against the NSW Government body overseeing the project regarding delays, scope creep and disruptions. [caption id="attachment_1082386" align="aligncenter" width="1920"] Sydney Metro carriage, Photo by Ma Ping/Xinhua via Getty Images[/caption] Now the project, which has already been delayed by a year and remains in the construction phase, is at the mercy of the negotiations. Sydney Metro Executive Chief Peter Regan said at a budgetary hearing that "the outcome of that negotiation will clearly impact the target date for opening. We're still in the construction phase of the railway. We're not in the testing phase, so it's probably too early to really sort of land that [target opening date], and it will depend on the outcome of that commercial discussion." To compensate for the delays, which will see the airport operational for well over a year with no rail connection, the NSW Government has confirmed that free bus services will run between St Mary's and the airport, at an estimated 30-minute commute time. SMH also confirmed that the carriages for the new lines are due to arrive in the coming months, and the lines themselves could still be expanded to connect the airport with Sydney Metro's northernmost station at Tallawong, and via a southern line to Bradfield. Images: Getty Images Subscribe to the Concrete Playground newsletter to get stories just like these in your inbox.
Matt Moran's harbourside fine diner has been an institution for over 20 years. And, after all that time, Aria continues to be among Sydney's most sought after dining destinations. It championed seasonal ingredients and Australian wines long before these were on trend, and still boasts one of the best tasting menus (and views) that the Sydney hospitality scene has to offer. That tasting menu is available every day for lunch and dinner — and, yes, it's a special occasion splurge (starting at $250 per person). But you'll get to taste seven of Aria's best dishes of the moment. The summer menu features Abrolhos Island scallops with cauliflower, miso and saltbush, glazed Wollemi duck with beetroot, mulberries and nettle, Gundagai GLQ 5+ lamb with bitter leaves, salsify and mustard and Mooloolaba yellowfin tuna with daikon, dessert lime and avocado. Choose to indulge further and you'll discover the option to pair the tasting menu with a wine. On offer, there is the premium wine pairing ($275pp) or the prestige wine pairing ($395pp). If you don't have quite that much cash to splash, but still want to indulge in the Aria experience, opt for the four course lunch or dinner ($195). These dining options include a la carte menus featuring Eugowra quail with pumpkin, gai lan and white soy, Rangers Valley beef tartare with smoked eel, kohlrabi and sweet potato and a passionfruit, honeydew, makrut lime and young coconut dessert option. Any of these menus can be made vegetarian, vegan and gluten-free, too. Alongside the eats, diners can order from Aria's extensive cocktail menu or award-winning wine list. Curated by Head Sommelier Salvatore Persico, this selection showcases a whopping 80 wines by the glass and 1700 by the bottle. Aria also offers a pre-theatre dining experience for you to enjoy before your show at the Sydney Opera House. Available until 6pm, this menu is curated to include an experience of many of Aria's defining dishes either a la carte or through the three course offering ($150). No matter which dining option you go for, you'll be in for one gorgeous meal. Images: Cole Bennetts, Kitti Gould and Steven Woodburn Updated Tuesday, February 14, 2023
One of the most spectacular must-sees on any Tokyo trip will soon be back on every tourist's itinerary: digital-only art gallery teamLab Borderless. When it opened in 2018, the stunning spot instantly became one of Japan's top destinations. Since mid-2022, however, the venue has been closed while it shifted to a new site. Thankfully, wandering through its dazzling array of artworks is about to become a reality again from January 2024. Breathtaking, kaleidoscopic, glorious, delightful, worth a trip to Tokyo all by itself: all of those descriptions apply to teamLab Borderless, which became the most-visited single-artist museum in the world during its first year of operation. Expect all those gushing terms to flow again when it reopens at Azabudai Hills in central Tokyo, relocating from its past Odaiba base. [caption id="attachment_912403" align="alignnone" width="1920"] teamLab, Sea of Clouds © teamLab[/caption] First, the bad news: to get there, you'll no longer be crossing over Tokyo's gorgeous Rainbow Bridge. That's the only negative aspect of move, however. Among the excellent news, the new teamLab Borderless will feature both evolved and brand-new artworks. So, even if you've been before at its old digs, you won't just be seeing the same things — even though they're definitely worth enjoying more than once. [caption id="attachment_912401" align="alignnone" width="1920"] teamLab, Microcosmoses (tentative title) © teamLab[/caption] If you were lucky enough to mosey around the OG spot before the pandemic, you'll know that the Borderless experience involves vibrant, constantly moving, always-changing interactive digital art keeps that keeps glowing and rearranging before your eyes. As the name makes plain, nothing is fixed or static here. Pieces move from one space to the next, and interact with other works. Sometimes, several different projections and installations mingle together. For attendees, peering at the end results isn't merely a passive experience, with the venue encouraging patrons to "wander, explore and discover". While the full list of works that'll feature at teamLab Borderless 2.0 hasn't yet been revealed, the pieces announced so far include the jaw-dropping Light Sculpture series — which cycles through an array of light formations and colours — as well as an eye-catching mirrored infinity room-style space that's tentatively been titled Microcosmoses. teamLab might be best-known for its Tokyo site, but it doesn't only operate in Japan. A second teamLab Borderless has already been open in Shanghai since 2019, and others are slated for Jeddah in Saudi Arabia and Hamburg in Germany — the former without an exact opening date, the latter slated to launch in 2025. The organisation also operates a different museum in Macao, and has its first teamLab Phenomena on the way for the Saadiyat Cultural District in Abu Dhabi, again targeting a 2024 launch. The list goes on, with teamLab's works a drawcard wherever they pop up. [caption id="attachment_868130" align="alignnone" width="1920"] teamLab Borderless: MORI Building DIGITAL ART MUSEUM, Azabudai Hills, Tokyo © teamLab[/caption] [caption id="attachment_912400" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Birth © teamLab[/caption] [caption id="attachment_912402" align="alignnone" width="1920"] teamLab, Microcosmoses (tentative title) © teamLab[/caption] teamLab Borderless Tokyo: MORI Building Digital Art Museum will reopen at its new location at Azabudai Hills, Garden Plaza B B1F, 1-2-4 Azabudai, Minato-ku, Tokyo sometime in January 2024 — for more information, visit the museum's website. Top teamLab, Universe of Water Particles, Transcending Boundaries; teamLab, Flowers and People, Cannot be Controlled but Live Together © teamLab.
Think of your favourite major events that have happened across the country — chances are Gill Minervini had something to do with them. The legendary creative director has been behind some of Australia's best festivals and parties. So, when you're wanting to bring some excitement to local communities, Minervini should be your first call. Wanting to encourage Aussies to support small, local businesses that have done it tough this year, American Express did just that. We recently spoke with Minervini about this special partnership — read on to learn about her creative process and the small businesses she loves supporting. [caption id="attachment_762640" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Winter Feast, Dark Mofo by Remi Chauvin[/caption] HER CAREER HIGHLIGHTS It's hard to play favourites when you've been at the helm of many of Australia's best events in the past two-plus decades. Minervini has been involved in Adelaide Festival, Sydney Lunar New Year and Art and About Sydney to name but a few. The ones that she seems most proud of are those that really drove positive change. "I was the first professional festival director that Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras had," Minervini says. This was in the late 80s and early 90s, which Minervini describes as the "golden era". "We were really crashing through some of those political barriers, and I'm very proud of the work I did there," she continues. Another career highlight was the birth of Dark Mofo's Winter Feast, now a beloved highlight of Tasmania's annual winter festival. "It brought together all the things I love: food, music, events, outdoor activations, community," Minervini says. "We didn't know if it would work or not. Clearly, it did." And, of course, one of her career highlights is still to come. In April 2021, Minervini was appointed one of her most exciting roles to date: Festival Director of Vivid Sydney. However, with the festival postponed till 2022, she's yet to make her Vivid debut. "I'm really looking forward to my first Vivid. We're working on programming that now" she tells us. THE SILVER LININGS OF LOCKDOWN It's impossible to discuss a career in the arts right now without acknowledging the big COVID-shaped elephant in the room. The past two years of lockdowns and ever-changing restrictions have decimated an industry already struggling. But, Minervini suggests, there are some silver linings to be found — for herself, for the industry and for audiences. "It's given me a lot more time in the planning and research phase. It's made audiences a lot more grateful in terms of the vast array of live events we have and what it looks like when they're not there," she says. "That sense of anticipation is a positive thing. It's going to take a while to recover, a lot of people have left the industry. But the renaissance is coming." HER CREATIVE PROCESS Minervini's mention of planning piques our curiosity. How does she approach the mammoth task of producing a creative event, be it a big citywide affair or a small activation? Where do you even begin? "It's really about research. It sounds boring but it's the most fascinating part of the job for me," says Minervini. "I always try to pare it back to: what is the story that we want to tell? And, most importantly, who are we trying to tell it to? It's that simple and that complicated. Finding that overriding narrative is really crucial. If you get that right, people will connect with it." Minervini also places a lot of importance on working with community members — from Indigenous leaders to LGBTQIA+ voices — to ensure their stories are central. "I try to make sure I'm as collaborative as I can be and that there's a sense of ownership and a sense of self-determination in terms of working with diverse communities. When you do that, the resulting event has a lot more power," she says. [caption id="attachment_836896" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Handsom[/caption] HER FESTIVE PARTNERSHIP WITH AMERICAN EXPRESS Minervini's creative process was practiced in her recent partnership with American Express. The brand enlisted Minervini to create spectacularly festive installations in the shop windows of Sydney's Collector Store and Art on King and Melbourne's Handsom for two important reasons. The first: to bring a dose of festive joy to local communities. And the second: to encourage Aussies to shop up a storm at small businesses that have done it tough this year. As a small business advocate, Minervini jumped at the opportunity. "It seemed like a match made in heaven," she says. She began by interviewing the business owners to understand their backgrounds, the shops' histories, the communities they operate within and their customers. The creative direction Minervini landed on was 'Great Things Come in Small Packages'. "These shops are small but there are amazing things in them. Things you wouldn't find anywhere else," she says. Designer James Dide then took Minervini's concept and put it into reality. The end result was three vibrant wreaths handmade out of paper through 3D printing — each completely unique and reflective of the shop they represent. "Each of the wreaths has elements of the area that the shop is in and elements of what they sell. For example, Art on King has some real urban elements in the wreath, everything from the local buses that run up King Street to birds of the area and telegraph poles," says Minervini. "Handsom had a really interesting take on what they love at Christmas time and what they sell in the store. The shopkeepers met in Ibiza, so some of the designs of their clothes are really inspired by Spanish summer vibes. So we really picked up on the colours, Spanish fans, stars, candles and florals." Collector Store's wreath is trying to convey the Aussie Christmas experience with florals, cockatoos, Australian natives and cocktail glasses, with Minervini saying it has "a real summery vibe". [caption id="attachment_836146" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Collector Store[/caption] HER FAVOURITE SMALL BUSINESSES Minervini's passion for small business is evident all throughout our chat. She partly attributes this to having come from a family of small business owners (publicans to be precise), but also to the unmatched experience one can expect from a small business. "If we lose those small local shops, we lose the diversity of what's on offer to us," she says. "The three shops that we're doing these installations in are a really good example of the curation of goods that you won't find anywhere else. You get an individualised experience." So, where in Sydney will she be hitting up for her Christmas gift shopping? "I'm a big reader and I love giving books, so I love Better Read Than Dead and Pentimento. And I'll be going to Collector. They have some of the most luxe towels — that's my present to myself," she says. [caption id="attachment_820890" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Casa Mia Osteria by Kitti Gould[/caption] HER SUMMER PLANS After such a busy and tumultuous year, it's safe to assume Minervini deserves a break (hell, we all do). And she has some pretty enviable plans for the next few weeks. "I will be doing a lot of swimming, a lot of reading and a lot of eating," she says. As an inner west local, she mentions a couple of restaurants that she'll be frequenting over this time: much-loved vegan pizzeria Gigi and King Street newcomer Casa Mio Osteria. "It's just brilliant," she says of the latter. She also plans to check out lots of Sydney Festival, which kicks off on January 6, and then "back to work because Vivid will be here very soon". After two long years without Sydney's favourite festival of lights and ideas, we can't wait to see what Minervini has in store for next year's program. Shop Small this festive season and spend at least $100 with a small business. This small action will help inject an additional $2 billion into the sector to help it recover. To learn about American Express and the Shop Small initiative, visit here.
For ten days, the ATYP Studio will host the return of alumni Yves Blake, delivering her hilarious, music-infused show THEN. Since leaving Sydney two years ago to perform at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Yve has been blitzing the UK, winning over crowds at some of the best theatres in the nation, including The National. At the same time, she’s been running a website by the name of WhoWereWe.com. It’s an interactive platform that asks visitors to answer the question, “Who do you feel you used to be?” So far, more than 1,000 funny stories, nervous voicemails, bizarre photos and embarrassing playlists have been submitted from 154 nations. It is with this information that Yve has created THEN. The one-of-a-kind production is a celebration of the people we once were — be they strangers, legends or fools. Starring Yve’s Bjork-esque voice and a slew of costumes, it features songs and soundscapes sampling everything from flushing toilets to orchestras to dance breaks. Yve says, “We constantly play audience to our friends’ lives online, but forget that scrolling through Facebook is like viewing someone else’s highlight reel. It’s easy to feel behind in the race. I built WhoWereWe.com as a portal for strangers to anonymously reveal memories of dumb decisions, terrible haircuts, of self doubt and censored dreams so that I could transform these stories into music and celebrate them. It’s exciting and heartwarming to recognise ourselves in the words of others, so I figured, the more ‘others’ the merrier.”
In 2020, due to the pandemic, the Sydney Film Festival completely moved online. This year, after initially shifting from its usual June dates to the end of August, then moving again to November due to Sydney's lengthy lockdown, SFF is back in cinemas for a huge 12 days of big-screen delights — but it's also going virtual afterwards. Meet SFF On Demand, which'll stream 56 feature-length films and 13 shorts from Friday, November 12–Sunday, November 21. Sydneysiders, that means that you can check out the 2021 festival in-person, then continue it on your couch afterwards. Australians elsewhere, you can still get your SFF fix even if you can't get to Sydney this year. Streaming must-sees include New Zealand's The Justice of Bunny King, which stars Essie Davis (Babyteeth) and Thomasin McKenzie (Old) as a mother-daughter duo; three-time Sundance 2021 winner Hive, the first film to ever win the fest's Grand Jury Prize, Audience Award and Directing Award; Never Gonna Snow Again, about an eerie Ukrainian masseur making house calls in Poland; and exceptional Iranian drama There Is No Evil, 2020's Berlinale Golden Bear winner. There's also Swan Song, starring the inimitable Udo Kier (Bacurau); Sydney-set slacker comedy Friends and Strangers; Apples, a Greek satire set in the aftermath of an amnesia pandemic; and thriller The Beta Test. And, you can either pick and mix your flicks separately, or choose bundles — including a heap of this year's Documentary Australia Foundation Award contenders, a package of international docos and movies in SFF's Europe! Voices of Women in Film strand.
Internationally celebrated fine dining restaurants, beery brunch spots, teeny tiny cafes and openair dining terraces by the sea — Perth's fast becoming one of Australia's food capitals. With over two million Perthites, it's no wonder Western Australia's capital has matured into a hub of wealth and high achievers. Perth is a food lover's city with a laidback attitude, full of enthusiastic folks in activewear — in fact, it's apparently acceptable to wear head-to-toe exercise clothes 24 hours a day in Perth with zero judgment. Think of Perth like San Diego — a sprawled out city with pockets of creativity and sunshine for days. As one of our favourite long weekenders, we thought it time to share the love. You'll need a thick wallet, an empty stomach, an explorative mindset and an Uber account (taxis aren't exactly flowing in Perth). Grab a cross-country flight (around five to six hours) on Thursday night then take these cues for the best long weekend in pretty little Perth. [caption id="attachment_621562" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Petition.[/caption] EAT AND DRINK The benefits of flying to Perth include gaining time which ultimately means, double breakfast and double dinner. It's the food, wine and beer scene in this city that never disappoints. You thought Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane were hard to please? Perth boasts an exceptional quota of local coffee and food snobs with high expectations. Start your days strong with breakfast or brunch at Gordon Street Garage in East Perth, Petition Kitchen, Tiisch, Post, or La Veen in Perth city. If you're more of a long mac kinda person, Telegram, Saint Larry, Small Print, Max + Sons, Lowdown and Mo Espresso have you covered for a takeaway before you start your adventures. In the 'burbs, you want to head to Pixel Coffee Brewers in Leederville, Hylin in West Leederville or Mary Street Bakery in Highgate for epic baked goods to match your mug o' caffeinated magic. [caption id="attachment_621569" align="alignnone" width="1920"] The Shorehouse.[/caption] By about midday, the sun has fully occupied Perth so you want to sit outside near a beach and enjoy those lunchtime rays that Melburnians dream of. Bread in Common in Fremantle, Bib & Tucker on Leighton Beach, Il Lido in Cottesloe, The Shorehouse in Swanbourne and Kailis Trigg Beach are a sure thing to a light tan while you indulge in Western Australian seafood and Semillon. Happy hour begins rather early in Perth and it seems customary to head to Little Creatures Brewery in Fremantle for a pale ale with a side of hand-cut fries. Heading up the Indian Ocean you also can't go past the infamous Ocean Beach Hotel on Cottesloe Beach. Not many places in the world provide that view matched with thongs and bathers being an acceptable dress attire, but it's Perth so it's all good. [caption id="attachment_621556" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Long Chim.[/caption] Roughly five years ago, Perth saw a significant shift in the dining scene. Maybe it was the mining boom, which saw wealth flow over the state, or perhaps it was Perth's maturity kicking in, but it's plain to see local restaurants and bars have stepped it up. There's an old meets new, East meets West theme clearly evident across the city's menus. Following news of Restaurant Amuse and Neil Perry's Rockpool closing down, many feared the worst for Perth's fine dining industry. But new kids on the block, Ku De Ta, Long Chim, Wildflower and Lulu La Delizia are not letting anything deter them. After dinner, if you're keen to continue the late night shenanigans, hidden CBD bar Helvetica, underground cocktail bar Alfred's Pizzeria, snug rooftop joint Mechanics Institute, rum speakeasy Sneaky Tony's, country-loving dive bar Alabama Song, whiskey den Varnish On King, all-day/night favourite Pica Bar, WA-proud, two-level classic bar Dominion League or these ten bars worth travelling for. [caption id="attachment_621536" align="alignnone" width="1920"] COMO The Treasury.[/caption] STAY Turns out Perth hosts the second best hotel in the world according to Conde Naste. Yep, it's true. It's called COMO The Treasury and it's absolutely stunning. If you're a high baller with cash money to burn, look no further. Wedged between the original 1875 brick and stonework sits a sculpture of polished opulence. With the likes of David Thompson's Long Chim setting up shop inside the Hotel, one never really has to leave. DO Like most Australian destinations, Perth's activities are highlighted in the sun, and no trip is complete without visiting Rottnest Island. Around 20-40 minutes from Perth is Western Australia's version of the Whitsundays (at just a fraction of the price). Think crystal blue water, powder white sand and no cars in sight. You can do Rotto in a day by hiring a bike and snorkel gear and wandering through the bays along the way. The Rotto Pub, Hotel Rottnest is where it's at for fish and chips while you take selfies with the Island's famous native little friend, the quokka. Get your return ferry to drop you at B Shed in Fremantle and explore the Maritime Museum, Fremantle Prison and Fremantle Markets. After Rotto, head for more of the Indian Ocean coastline from Leighton Beach up to Trigg. Hiring a stand-up paddleboard from Elemental SUP is a great place to start. Whether you're a beginner, keen to head out by yourself or try SUP yoga, the team has you sorted. For those a little less SUP and little more surf, there's plenty of boards to hire in Cottesloe, Scarborough and Trigg beach. For a change of pace, head to one of the world's largest inner city parks, King's Park. Hosting various hikes, botanical gardens, outdoor cinema and concerts, treetop walks, memorials and Indigenous history, the park is perfect for exploring for a few sunny hours. Take a picnic with you to savour while you overlook Perth city and the Swan River. [caption id="attachment_621560" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Petition.[/caption] LET'S DO THIS: WHEN TO GO Like the majority of Australian destinations, to get the best out of them, you want to visit during summer. With an annual average of 25 degrees though, Perth is a sure thing for eternal sunshine. It's from November to April when this city really turns it on so if you can manage a long weekend around the Perth Fringe Festival or the Perth International Arts Festival you'll see Perth in its shining glory.
There might be a familiar face missing when you next venture through Berry, a town located about two hours drive south of Sydney. The region's legendary Berry Sourdough Cafe shut its doors for good in October, wrapping up an incredibly popular 17-year run. But while one institution's gone, there's another in the making, with the owners' other venture Milkwood Bakery still happily baking up a storm over on Queen Street. With seven years under its belt, this one's got its own legion of fans and is known for slinging a tempting lineup of signature cakes, pastries, bread and coffee. The cabinets are chock full of sweet delights, including fruit-filled danishes, buttery croissants and delicate chocolate caramel hazelnut tarts. Savoury options might include rustic sausage rolls and pizza slices, while the bread selection showcases classics like organic sourdough and chewy ciabatta. It's the perfect pit-stop for travellers, though if you've got the time, nab a seat in the leafy courtyard for a coffee and some brunch. The extended menu features cheery options like a loaded brekky burger, cheesy toasties and a vibrant brunch bowl.
Brooklyn Boy Bagels holds the self-proclaimed (and widely agreed upon) title as Sydney's "real-deal NYC bagels". After years of farmers markets and pop-up stores — from a six-seater cafe in Matraville and a kitchen in Marrickville to a Darlinghurst store and its recently closed cafe in Circular Quay's huge Gateway Sydney dining precinct — this Sydney bagel-slinger has settled on a permanent home in Marrickville. When COVID-19 restrictions first came into place, the shop began offering home-delivery to a bunch of Sydney suburbs. Then, it converted the parking lot of its existing wholesale bakery on Marrickville's Carrington Road to a drive-thru — so you could pick up freshly baked (and boiled) goods without leaving your car. Now, with restrictions rolled back, the bakery also functions as a cafe. The Inner West outpost offers plain, rainbow, onion, blueberry, sesame, gluten free and pumpkin versions of the humble boiled bread, as well as its famed everything bagel. Of course, you'll need some schmear, which Brooklyn Boy Bagels is selling by the bucketful. The 285-millilitre tubs of cream cheese include plain, jalapeño, lox with capers, garlic and chive flavours and a vegan almond 'cream cheese' one. Nutella, raspberry jam and peanut butter are also available, as are toppings such as lox and pastrami. While you'll definitely want the bagels, you'll also find sourdough, challah, loaves of rye, chocolate chip and sea salt cookies and a NY pushcart-style pretzel on the menu, plus takeaway coffee from local specialty coffee roasters The Little Marrionette. Appears in: Where to Find the Best Bagels in Sydney for 2023
A month-long food, drink and arts festival is taking over Surry Hills throughout November, pulling together beloved venues like Mille Vini, Dove & Olive, Yulli's, Dead Ringer, Four Pillars Laboratory, Gogyo, The Clock and Refettorio OzHarvest Sydney for 30 days of pop-ups, activations and special deals. The aim of Heart of Surry Hills: showcasing what the suburb's businesses do best, and celebrating its chefs, sommeliers, cocktail creators, hospitality personnel, local beverage producers and more, all while making the most of the parklands — and throwing in art and music. Highlights of the festival include Murder Most Foul, a series of walking tours through Surry Hills focusing on the dark underbelly of the suburb's past; a vintage market day and a two-day festival at Shannon Reserve, the latter featuring tunes from Stereogamous and The Dollar Bill Darlings, food trucks and pop-up bars; and an after-dark tour of the suburb that includes stop-offs at Brix Distillers, Four Pillars and the Shakespeare Hotel. [caption id="attachment_868624" align="alignnone" width="1920"] The Clock, Maria Boyadgis[/caption] On top of this, you'll want to check the Heart of Surry Hills website if you're heading to the city for a drink or bite to eat, with a heap of top venues offering special November deals as part of the festival. The Dove & Olive will be offering a craft beer paddle and spicy American-style chicken wings for $20 throughout the month, Mille Vini has put together a $35 tasting plate that comes with a paired wine, and Dead Ringer is serving up $12 martinis between 5–7pm each day. Plus, Refettorio, the collaboration between OzHarvest and Massimo Bottura, will be hosting two neighbourhood dinners. These public meals help to raise money so that the restaurant can those experiencing food insecurity with free lunches Tuesday–Friday each week. There's even more happening during the festival, so make sure to check out the full program. Top image: Mille Vini Kitti Gould
Sydney's lavish CBD hotel QT is bring some fun to the silly season without the next-day headache by running a pop-up non-alcoholic cocktail bar in its laneway. The collaboration between QT Sydney and Lyre will run every Thursday, Friday and Saturday up until Saturday, December 18, serving up classic cocktail favourites without the booze. From 4–10pm each day that the bar will be pouring drinks, Sydneysiders can head to George Street and choose from a menu of alcohol-free cocktails. Anyone who still wants a caffeine kick in their cocktail, can opt for the Coffee Originale and Parlour Cucina coffee espresso martini. Other non-boozy drinks on offer include negronis, margaritas and summer spritzes — all available to enjoy onsite or take away to sip as you're doing your Christmas shopping at Pitt Street Mall. Fans of non-alcoholic drinks will be familiar with Heaps Normal already, who've also supplied some of its Quiet Deeds XPA for the bar.
It’s always a huge year at Head On Photo Festival, and this year is no exception. Too big to fit in a single month, Head On sprawls over May and June, watching both the Sydney Writers Festival and the Sydney Film Festival open and close in its wake. This year’s selection of photography spends a lot of time overseas, with Calle Habana’s black and white Cuba, Ambition, Resignation, Alienation’s stolen light from '80s China, White Shadows’ window on life as an albino in Tanzania (also explored in the Human Rights Arts and Film Fest this year) and Yakuza’s journey into the Japanese underworld. There’s also Paul Blackmore’s stills from Beruit, and Stills Gallery’s photography from the late war correspondent Tim Hetherington. Closer to home, George Voulgaropoulos makes takes some stunning refugee portraits in Auburn, Fiona Wolf checks out the Parkes Elvis Festival, Jagath Dheerasekara checks out the Campbelltown fringe and indigenous retrospective from Barbara McGrady. There’s also a few words from Magnum photographers at the State Library and the Powerhouse. And these are just a toe in the water out of a flood of inbound photo shows coming our way all around town, including Andrew Quilty, the hidden Emma Hack, a look at the Ghanian way of death and many, many more. Image: Tim Hetherington, Kim, Korengal Valley, Kunar Province, Afghanistan © Tim Hetherington, courtesy Yossi Milo Gallery, New York. Part of Stills Gallery's Head On Show.
If you've had enough of watching countless friends flaunt their European summer adventures on social media, or you've just returned from your own Italian sojourn and haven't quite accepted it yet, Parlour Cucina might have the cure. The QT Sydney's ground floor resident is kicking off a weekly aperitivo hour, aiming to capture the free-spirited essence of Italy with live jazz music and authentic drinks for the occasion. Each Friday, from 5–7pm, you can enjoy a shot of house-made limoncello on arrival and graze on a selection of complimentary Italian nibbles from Executive Chef Michael Box. That's mini arancini, pecorino, hand-cut salami, mini calzone and olives — on the house. If you haven't been down to the newly refreshed Parlour Cucina, this might be the perfect chance to check out the low-lit, elegant deco restaurant and savour some of the traditional Italian fare on offer. There's an extensive wine list catering to any preference, with glasses starting at $9 and bottles capping out at $160, so the vibes can continue well after the limoncello has been sipped.
With weekly trivia, daily specials, live music, cold beers and cocktails, The Royal Oak has all the trappings we love in an Aussie pub. Not just a spot for drinks with mates, the buzzing open-plan kitchen churns out dishes of all kinds covering all bases. From pub grub classics (steak, bangers and mash, fish and chips, chicken parmi) to pasta dishes and fresh seafood (Sydney rock oysters, anyone?), plus desserts galore. There are also daily specials and meal deal offerings for those searching for a good value lunch or dinner. If you're a local looking for a takeaway with a difference, you can snag nearly its entire in-venue menu on the go, including its sharing lamb shoulder for four people, served with sides of Greek salad, charred lemon, tzatziki, red wine jus and crushed new potatoes sprinkled with rosemary salt. It's ideal for a next-level dinner party. There is also a short and sweet weekend brekkie offerin,g with Infinity sourdough breads, croissants, pastries, classic bacon and egg rolls, and smashed avo with Persian feta — with an option to add a coffee to either — if you're looking for something quick in the area.
This aptly-named small bar is brimming with more than its fair share of goodness. It's not just one busy room, but is cleverly composed of an assortment of nooks. A private table at the front, stools along the wall, hidden under the stairs, the upstairs 'lounge' room or in the upstairs courtyard: take your pick. The cocktails (all $16) have continued to be the main draw card here since opening back in 2011. For a refreshing drop, go for the Funky Cold Medina (white rum, elderflower liqueur, cucumber, mint and lime juice). Or, if you're looking for something with a kick, it has to be the Mezcal and Smoked Maple Old Fashioned (tequila, LP's smoked maple, mezcal, bitters and dried chilli). The best part is you can get any on the list for a tenner during happy hour Monday through Thursday 5–7pm. And this is a happy hour we frequent. For the peckish, the share food menu has plenty on offer, including crispy polenta bites ($12) and a dip platter ($14) for smalls, plus pizzas ($10) and burgers ($12) for the hangry — with both veg and meat options. If you're the indecisive sort, the Corridor board ($22) comes with a little bit of everything, including arancini, Mediterranean meatballs, grilled halloumi and garlic bread. Order at the bar and grab a much coveted rooftop spot before the tables fills up. If you're too slow, we're pretty sure you'll decide to get stuck in downstairs anyway. Corridor is too good to miss out on. Images: Trent van der Jagt
Time is up for anyone who's been taking advantage of an Opal system loophole at Sydney Airport, following a technology upgrade designed to catch out those travelling with insufficient funds of their card. In an effort to curb the number of passengers travelling with negative balances on their Opal cards, new top-up machines have been installed inside stations at both the international and domestic terminals, according to The Sydney Morning Herald. Where punters have previously been able to cruise through to their final destination without sufficient funds on their card, from January 7, they'll now be forced to add credit before they can pass through these gates to their flight. The machines will let you pay with either contactless payment via credit or debit card — but, still, this could be a real hassle if you're in a hurry to catch your flight. The upgrades will save Transport for NSW a lot of cash, given recent figures from the state's Audit Office revealed a whopping $7.8 million revenue has been lost from negative balance Opal cards. As much as $3.8 million of that was during the 2017-18 financial year alone. Most of the passengers turfing Opal cards with negative balances are doing so at the airport stations. Getting to the airport via public transport is already a pretty costly exercise, with hefty station access fees pushing up the total — an adult trip from central Sydney clocks in at $18.70 during peak times. You'll be happy to know that the upgrades are yet to arrive elsewhere on Sydney's public transport system — passengers will still be able to access other train stations with a minimum balance of $3.46 during peak periods, or $2.42 at other times. Via The Sydney Morning Herald.
Hopping between boutiques and galleries may be the sport of choice for many Paddington residents and visitors, but those really wanting to get the blood pumping head to White City Tennis. "I love having a hit at White City Tennis courts. It's steeped in so much history and the grass courts are surrounded by lots of greenery," says CP reader Alison Tanudisastro. Established in 1922, White City Tennis played a pivotal role in Sydney and Australia's tennis scenes. Until the Sydney Olympic Park Tennis Centre opened in 2000, it was host to the NSW Championships (now Sydney International). Boasting 16 grass courts, six synthetic grass courts and six hard courts, it remains a go-to for tennis enthusiasts. A $60 million redevelopment of the site into a multipurpose recreational facility, featuring a gym, basketball courts, a soccer field and 25-metre outdoor swimming pool, has been in the works for several years. [caption id="attachment_798508" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Cassandra Hannagan[/caption] Images: Cassandra Hannagan
On the small screen, 2023 started by showing the world exactly how a beloved video game should be turned into a television series. By the time the year had reached its midpoint, it had delivered one of the best TV murder-mysteries ever — from Australia, too, and also a smart and savvy comedy. Now that 2024 is almost upon us, a cringe-inducing parody of reality home-improvement programs, among a wealth of other targets, has proven a late-in-the-year stunner. So, as the best new TV shows of 2023 illustrate, no one can say that there hasn't been anything new to watch over the past 12 months. This year's television slate also gave viewers a subversive social satire, a David Cronenberg body-horror masterpiece turned into TV and a calming show about friendship in Japan. They're all among the best of the top brand-new arrivals, as are an eat-the-rich horror gem, a telemarketing true tale that has to be seen to be believed and a side-splitting history-of-the-world mockumentary. Here's an even better piece of news: not only has the past year been exceptional for television, but summer is a glorious time to reflect, revisit and, if you need to, work through your catch-up list. After filling 2023 viewing and rounding up TV highlights — and first selecting the must-sees midyear — we've now whittled down the results of all that couch time to the 15 best small-screen newcomers. THE CURSE It has always been impossible to watch TV shows by Nathan Fielder, including Nathan for You and The Rehearsal, without feeling awkwardness gushing from the screen. The films of Josh and Benny Safdie, such as Good Time and Uncut Gems, are such masterclasses in anxiety and chaos that viewers can be forgiven for thinking that their chairs are jittering along with them. From Easy A, La La Land and Maniac to The Favourite and Poor Things, Emma Stone keeps proving an inimitable acting force. Combine Fielder, the Safdies and Stone on one series, then, and whatever sprang was always going to be a must-see. Dark satire The Curse is also as extraordinary in its brilliance as it is excruciating in its discomfort. As well as co-creating the ten-part series, Fielder and Benny Safdie co-star, co-write and co-direct. Stone joins them on-screen and as an executive producer, with Benny's brother Josh doing the latter as well. And the Safdies' regular collaborator Oneohtrix Point Never, aka Daniel Lopatin, gets the show buzzing with atmospheric agitation in one of his best scores yet. Yes, The Curse is everything that the sum of these parts promises. It flows with disquiet like a burst hydrant. It fills each almost hour-long episode with a lifetime's worth of cringe. It's relentless in its unease, and also a marvellous, intense and hilarious black comedy that apes the metal Doug Aitken-esque houses that Stone and Fielder's Whitney and Asher Siegel like to build, reflecting oh-so-much about the world around it. The Curse takes the show-within-a-show route, with the Siegels eager to grace the world's screens as reality TV hosts spruiking environmentally sustainable passive homes in New Mexico's Española. The newly married pair have American pay TV network Home & Garden Television interested in Fliplanthropy, as well as their efforts to green up the community, create jobs for locals, and revitalise a place otherwise equated with struggling and crime stats. Lurking between the couple and HGTV is producer Dougie Schecter (Safdie, Oppenheimer), Asher's childhood friend with a nose for sensationalism — particularly as disharmony lingers among his stars as they try to start a family, get their show on the air, build their gleaming houses, find ideal buyers, honour the area's Indigenous history and overcome The Curse's title. The Curse streams via Paramount+. Read our full review. DEADLOCH Trust Kate McCartney and Kate McLennan, Australia's favourite Kates and funniest double act, to make a killer TV show about chasing a killer that's the perfect sum of two excellent halves. Given their individual and shared backgrounds, including creating and starring in cooking show sendup The Katering Show and morning television spoof Get Krack!n, the pair unsurprisingly add another reason to get chuckling to their resumes; however, with Deadloch, they also turn their attention to crime procedurals. The Kates already know how to make viewers laugh. They've established their talents as brilliant satirists and lovers of the absurd in the process. Now, splashing around those skills in Deadloch's exceptional eight-episode first season lead by Kate Box (Stateless) and Madeleine Sami (The Breaker Upperers), they've also crafted a dead-set stellar murder-mystery series that ranks among The Kates' best work in almost every way. The only time that it doesn't? Not putting the tremendous pair on-screen themselves. Taking place in a sleepy small town, commencing with a body on a beach, and following both the local cop trying to solve the case and the gung-ho blow-in from a big city leading the enquiries, Deadloch has all the crime genre basics covered from the get-go. The Tasmanian spot scandalised by the death is a sitcom-esque quirky community, another television staple that McCartney and McLennan nail. Parody requires deep knowledge and understanding; you can't comically rip into and riff on something if you aren't familiar with its every in and out. That said, Deadloch isn't in the business of simply mining well-worn TV setups and their myriad of conventions for giggles, although it does that expertly. With whip-smart writing, the Australian series is intelligent, hilarious, and all-round cracking as a whodunnit-style noir drama and as a comedy alike — and, as Box's by-the-book Senior Sergeant Dulcie Collins and Sami's loose and chaotic Darwin blow-in Eddie Redcliffe are forced to team up, it's also one of the streaming highlights of the year. Deadloch streams via Prime Video. Read our full review, and our interview with Kate McCartney and Kate McLennan. I'M A VIRGO No one makes social satires like Boots Riley. Late in I'm a Virgo, when a character proclaims that "all art is propaganda", these words may as well be coming from The Coup frontman-turned-filmmaker's very own lips. In only his second screen project after the equally impassioned, intelligent, energetic, anarchic and exceptional 2018 film Sorry to Bother You, Riley doesn't have his latest struggling and striving hero utter this sentiment, however. Rather, it springs from the billionaire technology mogul also known as The Hero (Walton Goggins, George & Tammy), who's gleefully made himself the nemesis of 13-foot-tall series protagonist Cootie (Jharrel Jerome, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse). Knowing that all stories make a statement isn't just the domain of activists fighting for better futures for the masses, as Riley is, and he wants to ensure that his audience knows it. Indeed, I'm a Virgo is a show with something to say, and forcefully. Its creator is angry again, too, and wants everyone giving him their time to be bothered — and he still isn't sorry for a second. With Jerome as well-cast a lead as Atlanta's Lakeith Stanfield was the last time that Riley was behind the lens, I'm a Virgo also hinges upon a surreal central detail: instead of a Black telemarketer discovering the impact of his "white voice", it hones in on the oversized Cootie. When it comes to assimilation, consider this series Sorry to Bother You's flipside, because there's no way that a young Black man that's more than double the tallest average height is passing for anyone but himself. Riley knows that Black men are too often seen as threats and targets regardless of their stature anyway. He's read the research showing that white folks can perceive Black boys as older and less innocent. As Cootie wades through these experiences himself, there isn't a single aspect of I'm a Virgo that doesn't convey Riley's ire at the state of the world — that doesn't virtually scream about it, actually — with this series going big and bold over and over. I'm a Virgo streams via Prime Video. Read our full review. DEAD RINGERS Twin gynaecologists at the top of their game. Blood-red costuming and bodily fluids. The kind of perturbing mood that seeing flesh as a source of horror does and must bring. An exquisite eye for stylish yet unsettling imagery. Utterly impeccable lead casting. When 1988's Dead Ringers hit cinemas, it was with this exact combination, all in the hands of David Cronenberg following Shivers, The Brood, Scanners, Videodrome and The Fly. He took inspiration from real-life siblings Stewart and Cyril Marcus, whose existence was fictionalised in 1977 novel Twins by Bari Wood and Jack Geasland, and turned it into something spectacularly haunting. Attempting to stitch together those parts again, this time without the Crimes of the Future filmmaker at the helm — and as a miniseries, too — on paper seems as wild a feat as some of modern medicine's biggest advancements. This time starring a phenomenal Rachel Weisz as both Beverly and Elliot Mantle, and birthed by Lady Macbeth and The Wonder screenwriter Alice Birch, Dead Ringers 2.0 is indeed an achievement. It's also another masterpiece. Playing the gender-swapped roles that Jeremy Irons (House of Gucci) inhabited so commandingly 35 years back, Weisz (Black Widow) is quiet, calm, dutiful, sensible and yearning as Beverly, then volatile, outspoken, blunt, reckless and rebellious as Elliot. Her performance as each is that distinct — that fleshed-out as well — that it leaves viewers thinking they're seeing double. Of course, technical trickery is also behind the duplicate portrayals, with directors Sean Durkin (The Nest), Karena Evans (Snowfall), Lauren Wolkstein (The Strange Ones) and Karyn Kusama's (Destroyer) behind the show's lens; however, Weisz is devastatingly convincing. Beverly is also the patient-facing doctor of the two, helping usher women into motherhood, while Elliot prefers tinkering in a state-of-the-art lab trying to push the boundaries of fertility. Still, the pair are forever together or, with unwitting patients and dates alike, swapping places and pretending to be each other. Most folks in their company don't know what hit them, which includes actor Genevieve (Britne Oldford, The Umbrella Academy), who segues from a patient to Beverly's girlfriend — and big-pharma billionaire Rebecca (Jennifer Ehle, She Said), who Dead Ringers' weird sisters court to fund their dream birthing centre. Dead Ringers streams via Prime Video. Read our full review. THE LAST OF US If the end of the world comes, or a parasitic fungus evolves via climate change, spreads globally, infests brains en masse and almost wipes out humanity, spectacular video game-to-TV adaptation The Last of Us will have you wanting Pedro Pascal in your corner. Already a standout in Game of Thrones, then Narcos, then The Mandalorian, he's perfectly cast in HBO's blockbuster series — a character-driven show that ruminates on what it means to not just survive but to want to live and thrive after the apocalypse. In this smart and gripping series (one that's thankfully already been renewed for season two, too), he plays Joel. Dad to teenager Sarah (Nico Parker, The Third Day), he's consumed by grief and loss after what starts as a normal day, and his birthday, changes everything for everyone. Twenty years later, he's a smuggler tasked with tapping into his paternal instincts to accompany a different young girl, the headstrong Ellie (Bella Ramsey, Catherine Called Birdy), on a perilous but potentially existence-saving trip across the US. Starting to watch The Last of Us, or even merely describing it, is an instant exercise in déjà vu. Whether or not you've played the hit game since it first arrived in 2013, or its 2014 expansion pack, 2020 sequel or 2022 remake, its nine-part TV iteration ventures where plenty of on-screen fare including The Road and The Walking Dead has previously trodden. The best example that springs to mind during The Last of Us is Station Eleven, however, which is the heartiest of compliments given how thoughtful, empathetic and textured that 2021–22 series proved. As everything about pandemics, contagions and diseases that upend the world order now does, The Last of Us feels steeped in stone-cold reality as well, as spearheaded by a co-creator, executive producer, writer and director who has already turned an IRL doomsday into stunning television with Chernobyl. That creative force is Craig Mazin, teaming up with Neil Druckmann from Naughty Dog, who also wrote and directed The Last of Us games. The Last of Us streams via Binge. Read our full review, and our interview with Melanie Lynskey. THE MAKANAI: COOKING FOR THE MAIKO HOUSE At the beginning of The Makanai: Cooking for the Maiko House, 16-year-old best friends Kiyo (Nana Mori, Liar x Liar) and Sumire (Natsuki Deguchi, Silent Parade) leave home for the first time with smiles as wide as their hearts are open. Departing the rural Aomari for Kyoto in the thick of winter, they have internships as maiko lined up — apprentice geiko, as geishas are called in the Kyoto dialect. Their path to their dearest wishes isn't all sunshine and cherry blossoms from there, of course, but this is a series that lingers on the details, on slices of life, and on everyday events rather than big dramatic developments. Watch, for instance, how lovingly Kiyo and Sumire's last meal is lensed before they set out for their new future, and how devotedly the camera surveys the humble act of sitting down to share a dumpling soup, legs tucked beneath blankets under the table, while having an ordinary conversation. Soothing, tender, compassionate, bubbling with warmth: that's The Makanai: Cooking for the Maiko House from the outset. There's a key reason that this cosy and comforting new treasure overflows with such affection and understanding — for its characters, their lives and just the act of living. Prolific writer/director Hirokazu Kore-eda simply isn't capable of anything else. Yes, Netflix has been in the auteur game of late, and The Makanai: Cooking for the Maiko House is unmistakably the work of its rightly applauded creative force. One of the biggest names in Japanese cinema today, and the winner of the received Cannes Film Festival's Palme d'Or back in 2018 for the sublime Shoplifters, Kore-eda makes empathetic, rich and deeply emotional works. His movies, including the France-set The Truth and South Korea-set Broker, truly see the people within their frames. On the small screen, and hailing from manga, the nine-episode The Makanai is no different. It's also as calming as a show about friendships, chasing dreams and devouring ample dumplings can and should be. The Makanai: Cooking for the Maiko House streams via Netflix. FULL CIRCLE Whether on screens big and small, when an audience watches a Steven Soderbergh project, they're watching one of America's great current directors ply his full range of filmmaking skills. Usually, he doesn't just helm. Going by Peter Andrews and Mary Ann Bernard — aliases from his parents' names — he shoots and edits as well. And he's prolific: since advising that he'd retire from making features after Side Effects, he's directed, lensed and spliced nine more, plus three TV shows. Among those titles sit movies such as Logan Lucky, Unsane, Kimi and Magic Mike's Last Dance; the exceptional two seasons of turn-of-the-20th-century medical drama The Knick; and now New York-set kidnapping miniseries Full Circle. The filmmaker who won Cannes Film Festival's Palme d'Or at 26 for Sex, Lies and Videotape, earned two Best Director Oscars in one year for Traffic and Erin Brockovich, brought the Ocean's franchise back to cinemas in 2001, and eerily predicted the COVID-19 pandemic with 2011's Contagion is in his element with his latest work. Six-part noir-influenced thriller Full Circle reunites Soderbergh with Mosaic and No Sudden Move screenwriter Ed Solomon, boasts a starry cast, involves money and secrets and deception, and proves a twisty and layered crime tale from the get-go. Full Circle starts with a murder, then a revenge plot, then a missing smartphone. These early inclusions all tie into an intricate narrative that will indeed demonstrate inevitability, cause and effect, the repercussions of our actions, and decisions looping back around. The pivotal death forms part of a turf war, sparking a campaign of retaliation by Queens-based Guyanese community leader and insurance scammer Savitri Mahabir (CCH Pounder, Avatar: The Way of Water). She enlists freshly arrived teens Xavier (Sheyi Cole, Atlanta) and Louis (Gerald Jones, Armageddon Time) to do the seizing under her nephew Aked's (Jharrel Jerome, I'm a Virgo) supervision; one of the newcomers is the brother of the latter's fiancée Natalia (Adia, The Midnight Club), who is also Savitri's masseuse. The target: Manhattan high-schooler Jared (Ethan Stoddard, Mysteries at the Museum), son of the wealthy and privileged Sam (Claire Danes, Fleishman Is in Trouble) and Derek Browne (Timothy Olyphant, Daisy Jones & The Six), and grandson through Sam to ponytailed celebrity chef Jeff McCusker (Dennis Quaid, Strange World). Savitri is convinced that this is the only way to stave off the curse she's certain is hanging over her business — a "broken circle", in fact. But, much to the frustration of the US Postal Inspection Service's Manny Broward (Jim Gaffigan, Peter Pan & Wendy), his go-for-broke agent Melody Harmony (Zazie Beetz, Black Mirror) is already investigating before the abduction. Full Circle streams via Binge. Read our full review. RAIN DOGS In 2019's Skint Estate, Cash Carraway told all; A memoir of poverty, motherhood and survival completes the book's full title. Penned about working-class Britain from within working-class Britain, Carraway's written jaunt through her own life steps through the reality of being a single mum without a permanent place to live, of struggling to get by at every second, and of being around the system since she was a teenager. It examines alcoholism, loneliness, mental illness and domestic violence, too, plus refuges, working at peep shows, getting groceries from food banks and hopping between whatever temporary accommodation is available. Rain Dogs isn't a direct adaptation. It doesn't purport to bring Carraway's experiences to the screen exactly as they happened, or with slavish fidelity to the specific details. But this HBO and BBC eight-parter remains not only raw, rich, honest and authentic but lived in, as it tells the same story with candour, humour, warmth and poignancy. Slipping into Carraway's fictionalised shoes is Daisy May Cooper — and she's outstanding. Her on-screen resume includes Avenue 5 and Am I Being Unreasonable?, as well as being a team captain on the latest iteration of Britain's Spicks and Specks-inspiring Never Mind the Buzzcocks, but she's a force to be reckoned with as aspiring writer and mum (to Iris, played by debutant Fleur Tashjian) Costello Jones. When Rain Dogs begins, it's with an eviction. Cooper lives and breathes determination as Costello then scrambles to find somewhere for her and Iris to stay next. But this isn't just their tale, with the pair's lives intersecting with the privileged but self-destructive Selby (Jack Farthing, Spencer), who completes their unconventional and dysfunctional family but tussles with his mental health. Including Costello's best friend Gloria (Ronke Adekoluejo, Alex Rider), plus ailing artist Lenny (The Young Ones legend Adrian Edmondson), this is a clear-eyed look at chasing a place to belong — and it's remarkable. Rain Dogs streams via Binge. Read our full review. SILO Rebecca Ferguson will never be mistaken for Daveed Diggs, but the Dune, Mission: Impossible franchise and Doctor Sleep star now follows in the Hamilton Tony-winner's footsteps. While he has spent multiple seasons navigating dystopian class clashes on a globe-circling train in the TV version of Snowpiercer, battling his way up and down the titular locomotive, she just started ascending and descending the stairs in the underground chamber that gives Silo its moniker. Ferguson's character is also among humanity's last remnants. Attempting to endure in post-apocalyptic times, she hails from her abode's lowliest depths as well. And, when there's a murder in this instantly engrossing new ten-part series — which leaps to the screen from Hugh Howey's novels, and shares a few basic parts with Metropolis, Blade Runner and The Platform, as well as corrupt world orders at the core of The Hunger Games and The Maze Runner flicks — she's soon playing detective. Silo captivates from the outset, when its focus is the structure's sheriff Holston (David Oyelowo, See How They Run) and his wife Allison (Rashida Jones, On the Rocks). Both know the cardinal rule of the buried tower, as does deputy Marnes (Will Patton, Outer Range), mayor Ruth (Geraldine James, Benediction), security head Sims (Common, The Hate U Give), IT top brass Bernard (Tim Robbins, Dark Waters) and the other 10,000 souls they live with: if you make the request to go outside, it's irrevocable and you'll be sent there as punishment. No matter who you are, and from which level, anyone posing such a plea becomes a public spectacle. Their ask is framed as "cleaning", referring to wiping down the camera that beams the desolate planet around them onto window-sized screens in their cafeterias. No one has ever come back, or survived for more than minutes. Why? Add that to the questions piling up not just for Silo's viewers, but for the silo's residents. For more than 140 years, the latter have dwelled across their 144 floors in safety from the bleak wasteland that earth has become — but what caused that destruction and who built their cavernous home are among the other queries. Silo streams via Apple TV+. Read our full review. BEEF As plenty does, Beef starts with two strangers meeting, but there's absolutely nothing cute about it. Sparks don't fly and hearts don't flutter; instead, this pair grinds each other's gears. In a case of deep and passionate hate at first sight, Danny Cho (Steven Yeun, Nope) and Amy Lau (Ali Wong, Paper Girls) give their respective vehicles' gearboxes a workout, in fact, after he begins to pull out of a hardware store carpark, she honks behind him, and lewd hand signals and terse words are exchanged. Food is thrown, streets are angrily raced down, gardens are ruined, accidents are barely avoided, and the name of Vin Diesel's famous car franchise springs to mind, aptly describing how bitterly these two strangers feel about each other — and how quickly. Created by Lee Sung Jin, who has It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Dave and Silicon Valley on his resume before this ten-part Netflix and A24 collaboration, Beef also commences with a simple, indisputable and deeply relatable fact. Whether you're a struggling contractor hardly making ends meet, as he is, or a store-owning entrepreneur trying to secure a big deal, as she is — or, if you're both, neither or anywhere in-between — pettiness reigning supreme is basic human nature. Danny could've just let Amy beep as much as she liked, then waved, apologised and driven away. Amy could've been more courteous about sounding her horn, and afterwards. But each feels immediately slighted by the other, isn't willing to stand for such an indignity and becomes consumed by their trivial spat. Neither takes the high road, not once — and if you've ever gotten irrationally irate about a minor incident, this new standout understands. Episode by episode, it sees that annoyance fester and exasperation grow, too. Beef spends its run with two people who can't let go of their instant rage, keep trying to get the other back, get even more incensed in response, and just add more fuel to the fire again and again until their whole existence is a blaze of revenge. If you've ever taken a small thing and blown it wildly out of proportion, Beef is also on the same wavelength. And if any of the above has ever made you question your entire life — or just the daily grind of endeavouring to get by, having everything go wrong, feeling unappreciated and constantly working — Beef might just feel like it was made for you. Beef streams via Netflix. Read our full review. THE FALL OF THE HOUSE OF USHER Of the many pies that Succession's Roy family had their fingers in, pharmaceuticals wasn't one of them. For virtually that, Mike Flanagan gives audiences The Fall of the House of Usher. The horror auteur's take on dynastic wealth gets a-fluttering through a world of decadence enabled by pushing pills legally, as six heirs to an addiction-laced kingdom vie to inherit a vast fortune. Flanagan hasn't given up his favourite genre for pure drama, however. The eponymous Usher offspring won't be enjoying the spoils of their father Roderick's (Bruce Greenwood, The Resident) business success, either, in this absorbing, visually ravishing and narratively riveting eight-parter. As the bulk of this tale is unfurled fireside, its patriarch tells federal prosecutor C Auguste Dupin (Carl Lumbly, SWAT) why his children (including Pet Sematary: Bloodlines' Henry Thomas, Minx's Samantha Sloyan, The Peripheral's T'Nia Miller, iZombie's Rahul Kohli, The Wrath of Becky's Kate Siegel and The Midnight Club's Sauriyan Sapkota) came to die within days of each other — and, with all the gory details, how. As with The Haunting of Hill House and The Haunting of Bly Manor before it, plus The Midnight Club as well, Flanagan's latest Netflix series finds its basis on the page. The author this time: Edgar Allan Poe, although The Fall of the House of Usher isn't a strict adaptation of the iconic author's 1840 short story of the same name, or just an adaptation, even as it bubbles with greed, violence and paranoia (plus death, loss, decay and the deceased haunting the livin)g. Character monikers, episode titles and other details spring from widely across Poe's bibliography. Cue ravens, black cats, masks, tell-tale hearts, pendulums and a Rue Morgue. What if the writer had penned Succession? That's one of Flanagan's questions — and what if he'd penned Dopesick and Painkiller, too? Hailing from the talent behind the exceptional Midnight Mass as well, plus movies Oculus, Hush, Ouija: Origin of Evil, Gerald's Game and Doctor Sleep, the series that results is a gloriously creepy and involving modern gothic horror entry. The Fall of the House of Usher streams via Netflix. Read our full review. POKER FACE Cards on the table: thanks to Russian Doll and the Knives Out franchise, Natasha Lyonne and Rian Johnson are both on a helluva streak. In their most recent projects before now, each has enjoyed a hot run not once but twice. Lyonne made time trickery one of the best new shows of 2019, plus a returning standout in 2022 as well, while Johnson's first Benoit Blanc whodunnit and followup Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery were gems of the exact same years. The latter also saw the pair team up briefly — Lyonne and Johnson, that is, although getting a Russian Doll-meets-Knives Out crossover from the universe, or just the Netflix algorithm, would be a dream. Until that wish comes true, there's Poker Face. It's no one's stopgap or consolation prize, however. This new mystery-of-the-week series is an all-out must-see in its own right, and a gleaming streaming ace. Given its components and concept, turning out otherwise would've been the biggest head-scratcher. Beneath aviator shades, a trucker cap and her recognisable locks, Lyonne plays detective again, as she did in Russian Doll — because investigating why you're looping through the same day over and over, or jumping through time, is still investigating. Johnson gives the world another sleuth, too, after offering up his own spin on Agatha Christie-style gumshoes with the ongoing Knives Out saga. This time, he's dancing with 1968–2003 television series Columbo, right down to Poker Face's title font. Lyonne isn't one for playing conventional detectives, though. Here, she's Charlie Cale, who starts poking around in sudden deaths thanks to an unusual gift and a personal tragedy. As outlined in the show's ten-part first season, Charlie is a human lie detector. She can always tell if someone is being untruthful, a knack she first used in gambling before getting on the wrong side of the wrong people. Then, when a friend and colleague at the far-from-flashy Las Vegas casino where Charlie works winds up dead, that talent couldn't be handier. Poker Face streams via Stan. Read our full review. TELEMARKETERS No one likes it when their phone rings from an unknown number, whether "no caller ID" or digits that you don't recognise flash up on your mobile's screen. Telemarketers isn't going to change that response. It won't dampen the collective ire that the world holds towards the pushy people on the other end of the line, either. HBO's thrilling three-part docuseries doesn't just reinforce what viewers already feel about the nuisance industry that thinks it can interrupt your day and life with a spiel that no one wants, and impact your bank balance in the process. In addition, it spins a true tale that demonstrates why a deep-seated dislike of telemarketing is so well-founded, and also why cold-calling operations can be so insidious. This true-crime story about the New Jersey-based Civic Development Group surpasses even the most call centre-despising audience member's low expectations of the field — and it's gripping, can't-look-away, has-to-be-seen-to-be-believed stuff. In fact, it's also an account of a tenacious duo revealing a billion-dollar fraud, and bringing this staggering whistleblower documentary to the masses. "Every other telemarketer who drives you crazy in the whole world is because of CDG," advises one of the series' interviewees. That might seem like a big claim, but co-directors Sam Lipman-Stern (Live From the Streets) and Adam Bhala Lough (The New Radical) step through its truth. The former knows the outfit's approach from experience, working there for seven years from the age of 14 after dropping out of high school, while the latter is the filmmaker cousin he wasn't aware of. Lipman-Stern is Telemarketers' on-screen guiding hand, too, but his ex-colleague Patrick J Pespas is its heart and soul. As seen early, Pespas is called a "telemarketing legend". Although he's happy snorting heroin on-camera in 2000s-era footage, he's switched on to CDG's shonkiness; more than that, he's determined to expose it even if it takes two decades. Everywhere that Lipman-Stern and Pespas look from there, this tale gets worse. It's no wonder that Uncut Gems and Good Time filmmakers Benny and Josh Safdie are among Telemarketers' executive producers, plus Eastbound & Down's Danny McBride, Jody Hill and David Gordon Green. Telemarketers streams via Binge. Read our full review. SWARM Becky with the good hair gets a shoutout in Swarm. Facial bites do as well, complete with a Love & Basketball reference when the culprit flees. This seven-part series about a global pop sensation and her buzzing fans and stans also has its music icon unexpectedly drop a stunner of a visual album, ride a white horse, be married to a well-known rapper, become a mum to twins and see said husband fight with her sister in an elevator. Her sibling is also a singer, and plenty of folks contend she's the more interesting of the two. Still, Swarm's object of fascination — protagonist Dre's (Dominique Fishback, Judas and the Black Messiah) undying obsession — sells out tours, breaks Ticketmaster and headlines one of the biggest music festivals there is. And, while they call themselves the titular term rather than a hive, her devotees are zealous and then some, especially humming around on social media. Donald Glover and Janine Nabers, the show's creators and past colleagues on Glover's exceptional, now-finished Atlanta — Nabers also worked on Watchmen, too — couldn't be more upfront about who they're referring to. No one says Beyoncé's name, however, but Swarm's Houston-born music megastar is the former Destiny's Child singer in everything except moniker. In case anyone watching thinks that this series is trading in coincidences and déjà vu, or just failing to be subtle when it comes to Ni'Jah (Nirine S Brown, Ruthless), the Prime Video newcomer keeps making an overt opening declaration. "This is not a work of fiction. Any similarity to actual persons, living or dead, or events, is intentional," it announces before each episode. From there, it dives into Dre's journey as a twentysomething in 2016 who still adores her childhood idol with the same passion she did as a teen and, instalment by instalment, shows how far she's willing to go to prove it. Swarm streams via Prime Video. Read our full review. CUNK ON EARTH If you've ever watched a David Attenborough documentary about the planet and wished it was sillier and stupider, to the point of being entertainingly ridiculous and ridiculously entertaining alike, then Netflix comes bearing wonderful news. Actually, the BBC got there first, airing history-of-the-world mockumentary Cunk on Earth back in September 2022. Glorious things come to waiting viewers Down Under now, however — and this gleefully, delightfully absurd take on human civilisation from its earliest days till now, spanning cave paintings, Roman empires, Star Wars' empire, 1989 Belgian techno anthem 'Pump Up the Jam' and more, is one of the best shows to hit Australia in 2023. This series is a comedy masterclass, in fact, featuring everything from a Black Mirror-leaning skit about Beethoven resurrected inside a smart speaker to a recreation of a Dark Ages fray purely through sound also thrown in. It's flat-out masterful, too, and tremendously funny. This sometimes Technotronic-soundtracked five-part show's beat? Surveying how humanity came to its present state, stretching back through species' origins and evolution, and pondering everything from whether the Egyptian pyramids were built from the top down to the Cold War bringing about the "Soviet onion". The audience's guide across this condensed and comic history is the tweed-wearing Philomena Cunk, who has the steady voice of seasoned doco presenter down pat, plus the solemn gaze, but is firmly a fictional — and satirical — character. Comedian Diane Morgan first started playing the misinformed interviewer in 2013, in Charlie Brooker's Weekly Wipe, with Black Mirror creator Brooker behind Cunk on Earth as well. Over the past decade, Cunk has also brought her odd questions to 2016's one-off Cunk on Shakespeare and Cunk on Christmas, and 2018's also five-instalment Cunk on Britain. After you're done with the character's latest spin, you'll want to devour the rest ASAP. Cunk on Earth streams via Netflix. Read our full review, and our interview with Charlie Brooker. Looking for more viewing highlights? We also rounded up the 15 best returning TV series of 2023, as well as 15 excellent new TV shows of 2023 that you might've missed — plus the 15 top films, another 15 exceptional flicks that hardly anyone saw in cinemas this year and the 15 best straight-to-streaming movies of the year as well. And, we've kept a running list of must-stream TV from across the year, complete with full reviews. Also, you can check out our regular rundown of film and TV streaming recommendations, which is updated monthly.
That gloom-less Sunday afternoon vibe, that triple-header sleep-in, that victorious pyjamas-only Monday. The long weekend is upon us and if you think you're going to spend it catching up on understandably excellent episodes of BoJack Horseman, there's too much balmy air and tasty events in Sydney to even consider bunking in. Dig into the hearty, hearty deliciousness that is Good Food Month, then there's two free carpark gigs, entire festivals dedicated to cider and chocolate and one heck of a sharply dressed birthday party. Perhaps you're making the roadie to Newcastle for the National Young Writers Festival to fill your brain with sweet knowledge and creativity. Newcastle's underrated, you should visit One Penny Black for pourovers or The Edwards for cheesy fries. Just do it. We've broken it down for you, the best things to do in Sydney over the long weekend. Take your pick of Saturday, Sunday and Monday's best around-town nosh pop-ups, parties and live gigs — you've plenty of time to nurse that fuzzy bear head in time to drift back to work on Tuesday. Get amongst it. SATURDAY Junkyard Festival at the Vic It's starting to feel like every weekend one of our favourite inner-west music havens, Vic on the Park, is hosting one must-attend event or another. Not that we're complaining. On Saturday, October 4 it's the Junkyard Festival at the Vic. The Junkyard Festival is held bimonthly in Sydney's inner west, showcasing some pretty sweet local music. The lineup sees a string of local favourites such as Deep Sea Arcade, Chicks Who Love Guns, The Upskirts, Doc Holiday Takes the Shotgun and Grease Arrestor playing in the Vic's beloved carpark. Supplementing all this live music goodness, the crew have also got some solid DJ action going on in the form of Palms, Tsars, Zero Likes, Ok Cocaine, Bachelor Pad, Bust Lip and Simbles. Entry is completely free, however RSVPs are encouraged. Drinks are recommended. Saturday, The Vic on the Park. The Festival of Chocolate How has this not been done before? Over Saturday and Sunday, you'll feel like a kid in a candy store. The two-day Festival of Chocolate will see The Rocks transformed into a sea of market stalls, as dessert chefs from all over the country try to win you over with an array of chocolate-inspired concoctions in every mouth-watering form possible. 2014 is the debut of this festival, featuring as part of Good Food Month. Though some of what we might think of as the big guns of Australian dessert are staying home for this one, Rocks residents Ananas Brasserie, Baroque Patisserie, Bar 100 and La Renaissance will be spruiking their tasty, melty wares, alongside wider NSW choco-talent Sweetness the Patisserie, Chocolarts, Le Pain Quotidien, Adora Handmade Chocolates and Danieli's Fine Foods. Watch the people who have dedicated their life's work to making chocolate — heroes, really — demonstrate on the Chocolate HQ stage. Saturday and Sunday, The Rocks. Louder than Words - Sydney Dance Company Expect to see the human body pushed to its absolute limits, choreography that seems almost miraculous and a potent blending of music, poetry, costuming and design.This exclusive Sydney season, Louder Than Words, is bringing two of the most awe-inspiring dance works (ever!) to the Sydney Dance Company stage. And they're both world premieres. From SDC artistic director, Rafael Bonachela, there's Scattered Rhymes, which is a collaboration with Australian composer Nick Wales and Grammy-nominated British composer Tarik O'Regan. Then, from Greek choreographer Andonis Foniadakis, there's Parenthesis, which features an original score written by French composer Julien Tarride and costumes created by fashion designer-photographer Tassos Sofroniou. Kicks off Saturday, Sydney Theatre, Walsh Bay. National Young Writers Festival National Young Writers' Festival (NYWF) is the four-day writerly celebration that takes over the imaginations of young writers around the country. Directors Alexandra Neill, Jessica Alice and Lex Hirst's colourful program features familiar names like Benjamin Law, Yassmin Abdel-Magied, Clementine Ford, Lawrence Leung, Genevieve Fricker, Steph Harmon, James Colley, Patrick Lenton and more (including some other names you might not recognise now but definitely will in the next five years). Blowing out 17 candles this year in Newcastle, NYWF is growing bigger and wiser by the year. But a festival is never too old for an intergalactic-themed ball and a spelling bee-cross-Hunger Games-style battle of the brains, right? Thursday to Sunday, Newcastle. The Shiny, Newly-Reopened Manly Wine Seaside wine is pure textbook How to Long Weekend stuff. Reopening its doors following the first renovation since opening in 2009, Manly Wine is back with a clean slate ripe for the long weekending. Unveiling a brand new set of threads for summer, The Keystone Group's outdoor, beachside wine bar is perfect for barefoot, post-swim weekend wines. Pair rose spritzers with Manly Wine's signature prawn and chorizo gumbo, wagyu burgers or a Northern Rivers 150 day grain fed rib on the bone, or perhaps the raw seafood bar is on the cards post-dip — steered by head chef Joel Robinson. They're open for brekkie if you're up that early seizing the day, unless you're more beers and sunsets inclined. From Saturday, South Steyne Road, Manly. SUNDAY Watsons Bay Cider Festival Summer is nearly upon us. Days are getting longer and the sun is shining near unwaveringly. To celebrate, the good folks at the Watson's Bay Boutique Hotel are throwing a festival dedicated to our favourite crisp fruit beverage — cider. Perched on the Watsons Bay foreshore, this establishment knows a thing or two about hosting chilled summer events, even in spring. Their Cider Festival will span the long weekend October 4-6 and feature a variety of local and imported ciders. Making good use of the fact that cider rhymes with slider, snacks in slider form will be available all day (as will non-rhyming paella). Live music will be plentiful, and for the go-getters among us, there's an apple bobbing competition and a 'cider trail' along Military Road. Saturday to Monday, Watsons Bay Boutique Hotel. The Vines Free Carpark Gig The Vines are a long way from their Rishikesh days. The reformed, Craig Nicholls-run, Sydney staple is back with a new double album Wicked Nature — their sixth studio album — and two new members. Drummer Lachlan West and bassist Tim John have joined Nicholls for the latest reincarnation of The Vines, a band that quite simply refuses to surrender. After a three year hiatus from any touring The Vines will return to the stage for an exclusive one off show to perform their new material — in the carpark of Enmore's Vic on the Park. Creating a bonafide ruckus over the October long weekend, The Vines will play a free show on Sunday, October 5 from 1–6pm. Sunday, The Vic on the Park, Marrickville. Ruby's BBQ Nothing like 16-hour slow smoked brisket and crunchy burgers on a long weekend Sunday. IconPark season two residents, Rupert & Ruby are holding a Ruby’s BBQ event at the Stanley Street location from 11am-3pm on Sunday, with executive Chef, Eli Challenger cooking up specialties for your meat-loving self. Nom on Challenger's Carolina pulled pork and Kentucky fried chicken — which saw Ruby’s BBQ win the coveted People’s Choice Award at Taste of Sydney. Be sure to book for this one, as these melt-in-your-mouth meats are hot property in this town. To make a booking (and you'll need to) visit IconPark. Sunday, Rupert & Ruby at IconPark, Darlinghurst. The Glass Menagerie — Belvoir In the opening monologue of The Glass Menagerie, Tom Wingfield (Luke Mullins), a thinly veiled portrait of Tennessee Williams, informs the audience that he intends to give them "truth in the pleasant disguise of illusion". Soon after, he casually remarks that "The play is memory … it is sentimental, it is not realistic." So which is it to be? Truth or sentiment? Belvoir’s latest production grapples not only with Williams’ text but also his disdain for the theatrical conventions of his time. The Glass Menagerie is not only compelling theatre, it is proof that you needn’t take a hatchet to the classics if you want to make them say something new. Saturday and Sunday, Belvoir, Surry Hills. Goodgod Small Club Fourth Birthday It's hard to believe, but it's four years now that Goodgod Small Club first started bringing its much-needed, eccentric, eclectic good times to the CBD. To celebrate their fourth birthday, they're putting on an epic shindig — as only Goodgod know how. That means, of course, a venue-consuming, all-night-long, convention-obliterating party — this time around themed 'Taking Care of Business'. At the centre of the action will be the Goodgod 'house band' presented by Siberia Records, and Alex Cameron (one-half of Seekae). You can also expect a parade of special guests including Ariane, Astral DJs, Champain Lyf, Drongo, Mike Who, Nacho Pop, Power Suit, Shantan Wantan Ichiban and Tyson Koh. And the dress code? Under the suave 'Taking Care of Business' theme, Goodgod wants to see you looking your public holiday schmickest, so they're asking for suits. Yep, suits. Sharpen up. Sunday, Goodgod Small Club, Chinatown. MONDAY Sydney's Best Coastal Walks You can walk to the shops. You can walk to work. But no walk will feed your soul like a walk by the water. And if you live in Sydney, your soul should be pizza-party-level full. These ten coastal walks have it all — wild scrub, picturesque paths, yacht clubs and war ruins. Bar stops right where you need them. Parts of the Bondi to Coogee you can blitz in an hour, while the Bundeena to Otford track is an overnighter. Here's your next ten weekends' worth of active leisure. All weekend, all summer long. Check out our whole test-walked list here. Foe, Like The Enemy Pop-Up Store The acquisition of good vintage clothing can be a difficult feat. Much like the metaphoric fog, sometimes you have to sort through a whole bunch of crap until you find something good. Fortunately for us, the guys behind Foe, Like The Enemy have trawled through Asia and the Americas to source the best vintage clothing they could get their hands on. After a wildly successful first pop-up instalment, Foe are holding their second pop-up store in Regent Street, Redfern from September 24 — October 8. For a limited time you can walk into a real-live shop and try on vintage clothes in an actual changeroom — we're talking Jurassic Park denim details, well-worn flannos, as many retro sunglasses as you can predict to lose at a music festival. Saturday to Monday, Regent Street, Redfern. Pinot Palooza Master sommelier Madeline Triffon describes Pinot Noir as 'sex in a glass', while winemaker Randy Ullom calls it 'the ultimate nirvana'. One of the most challenging grapes in the world of vinification, it's also one of the most surprising and rewarding. No wonder Bottle Shop Concepts — the good folk who brought Game of Rhones our way in June — are coming back to town with Pinot Palooza, an epic travelling wine festival celebrating all things Pinot Noir. For just one day, wine connoisseurs in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane will have the chance to sample more than 150 drops, direct from the Southern Hemisphere’s best producers. Think Ata Rangi, Yabby Lake, Bay of Fires, Rippon, Kooyong, Mount Difficulty — and that’s just the first few leaves on the vine. Pinot Palooza will hit Sydney on Monday, October 6 at Carriageworks, you can buy tickets right here. Monday, Carriageworks, Eveleigh. The Clock Salumeria Nibble on a piece of Italy this weekend; we're talking meats, cheeses, wines, All the Molto Bene Things. The perfect afternoon or pre-dinner plan, Surry Hills' Clock Hotel is hosting their very own Salumeria, a pop-up bar just for the long weekend. Paying homage to traditional Italian delicatessens (salumeria), mixed boards will feature a range of meats including prosciutto, hot sopressata and capicola alongside cheeses such as gorgonzola, pecorino and taleggio; all complemented by gardiniera, pane de casa and green tomato marmellata. You'll only fork out $20 for two meats one cheese, $30 for four and three, so if you rock up with a small crew it'll cost next to nothing to nibble. And anything involving carafes of Prosecco and Chianti sounds pretty perfect to us. Check out the new Whisky Room while you're at it. Saturday, Sunday and Monday, The Clock Hotel, Surry Hills. Gone Girl The director of Seven, Fight Club and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, David Fincher has made a career out of stylish, devilishly entertaining pulp. His latest film, Gone Girl, is absolutely no exception. Adapted from Gillian Flynn's bestselling novel of the same name, it's a dark and twisting tale that presents itself as both a biting commentary on relationships and media frenzy, and a subversion of procedural film conventions. And at the same time, it fully embraces the sleaze and exploitation of that which it critiques. The film is very much double-edged sword. It condemns us for our obsession with violence while funnelling it down our throats. Once again, Fincher is dressing up trash as serious art, wanting to have his cake and eat it too. And frankly, we wouldn't take it any other way. All weekend, various cinemas around Sydney. Words by the Concrete Playground team.
There shouldn't have been a dry eye in the house, or watching on from around the world, when Ke Huy Quan took to Hollywood's Dolby Theatre stage in March 2023 to collect the Best Supporting Actor Oscar for Everything Everywhere All At Once. His performance in the multiverse-hipping hit, which was only his second stint in front of the camera in two decades, thoroughly earned the coveted accolade on its merits. Just as with the feature's fellow Academy Award-winning actors Michelle Yeoh (The Brothers Sun) and Jamie Lee Curtis (The Bear), the sci-fi-, comedy-, fantasy-, drama- and martial arts-mashing film wouldn't have been the success it was without him. It's always moving to see a well-deserving talent get their time to shine. Quan's off-screen story was responsible for some of those tears, however. Thirty-nine years ago at the time, he was also all over the silver screen as a child actor in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. Quan will always be the film's Short Round — and, in his next high-profile part afterwards, The Goonies' Data as well. After a handful of other roles, including TV's Head of the Class and 90s comedy Encino Man, he then stepped away from acting. Quan didn't farewell the screen industry, though. Off-camera, his credits include assistant fight choreography and stunt rigging on the first X-Men, action choreography assistant director on The One and first assistant director to iconic filmmaker Wong Kar-Wai on 2046. What's followed since Everything Everywhere All At Once wasn't something that he could've ever foreseen — as a teenager hitting it big, when he gave acting away and even when he was cast in the movie that changed his life. Neither was his upcoming part leading action movie Love Hurts. As Martin Gable, Quan steps into John Wick territory. He's also in Nobody terrain a touch, too. As seen in the feature's just-dropped trailer ahead of its February 2025 release, Love Hurts' protagonist is a real-estate agent who is devoted to his job, and has a Regional Realtor of the Year Award to show for it. He's also dedicated to helping people find their dream house. His slogan: "I want a home for you". His motto: "every day is an opportunity to change your life". But before this ordinary existence, Martin was in a completely different line of work as an assassin. [caption id="attachment_976823" align="alignnone" width="1920"] David Nguyen, ©AMPAS[/caption] In a film that boasts another Oscar-winner on-screen in West Side Story's Ariana DeBose (Argylle), of course that history finds its way back into Marvin's present. If Love Hurts sounds like classic David Leitch territory, that's because the stunt performer-turned John Wick, Atomic Blonde, Deadpool 2, Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs and Shaw, Bullet Train and The Fall Guy helmer adds it to the producing side of his resume, where Nobody also sits, courtesy of his production and action design company 87North. Another former stunt professional makes his directorial debut with the movie, with Jonathan Eusebio also a fight coordinator on the first three John Wick flicks (and on plenty others, such as Iron Man 2, The Avengers, The Bourne Legacy, Doctor Strange, The Fate of the Furious, Black Panther and The Matrix Resurrections). Quan hasn't ever been a real-estate agent and obviously was never a hitman, let alone an ex-assassin turned realtor. Still, playing someone being drawn back into a line of work that they'd moved away from has clear synergy with his own path since 2021's Finding 'Ohana brought him back to the screen, then Everything Everywhere All At Once worked its magic, leading to TV's American Born Chinese and Loki season two, voice acting in Kung Fu Panda 4 and now this. We chatted to Quan about that synchronicity, doing something that he never imagined he'd get to in being number one the call sheet for an action film and his 'no compromise' approach to the feature's fight scenes — and about the last few years, capitalising upon and celebrating second chances, and becoming an inspiration to anyone who has ever thought their dream was out of reach. On Reflecting His Own Recent Experience by Making a Movie About Someone Drawn Back Into Their Old Line of Work "Oh, my god, what a great question. You made the connection that I didn't even make. The only difference is Marvin Gable is trying to get away from his past, and it hurts him so much that he can't — versus I want to get back to my past where I am an actor, and I'm very fortunate to be able to do so and have this incredible second chance. One of the things that I love about the character Marvin Gable is that he knows what he's done in the past, and he's very ashamed of it, and he's doing everything he can to redeem himself. And that's why he's a real-estate agent, because he has destroyed so many homes in the past and now all he wants to do is to help people's dream of owning a home come true. He wants to help build homes and not destroy them. And there is beauty in that, and there's that question: are we able to get away from the past that we don't like? That's what the movie is trying to answer." On Leading an Action Film — and Jumping Into John Wick Territory "I always loved the action genre. So John Wick and any action movies, I love, because they're just really fun to watch. And they're a great escape for you to forget about all your problems and just have a good time for 90 minutes. That's what we try to do with this movie. There's no agenda. There's nothing else that we're trying to do, just to entertain the audience for 90 minutes. One of the biggest differences with this movie is what David Leitch and our producers in 87North and Universal Studios try to do to create a new kind of action star. We have seen action movies for the longest time and they always have a certain type of action hero. This one is very different. He doesn't look like an action hero. He doesn't look bad-ass. But he's truly a bass-ass when the situation calls for it. And because of that element of surprise, I find that very refreshing, and I love it. [caption id="attachment_892688" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Everything Everywhere All At Once[/caption] Also, one of the things that I was adamant about when I came onboard was that I wanted to do everything myself. I'm not talking about stunts. Stunts is jumping off a building, getting hit by a car or being set on fire. That is a very specific skill. What I mean by doing everything myself with all the fights, all the punches that I threw myself, all the kicks — and I trained very hard for it with 87North's action team for this. And mentally and physically, it was exhausting. But it was also very gratifying, because I finally got to do it." [caption id="attachment_884620" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Everything Everywhere All At Once[/caption] On How Quan's Stunt and Action Choreography Background Helped Him with Love Hurts "Oh my gosh, it was so advantageous to have that experience and that knowledge. And I did it for a long time. But the only difference is I was behind the camera, and one of my responsibilities was to train actors to do that. For example, like on X-Men, I was helping Hugh Jackman to learn those moves. So to have that knowledge and to be able to utilise all of that in this movie was incredible. And it was a big, big help. I don't think I could have done this had I not worked as an action choreographer. The only difference is I haven't done it for a long time so it's really bringing my muscle memory back to forefront — and also getting myself mentally and physically prepared for it. It was a lot of fun to do." On the Preparation Process for Starring in an Action Movie — and Giving the Genre a Different Type of Hero "I trained for almost three months with our action team, and the training didn't stop when we started production. It carried on till the end of the movie. It was very intense. There was a lot of weights, a lot of core training, muscle training — and, most importantly, a lot of stretching. Because not only you don't want to hurt yourself, but also doing those kicks, you need to be flexible. So there was a lot of stretching involved as well. And I've got to tell you, when we were shooting making this movie, one of the most-difficult things was the time constraint. Actions take time. And ever since day one, I told everybody, I said 'please, there's no compromise. If we don't get it, please do not move on. It doesn't matter how many takes we do'. [caption id="attachment_976827" align="alignnone" width="1920"] American Born Chinese[/caption] Because this is an 87North movie and the audience who watches this movie expects a certain level of action. There was a certain demand from them, expectation from them. So I didn't want to disappoint them. And what that entailed is sometimes shooting 15 hours 16, 17 — I think one day we shot 18 hours. Now 18 hours shooting a dialogue scene is exhausting. But can you imagine what shooting a fight scene is like? And as the hours progress, your muscles get tired. Your mental capacity goes down. But when you do a fight, it takes tremendous focus. One, you have to remember the choreography. And second, you don't want to hurt the person you're fighting with and you certainly don't want to get hurt by them, so you have to remember the choreography. It was really demanding and at the same time, like I said, I didn't want us to compromise. In fact, our action team, at the end of the shoot they printed a shirt that says 'no compromise' and gave it to everybody." [caption id="attachment_976825" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Everything Everywhere All At Once[/caption] On What Quan Learned From Wong-Kar Wai That He Still Draws Upon Today "Nobody makes a movie the way Wong Kar-Wai makes them. He can spend an entire day finessing one shot. And what I learned from that is the dedication, the perseverance, the determination to achieve your goal, and I applied that to this movie. That's why I said 'let's not compromise it. If we don't get it, let's keep on doing it. If we don't have the time, then let's be creative. How can we find time and how can we make it work?'. And Wong Kar-Wai was part of that training that I had. It was seeing him go ' if it's no good, let's go again, and if there are problems, okay, then let's take a step back and let's find out what the problem is'. We applied that to the fight scenes that we did. There are five big action sequences in this movie. When it's just a fight scene, the audience gets tired of watching it very quickly. So what we try to do, what I learned from my experience on those action days was that you have to put a story behind those fights. All the characters, they fight a little bit differently, because that's who they are, that's their personality, that's their character — and we tried to apply that to this movie. And it was fun, but also at the same time it was very challenging to do it in the one movie for five scenes. You understand that the audience has a very sophisticated eye nowadays. They've seen everything already. So it's hard to throw them. I'm going to give you a great quote from Steven Spielberg. He says it's very hard to throw an audience with spectacle, but it's easy to do it if you give them a good story. And that's what we try to do with this, with the fight sequences in this movie." [caption id="attachment_851369" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Everything Everywhere All At Once[/caption] On What the Last Couple of Years, From Everything Everywhere All At Once Onwards, Have Been Like for Quan "It's incredible. Like Marvin Gable the character, it's about redemption and about second chances. When you talk about second chances, I really resonate with that. I got this incredible second chance to be an actor again and everything that has happened since 2022, when Everything Everywhere came out, has just been incredible. And Love Hurts is another proof that I didn't think I would ever get — being the lead actor in a major motion studio film, being number one on the call sheet, I didn't think that would ever happen. And one of the things that I really enjoy and love that came out of all of this is so many people have come up to me and said 'wow Ke, I've also struggled and seeing what you're going through, what happened to you, leaves me a lot of hope. And it gives me a lot of strength to keep on fighting, to continue to struggle, because it can happen'. I keep saying to everybody 'if it can happen to me, it can certainly happen to anybody'. This incredible opportunity to be in Love Hurts, it's kind of my answer to all those questions that they are asking themselves: 'if I put in the work, if I'm patient enough, if I'm determined enough, will one day my future get better? Will one day my dream come true?'. It's a great feeling to have, to be able to do that." [caption id="attachment_921343" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Loki. Photo by Gareth Gatrell. © 2023 MARVEL.[/caption] On Becoming a Source of Inspiration Thanks to His Glorious Comeback "It's amazing, because I have been inspired by so many people, so many wonderful actors that I've enjoyed, so many filmmakers — and not only that, also people outside of our industry. When I watch the news and I see people do incredible charity, I'm very inspired by that. I never thought I would ever be in a position to inspire others, and to be able to do that is one of the greatest feelings I ever had. It just gives me this really warm feeling inside that, I don't know what to say. I know I've been saying a lot of the same things for the last years, where you hear me say it all the time — grateful or it's a great blessing and I'm lucky, and certainly those are true adjectives." [caption id="attachment_976824" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Phil McCarten, ©AMPAS[/caption] On Not Knowing What Was Set to Come When Quan Was Cast in Everything Everywhere All At Once "I didn't think in terms of how much it was going to change my life, and I certainly didn't expect the incredible response that we got, all those incredible accolades that the movie has received. I just thought it was a great script, and I thought the Daniels were incredible filmmakers, and I just wanted to be on that journey with them. So I didn't expect this, but I knew that I would be proud of the movie. Because when I saw Swiss Army Man and it was such an absurd premise, but they were able to move me to tears, keep me at the edge of my seat and have me totally immersed in the story — and I said 'oh my god, if they can do that with that, that's their promise, I cannot imagine what they could do with this incredible script'. And surely they did exactly that and more. And, of course, in the process they changed my life. I didn't expect them to change my life. I was just very grateful that they believed that I can act again after such a long hiatus." Love Hurts releases in cinemas Down Under on Thursday, February 6, 2025.
Since making her movie debut as "girl in a blue truck" in Dazed and Confused, then popping up in a Texas Chainsaw Massacre sequel, Renee Zellweger has enjoyed quite the career. She belted out a tune on a rooftop in Empire Records, told Tom Cruise that he had her at hello in Jerry Maguire and became everyone's favourite romantically challenged Briton in three Bridget Jones flicks. Then, she razzle-dazzled her way to an Oscar nomination in Chicago, before nabbing a coveted statuette for Cold Mountain. It's an impressive resume. So, when we say that Judy may just be Zellweger's best work, we don't make that statement lightly. Stepping into a famous figure's shoes might be one of acting's most difficult feats, especially when that person is cinema royalty, but Zellweger doesn't ever feel like she's just impersonating Judy Garland. Rather, she wears Garland's ruby slippers as if they're her own — and they fit perfectly. Technically, because Judy is set in the year leading up to the eponymous star's death, Zellweger doesn't literally don that iconic pair of footwear, with the film enlisting newcomer Darci Shaw to do the honours in flashbacks to Garland's teenage years. Zellweger doesn't need glittering shoes to inhabit the part, though; with nuance and intensity simmering through her performance, she shines brighter than any jewel-toned item of clothing ever has. While the aforementioned leaps back into the past show where Garland started, the expectations placed upon her and the destructive impact of her showbiz childhood, Judy spends the bulk of its duration in 1969. Garland is 46, with more than four decades of experience to her name, but she's scrounging for work. Deemed unemployable by Hollywood's insurance agencies, which nixes her cinema stardom, The Wizard of Oz, Meet Me in St. Louis and A Star Is Born talent sings and dances through touring stage shows instead. Both broke and homeless, she's trying to provide for two of her children (Bella Ramsey and Lewin Lloyd). So, when she reluctantly takes a long series of gigs in London, it's largely to earn enough cash so she doesn't have to keep travelling away from her kids afterwards. Given the above state of affairs, plus years of using prescription pills to stay awake and to get to sleep (and drinking as well), Garland isn't in prime physical, emotional or mental health during Judy's period of focus. Remaining in the public eye since she was two has clearly taken its toll, understandably. And, while Garland knows this, she's addicted to the thrill of being in the spotlight — and she has an ego to with it, too, as her interactions with her British minder (Jessie Buckley) demonstrate. Still, what a joy it is to spend time with Zellweger's version of Garland, and not only when she's wowing crowds while strutting across the stage. In an always hypnotic, often heartbreaking portrayal that illustrates the star's on-stage strength and behind-the-scenes sorrow in tandem, Zellweger turns every scene into a revelation. Watching as Garland dotes over her youngest offspring, attends a party with her twenty-something daughter Liza Minnelli (Gemma-Leah Devereux) and falls swiftly for her fifth husband (Finn Wittrock), viewers see the yearning heart of someone who just wants to love and be loved in return. In her messier moments, of which there are many, we feel the kind of aching pain that all the cheering fans in the world can't fix. And, when she's crooning a greatest-hits collection from across her career — including 'Get Happy' and, of course, 'Over the Rainbow' — we understand why she keeps doing what she does even when it's almost killing her. For existing Garland aficionados, the result is like trotting down the yellow brick road — you can bask in all the glorious details you've ever wanted, while also getting a glimpse behind the curtain at the stark reality behind the magic. And if The Wizard of Oz is your only real frame of reference for Garland, Judy wholeheartedly explains that the now-80-year-old classic was neither the beginning nor the end of her tale. Accordingly, in adapting stage musical Over the Rainbow for the screen, director Rupert Goold (TV's The Hollow Crown) and writer Tom Edge (The Crown) have hit the biopic jackpot. There's a sense of formula at work in Judy's storytelling, as can happen in showbiz portraits, but it captures its subject in a winning way. And, come next year, Zellweger will likely be winning plenty more awards for her efforts — for such a captivating performance that does justice to a legend, she deserves to. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C61wB6DTwiA
If you're a Queenslander or a Victorian with a trip to Sydney in your future — or vice versa — the pandemic has just interrupted your plans. Yes, again. With the New South Wales capital currently experiencing a new COVID-19 cluster, both its northern and southern neighbour states have declared parts of the city either hotspots or red zones, depending on their respective terminology. And, as a result, both Queensland and Victoria are shutting their borders to seven Sydney Local Government Areas. Victoria announced the news late on Tuesday, June 22, while Queensland did the same today, Wednesday, June 23 — and each state's border closures come into effect at different times, too. In Victoria, the change actually kicked in at 1am this morning. In Queensland, it'll apply from 1am on Thursday, June 24. https://twitter.com/VicGovDH/status/1407302855405363202 Accordingly, folks who've been in the City of Sydney, Waverley, Woollahra, Bayside, Canada Bay, Inner West and Randwick LGAS will no longer be permitted to enter either Victoria or Queensland, other than in a few circumstances. Victoria is allowing the state's own residents who've been in the identified LGAs, which are now classes as red zones under its traffic light-style permit system, to obtain permits to return home — but they'll then need to quarantine for 14 days. If you're not a Victorian resident and you've been in the seven Sydney regions, you can no longer enter Victoria. In Queensland, residents entering from the seven Sydney hotspots will need to go into hotel quarantine for 14 days — and non-residents will only be allowed to enter if they receive an exception, and will also need to go into hotel quarantine for a fortnight. Plus, everyone will need to complete one of the state's online travel declarations first, after that system was brought back into effect last week. https://twitter.com/AnnastaciaMP/status/1407478815853400064 Queensland actually already made a similar move on Saturday, June 19, but limited to Waverley local government area. So, when 1am hits on Thursday, June 24, it'll be joined by the City of Sydney, Woollahra, Bayside, Canada Bay, Inner West and Randwick under the state's hotspot declaration. For more information about southeast Queensland's COVID-19 border restrictions, or about the status of COVID-19 in the state, visit the Qld COVID-19 hub and the Queensland Health website. For more information about COVID-19 in Victoria and the state's current restrictions, head over to the Department of Health website.
If there's one thing summer has in abundance it's activities. Whether you're heading on a trip or staying local, there's always plenty to do, see and explore when the sun comes out to play. Yet, somehow, we still seem to always do the same old things: quick dips in the ocean and having mates round for a Sunday session in your backyard. Don't get us wrong, they're both great. But, after a pretty rough year, why not take things up a notch and make this one more memorable? We've partnered up with Bacardi to help you be a bit more unconventional over the warmer months. Here are seven ways you can make the most of the glorious weather, without resorting to the predictable. Think underwater art museums, camping with the crew, multi-venue festivals and cocktail parties in parks. TAKE A HIKE Sure, it might not be the most original summer activity on the list, but getting out into nature is rewarding at any time of year. You'll want to avoid heatstroke, so it's best to get going early or in the late arvo when the temperature starts to drop — which means you'll see some mighty fine sunrises and sunsets. So, put on your best outdoor shoes, slap on some sunscreen and ready yourself for an adventure. If you're in Sydney, you can cruise along one of the city's many coastal walks or hike in a national park, where you'll find some swimming holes to cool off in. In Brisbane, you can conquer epic mountains, check out rushing falls and look out over stunning vistas, without having to venture too far from the big smoke — check out five of the best walks here. Down south in Victoria, there's everything from out-of-town seaside strolls to epic multi-day hikes, boasting idyllic views of pristine beaches, sprawling countryside and serene vineyards, plus plenty of local wildlife. [caption id="attachment_784354" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Disney+ Drive-In[/caption] CATCH A FLICK AT A DRIVE-IN CINEMA Looking for an idea for a date or fun night out with mates? Forget the recliner, keep to social-distancing requirements and catch a movie under the stars, while keeping cool in your car at a drive-in cinema. Head to Skyline Drive-In in Blacktown, Sydney, where you can catch something on the big screen every night of the week, whether it's a new blockbuster or cult classic. If you grew up in Brissy, you've probably already been to old fave Yatala Dive-In and, with such a great rotating program, who could blame you? If you'd rather do something different, though, head to The Tivoli Drive-In on a Saturday. Melbourne locals, you're spoiled for choice with Dandenong Lunar Drive-In and Village Cinemas Coburg Drive-In and, come December, a pop-up Disney+ Drive-In. HOST A COCKTAIL PARTY IN A PARK Know a good patch of green near you? Then, take your next event to the park and impress your mates with an impromptu cocktail party — with a dress code encouraged, of course. Grab some picnic blankets, portable speakers and fun snacks, then get ready to whip up some next-level bevvies. For tropical tipples, you'll need a few bottles of Bacardi, then check out these four super-easy rum cocktails. We recommend batch-making some frozen strawberry daiquiris to keep things simple — just make sure your party guests know to arrive on time. And, because no good cocktail party is complete without snacks, head to a park with a barbecue so you can throw on some snags, too. [caption id="attachment_770817" align="alignnone" width="2000"] White Rabbit 'And Now' by Kimberley Low[/caption] STAY COOL AT A BLOCKBUSTER ART EXHIBITION While being outdoors when it's sunny is ace, sometimes you just want to kick back in air-conditioning. If that's the case, head to an indoor art exhibition where you can get your cultural kicks — and stay cool. Check out contemporary Chinese art at White Rabbit Gallery, the MCA's landmark summer exhibition Lindy Lee: Moon in a Dew Drop or head to Eveleigh arts and cultural institution Carriageworks. Or, step into Brisbane's Queensland Art Gallery (QAG) and Gallery of Modern Art (GOMA), with Unfinished Business: The Art of Gordon Bennett currently showing, or see some Bauhaus designs at the Museum of Brisbane. But, perhaps the most exciting of all is Victoria's NGV Triennial, running from December 19 till April next year. Expect to see marine monsters, giant mirrored sculptures by Jeff Koons and a multi-sensory walkway at this massive exhibition. The capital currently has a groundbreaking exhibition showing at the NGA, too, profiling prominent Aussie women artists. GO CAMPING WITH THE CREW No matter where you are in Australia, there's always a spot waiting nearby for you to set up camp. Whether your crew wants to be close to sandy shores or in a remote pocket of wilderness under luminous stars, camping is an awesome way to escape the daily grind. Because we're big fans of reconnecting with nature here at Concrete Playground, we've already sought out some of the top camping spots around the country, too. New South Wales has a bunch of free campgrounds — you can find our pick of the bunch over here, from riverside spots to mountainous getaways. If you're more into the high life, Queensland has plenty of luxe glaming stays. Otherwise, pitch your own tent in Lamington National Park or right by the beach at one of these ten spots. If you're keen to check out regional Victoria, there's beach camping galore as well as plenty of top-notch free grounds not too far from Melbourne. As most of us won't be travelling far this summer (or at least not overseas), many campgrounds are already starting to book out, so be sure to do your research before hitting the road. [caption id="attachment_792466" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Mushroom Creative House[/caption] SEE A LIVE GIG If there's one thing Australia does well across the country, it's live music — even now amid a global pandemic. After months of catching live tunes from our living rooms, it's time to chair-dance at IRL gigs once again. Sydney's Enmore Theatre, Mary's Underground, The Vanguard and Oxford Art Factory all have stellar lineups over the next few months and the annual Sydney Festival never disappoints. If you're in Queensland, or can make it up to the Sunshine State over summer, there are a bunch of COVID-Safe festivals going ahead, including To The Point Festival, This That, The Tivoli's Open Season and Mountain Goat Valley Crawl. Although Melbourne is still waiting for live gigs to come back, punters can see a live comedy show at The Catfish in Fitzroy and be sure to keep an eye out for gig announcements likely to come to a heap of Melbourne live music venues. HIT THE HIGH SEAS There's nothing like diving into the ocean when the mercury is rising. But, rather than just splash about by the shore, there are plenty of other ways you can hit the highs seas instead. Think paddleboarding, kayaking and surfing Sydney seas, or swimming with turtles and scuba diving with manta rays, which are particularly grand on the Queensland coast. While you're there, you should check out the southern hemisphere's first underwater art museum, too. Melbourne may not be known for its beaches, but you can chase plenty of nearby waterfalls instead, or take a windsurfing lesson at St Kilda Beach. Do what moves you this summer with Bacardi. Once you've ticked off all the above adventures, check out Bacardi's competition, where you and 20 mates could win the chance to attend Australia's smallest music festival. Top image: Bec Taylor
Since opening at the end of 2018, Totti's has become a cult favourite among eastern suburbs locals and Sydneysiders citywide. With chef Mike Eggert at the helm, the Bondi eatery is a go-to for bowls of pasta and its highly popular wood-fire oven bread. In the years since, Totti's has been expanding westward, opening its CBD iteration Bar Totti's last year, and now popping up with its third Sydney outpost in Rozelle. This time, the Merivale venue has found a home in the beloved, temporarily closed inner west pub 3 Weeds. At Totti's Rozelle you'll find the expected assortments of favourites from the OG Bondi spot, including spinach pappardelle ($27) or chittara and clams pasta ($30). An assortment of charcoal oven treats are also on offer, including whole roasted fish ($42), half-smoked chicken ($28) and of course, the wood-fire bread ($12). Those looking to come in for a snack can take their pick from the antipasti menu which features kingfish crudo ($12.50), chicken liver parfait ($10) and burrata ($11), or if you've booked in with a large group of meat-eaters, split 1.5-kilograms of Brooklyn Valley rib-eye steak ($250). The drinks menu doesn't steer far from what you'd expect, but you'll still find an enjoyable array of classy cocktails and some fun natty wines that are sure to pair perfectly with a big bowl of pasta. Setting this inner west iteration apart from its counterparts is a new dessert bar with Italian classics like gelato, tiramisu ($14.50), coffee granita ($10), pistachio cake ($14.50) and panna cotta ($15) to finish off your night on a sweet note.
Gather your closest people to taste an authentic amaretto sour made with Disaronno at Palaces Cinemas across Sydney for $15. The high-end Italian aperitivo purveyor is taking over the show at Palace Norton Street and Palace Central from May 27 to July 31. Make date night even more special and book in for the special screening of the 1960s space race flick Fly Me to the Moon, starring Channing Tatum (Dog, The Lost City) and Scarlett Johansson (Asteroid City, Marriage Story) on July 10. Attendees will be treated to a free cocktail to enjoy during the screening. The drink pairs perfectly with the nostalgic on-screen action. You can extend your date night and beat the chill of the wintry air with a touch of Italian sunshine in a glass, as Disaronno is making special appearances at several venues across town. Head to much-loved cocktail spots like Cardea, Untied and the Paddo Inn to try their take on an amaretto sour made with Disaronno. Each venue offers a twist on this classic cocktail, and the sweet, almondy nuttiness and citrusy tang make for an unmistakable combination. Score a complimentary authentic amaretto sour made with Disaronno at select Palace Cinema screenings of 'Fly Me To The Moon'. For more information, check out the website.
