Situated on the ground floor of Western Sydney University, relaxed eatery Mikazuki is popular for its extensive menu of Japanese favourites, ranging from udon and ramen to sushi and tempura. When all other mid-study lunch options fail to inspire, you can always find a certified winner here. For a quick lunch between meetings or classes, opt for a yuzu avocado salad topped with sliced salmon sashimi; the rainbow roll with salmon, kingfish, tuna, ebi, avocado and crab mix; the chicken katsu curry; or a poke bowl. If you're after something more substantial, Mikazuki's specialty dishes include a wagyu beef bowl with crispy onion, salmon roe and an onsen egg; baked scallop and rice in a creamy, spicy sauce; the fiery volcano ramen; and the chef's omakase sushi and sashimi platters to split among your crew (or just attack solo, if you're so inclined). The venue serves lunch between 11.30am and 3pm every day and reopens for dinner at 5pm or 5.30pm on Saturdays. With outposts in Eastwood, Chatswood, Strathfield, Riverside, Parramatta and Haymarket, Mikazuki has really stretched its presence across Sydney, serving up casual Japanese fare to all and sundry.
If you're heading home via Wynyard Station this evening, you might notice something new. In fact, it's pretty hard to miss. Today, sculptor Chris Fox unveiled Interloop, a striking, 50-metre-long installation that's now hovering above Wynyard's escalators, between York Street and the main concourse. Directly referencing its surroundings, the sculpture is made up of 244 wooden treads and four combs, all of which were once part of Wynyard's original escalators, built in 1931. However, they've been rearranged to appear like massive spectacular-looking concertinas — or maybe staircases out of a Salvador Dali painting. "Connecting yesterday and tomorrow, Interloop interrogates the conceptual and material boundaries between art and architecture," said Fox. "It is a physical re-interpretation...that re-purposes the hardwood from the heritage treads of now-retired escalators, into a sculpture weighing over five tonnes." Fox spent six months designing and engineering the installation, then twelve weeks fabricating it. The process involved a kilometre's worth of welding, via which Fox attached the treads to high-strength, marine-grade aluminium, before suspending the whole behemoth from the station ceiling with steel beams. Interloop is now on display at Wynyard Station above the escalators between York Street and the main concourse. Images: Josh Raymond.
For most of us on the morning after a big night out, our time is generally spent lounging around complaining, taking painkillers, drinking sports drinks, filling the bottomless pit that is your stomach with truckloads of the greasiest foods you can find and generally just waiting out the torture of the self-inflicted pain you have forced upon yourself. While this may seem like the only option of how to handle your hangover at the time, there are actually a plethora of natural methods which will rid you of that dreaded ill feeling or at least make you feel slightly more bubbly. Rather than just avoiding hangovers altogether by stopping at the second drink — which let's face it isn't going to happen at those big celebrations — Good.is suggests a few fresh and healthy ways to cure the hangover and get you back on your feet and functioning like a normal human being again. Miso Soup and Eggs Despite what you may be thinking by looking at the picture, this funky combination of miso soups and eggs is actually a great Japanese-inspired hangover cure because of the nutrients that it replenishes you with, which you lost from the previous night of drinking. Stacked full of sodium, water and electrolytes as well as probiotics to subdue that queasy stomach, this trick will be sure to get you charging for the rest of the day. Omega-3 Omega-3 is a fantastic nutrient to take to alleviate hangovers as it helps clear the free radicals produced when alcohol is broken down. Omega-3 also helps fight the dry, blotchy skin on your face, which alcohol causes. Have a cuddle To dim your stress levels and get yourself feeling better just have a 20 second Oxytocin-releasing hug. Studies have shown that after a 20 second embrace with someone, oxytocin will be released, which helps relax and repair your body. Inconclusive evidence has also shown that having sex is a great hangover cure - probably largely due to the hormones released, but also cause it will simply take your mind off the pain. Get a Massage Massages are very helpful the morning after a night out, not only because of the release of happy hormones such as oxytocin but also because they have been proven to help your body produce more white blood cells and thus boost your immune system. So if you're looking for an excuse to treat yourself, simply have a few more shots. Take a Dip One of the most effective (and nice) ways to cure a hangover is to submerge yourself is some refreshingly cool water and have a swim around. Find yourself a body of water - preferably a beautiful white sandy beach with a radiant, shining sun - and have a dunk to wake yourself up, clear the head and rejuvenate yourself for the day ahead. Go Bananas Bananas are a great source of potassium and vitamin B, which help replenish your body's lost nutrients, and they also rehydrate your dehydrated body. And what better way to consume them than by making a delicious smoothie. Alternatively, a berry smoothie would also go down a treat because of the antioxidants within them. Mix it up with almond milk to make it twice as effective as the healthy fats, oils and vitamins in the almonds will help get you back on your feet. Drink Some Coconut Coconut water can be extracted from coconuts while they're still very green and not mature enough to produce milk. This wonder fluid has been used intravenously in medical emergencies for rehydration, so it's pretty safe to say it'll do wonders for your hangover. It also has no fat, is low in calories and is lower in sugar than most other juices — it's a win-win! Kombucha Tea Despite it's not-so-delicious looking floaties and somewhat sour apple cider vinegar flavour, Kombucha tea is a fermented miracle drink which is great for liver stimulation or detoxification, blood purification and even euphoria. So to replace your vacant look of pain and regret with a beaming smile, simply get yourself some Kombucha tea. Pickle Juice Although this last one is somewhat disputed, pickle juice is the cure of choice in Poland and has been shown to be highly effective in quelling the effects of the hangover. The sodium of the juice helps you bring your electrolyte levels back up in order to help you rehydrate. Honey is also a great addition not only to lessen some of the awful taste, but also because the glucose and fructose assists the rehydration process.
The Calile Hotel has gone three for three, making the World's 50 Best Hotels list for the third consecutive year, ranked at 34th. After placing 12th in 2023 and 25th in 2024, the Fortitude Valley five-star stay is the only hotel in the entire Oceania region to make this prestigious grade in every edition since the award's inception. Opening in 2018, the seven-story, 175-room hotel was billed as 'Australia's first urban resort'. While suitably situated among luxe fashion boutiques and high-end restaurants along leafy James Street, the hotel serves as a sun-soaked sanctuary from the outside world. Described by The World's 50 Best as "laid back Aussie spirit meets buzzy Palm Springs and Miami stylings," guests can retreat to siesta by the pool or slink away to private quarters designed for maximum comfort. "To have been selected three years in a row marks a significant affirmation of The Calile's place on the global hotel-industry stage and reinforces our reputation as a desirable destination for international travellers coming to Brisbane, Australia," says Co-Owner Catherine Malouf. However, The Calile experience goes far beyond its dreamy 30-metre centrepiece pool or sophisticated rooms adorned with a "neutral, chic palette of peach, rose and pistachio." Dining and drinks are a serious treat, with Hellenika, Bianca and Lobby Bar adding to Brisbane's burgeoning culinary scene. Plus, the hotel's cultural program is a major highlight, regularly hosting art exhibitions and performances by renowned names, such as the Australian Chamber Orchestra. "Being recognised among the world's best hotels for the third consecutive year is an incredible honour and a testament to our remarkable team. Their professionalism, consistency, and genuine care for our guests define The Calile experience for which we are known," says The Calile Hotel General Manager, Chris Kemlo. As for the rest of the list, Capella Sydney achieved top honours for Australia, debuting on the list at an impressive 12th place. Meanwhile, Rosewood Hong Kong has finally claimed the No. 1 spot, having previously been ranked No. 2 and No. 3. Don't forget to keep an eye out for updates on The Calile's expansion to Noosa Heads, a perfect location for the hotel's tropical look and feel coming in the near future. For the full World's 50 Best Hotels list for 2025, head to the website for more information. Images: Cieran Murphy.
In the initial two episodes of Scenes From a Marriage, Mira (Jessica Chastain, IT: Chapter Two) and Jonathan (Oscar Isaac, Star Wars: Episode IX — The Rise of Skywalker) brush their teeth in front of their ensuite mirror. It's an everyday task in a familiar place, spanning something we all do in a space we all use, but this powerful five-part HBO miniseries turns these two scenes into a complex snapshot of its central couple. It takes not just skill but feeling and understanding to turn such a mundane activity into a must-see; however, that's this weighty show's remit. Scenes From a Marriage gets viewers engrossed in cleaning teeth because it's ordinary, and because everything within its frames fits the same description. Its central relationship careens from happy to heartbroken, comfortable to distraught, and assured to messy, but it also charts a path that countless others have before it. When they first pick up their toothbrushes, Mira and Jonathan attend to their dental hygiene side by side. They chat between foamy mouthfuls. They're relaxed. They've had an unusual day, after talking to a researcher about their nuptials and then hosting a tumultuous dinner with friends, but they're settled in their usual regime. Seconds afterwards, they'll discuss significant news, but they approach that, too, with a sense of unthinking security. But just one episode later, when they brush again, everything has changed. Mira returns from a work trip to share a bombshell revelation, Jonathan doesn't take it well, and he stands back and stares at they each clean. She can't meet his eyes. He won't look away. Their tension, pain and sorrow fills the entire room, as does their uncertainty — and it's a case of two moments, two people, two vastly different pictures of their relationship. Dedicating each episode to a significant day over the course of several years — hairstyles change, and the couple's daughter ages (primarily off-screen) — Scenes From a Marriage is filled with these routine moments. It's a show about patterns, cycles and echoes, how they ripple through relationships and, when broken or changed, how their absence is felt. Much of the series takes place in the same domestic space, too, as the pair rove around the house they've made their home. So, viewers see the duo walk through the same rooms, sit in the same chairs and recline in the same bed. They have variations of the same discussion over and over as well. Every romance is an ongoing conversation that loops, sprawls and repeats, but Scenes From a Marriage pushes this notion to the fore. Mira and Jonathan are always talking, in some way, even when they're not. Their dialogue continues whether it seems like it's just another evening in the bathroom, or it's a terse morning after everything has disintegrated — and as a whirlwind of love, sex, heartbreak and chaos whips through their relationship again and again. It shouldn't be easy, peering into a romance as its bliss fades, and stepping into its ongoing conversation. That idea isn't Scenes From a Marriage's alone, and it wasn't new in 1973, when iconic film director Ingmar Bergman ran with it in his Swedish TV miniseries of the same name. But as penned and helmed here by The Affair's Hagai Levi, HBO's take on the concept turns the familiar and complex into the raw and the riveting. It breaks a relationship down into pivotal moments to strip away the blissful front that couples build for themselves, and the image they project to the world, and it refuses to look away as things turn difficult. Sketching out anything this complicated via just a few scenes is a gimmick, obviously, as the series even nods to in opening scenes that follow Chastain and Isaac getting into character. Still, in the right hands, and with the right tale of a marriage's minutiae, it's also devastating and powerful. Scenes From a Marriage circa 2021 is shot and scored to ramp up that intensity, that simmering uncertainty, that seesawing between two extremes. Cinematographer Andrij Parekh, a veteran of Blue Valentine and its similarly haunting exploration of a romance in decline, prowls carefully and patiently around comfortable spaces adorned in neutral tones — places The White Lotus' characters might've gone home to post-Hawaii — but lets both light and darkness visually clash and compete for attention. Composers Evgueni Galperine and Sacha Galperine craft a score that also rides an emotional rollercoaster, setting the tone as precisely as they previously did with fellow HBO miniseries The Undoing. Each element of Scenes From a Marriage is fine-tuned to amplify the highs, the lows, and the constant to-and-fro between them. That said, this tale of an ambitious tech industry executive, her ex-Orthodox Jewish philosophy professor husband and their fraying nuptials was always going to live and thrive via its two lead performances. Chastain and Isaac, welcome additions to any on-screen project, have played a married couple before. In fact, 2014's A Most Violent Year also saw them navigate a stormy union — and it, like its main duo, was exceptional. The pair certainly know how to project intimacy on the red carpet, as they did at the Venice Film Festival premiere of Scenes From a Marriage. They don't falter in the series itself, even with a concept that could've played like an acting exercise. Again, the conceit is highlighted in those opening seconds of the duo as themselves; however, as Chastain and Isaac walk across the set that swiftly becomes their Mira and Jonathan's home — doing so with masks and distancing, because this was shot during the pandemic — they also help viewers step into their characters with them. When the camera is rolling rather than flashing, Chastain and Isaac are both experts at unpacking someone's entire emotional journey in just their gaze and stance. Accordingly, when the series flickers from the pair as actors to the duo as Mira and Jonathan, it feels seamless even though the artifice is being called out. They take the plunge, the audience does with them, and we all explore what's happened after Scenes From a Marriage's protagonists did just that. On-screen, opposites attracted, then this pair combined their lives and marched forward towards the future, and now everyone weathers the fallout. Chastain and Isaac are also masterful at responding to each other, and at letting those reactions tell as much of the story as the dialogue they're speaking. It's been done before, and will be again — officially and in everything else that's taken cues from the original Swedish series — but here and now, this series works as grippingly and movingly as it does because of its stars. No one can look away as they brush their teeth, share long looks and fling all manner of words at each other. They don't want to themselves, and neither do we. Check out the trailer below: The first two episodes of Scenes From a Marriage are available to stream via Binge, with new instalments dropping weekly. Images: Jojo Whilden/HBO.
Since he first hit the big screen in two wildly different 1995 movies, Clueless and Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers, the seemingly ageless Paul Rudd has spent time in plenty of imaginations. Who hasn't filled seconds, minutes or hours thinking about how Baz Luhrmann chose him as the unwanted romantic alternative in Romeo + Juliet, or how nothing Wet Hot American Summer-related would be the same without him? Who hasn't pondered how Rudd was ideally cast as Ant-Man, and also in both Parks and Recreation and Only Murders in the Building, too? Given how far the actor's resume stretches on around all of those projects, there's always a reason to have Rudd on the brain. Writer/director Alex Scharfman initially met him after penning a screenplay called The Cats of Baxley, then had a Rudd-centric idea pop into his head: the extremely likeable actor killing a unicorn. Getting one of the most-beloved actors currently working to slay one of the most-cherished mythical creatures there is: now that's quite the concept for anyone's mind to conjure up, and also quite the unique way to start a film. That movie is Death of a Unicorn, the A24-backed genre mashup that kicks off with a widowed father and his college-aged daughter — Elliot and Ridley Kintner, played by Rudd (Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire) and Jenna Ortega (Beetlejuice Beetlejuice) — stunned that they've accidentally hit one of the titular creatures. They're also in shock that such a critter is real. The pair are meant to be on a business trip to the Canadian Rockies, to the estate owned by Elliot's boss, who is in pharmaceuticals and loaded as a result. Elliot sees the getaway as way to boost his career; Ridley would rather be anywhere else. A unicorn encounter isn't something that can just be shaken, though — especially if a billionaire can monetise it, and if nature isn't fond of being messed with. Scharfman's debut feature is a monster movie about unicorns, so a film firmly in the horror-comedy mould. It's an eat-the-rich satire, too. Death of a Unicorn plays with viewer expectations of a picture with Rudd at its core, getting someone so adored for so long portraying a man who constantly makes terrible decisions. Equally, it tasks Ortega with being the film's emotional and empathetic centre as the person instantly attuned to the unicorns, and to the fact that every choice being made around her is wrong (and driven by chasing cash and power). With a killer cast that also spans Richard E Grant (The Franchise) as pharma company head Odell Leopold, Téa Leoni (Madam Secretary) as his wife Belinda and Will Poulter (Black Mirror) as their son Shepard — as well as Anthony Carrigan (Barry) and Jessica Hynes (Am I Being Unreasonable?) among the clan's hired help, plus Sunita Mani (Fantasmas) and Steve Park (Mickey 17) as scientists — it's also a playful creature feature that digs into unicorn lore alongside class structures and hierarchies, commodifying nature, plus capitalism, colonialism and imperialism. That all sprang from the flick's first scene materialising in Scharfman's imagination, then from the filmmaker's deep dive into the mythology surrounding the fabled one-horned animals — and realising what those stories say about society, not merely centuries back but also now. The picture works The Unicorn Tapestries from the Middle Ages into the plot prominently, courtesy of Ridley studying art history; however, as the Leopolds, especially the dying Odell, focus on potential miracle cures and the big bucks that their wealthy peers would pay for them, that's just one of the director's touchpoints. As always evident to Death of a Unicorn's audience, Scharfman has followed the path that his unicorn research has taken him down— through tales typically "about a lord, it's about a king, a nobleman, sending out their court, all their servants, the people who have no choice in the matter, the people who have to do it, and sending them out into nature to capture the uncapturable, so that this this object of purity, this resource, can be owned and possessed and commodified", he tells Concrete Playground — and found modern-day parallels in the pharmaceutical realm. He's interrogating commodification not just of nature and animals, but resources, knowledge, medicine, health and life-saving treatment, and tearing into the imbalance in access that comes with it. That said, never forgetting the type of movie that he's crafting, Scharfman has equally gleaned inspiration from a wealth of films and TV shows, resulting in a mix of Jaws, Jurassic Park, Succession, ET the Extra-Terrestrial, The Creature From the Black Lagoon, Evil Dead, The Rules of the Game, John Carpenter flicks, Korean cinema and more as clear influences. Before dreaming of Rudd dispensing with unicorns, and before turning that idea into a cinematic reality in a SXSW-premiering picture, Scharfman started solidifying his filmmaking voice by writing and directing his own shorts — and also producing features. Keep the Lights On, Selah and the Spades, Resurrection, House of Spoils: they're just some of the projects that he's been involved in. How did that background assist with Death of a Unicorn? Did Scharfman ever imagine a version of his directorial debut without Rudd? How crucial is Ortega in grounding the feature's chaos, and how pivotal is the scene-stealing Poulter in helping set the comedic tone? We chatted to Death of a Unicorn's guiding force about all of that, coming up with the initial concept, his research, that huge lineup of inspirations and more. On Conjuring Up the Concept for the Film — and for Starting It with Paul Rudd Killing a Unicorn "The first thing I thought of in the movie is the opening sequence. A family kills a unicorn, and a father and daughter specifically, then need to put it out of its misery — for lack of a better turn of phrase. So that was always the initial intention, and that was where the movie started for me. Then it grew out of that seed and that premise and that idea, not knowing where it was going to go, and it took the shape that it did hopefully organically. And I also wrote that role for Paul. So they were both always the plan. Paul is incredibly likeable. And Paul is, frustratingly — he's likeable as a performer, and he's frustratingly likeable as a person, too, because you want to find something wrong with him and he doesn't have it. He's just an incredibly at-peace, generous, kind person. And there was something that I thought was interesting on a narrative level of making him unlikeable, because I think he has this inherent likeability, and that we could tolerate a lot of bad behaviour from him and wait until he comes around, or hope that he comes around, to become the Paul Rudd who we love. So I think there was something that was interesting to me about veiling that Paul Rudd we know and love, and shrouding him in anxiety and stress at the beginning of the movie — and telling you 'he's going to become the Paul Rudd we love by the end of the movie, but he's not going to be that guy at the beginning of the movie', and to give him an arc to become that. And I think that came through, I hope, in this sense of this character who's had some misfortunes — the universe has thrown him some curveballs, and he's gotten some bad luck along the way — and what that might do to someone to start ratcheting up their anxiety with financial, personal, otherwise, in a way where they're always trying to look ahead at what might go wrong. The real Paul Rudd has had an incredibly blessed life and is a really sweet person, and is totally present and in the moment and wonderful. And the thought was 'well, how we get the opposite of that to that place?'. And so, yeah, I thought it was an interesting challenge to weaponise Paul Rudd's likeability." On Always Imagining Rudd in the Lead — and the Journey That That Key Piece of Casting Takes Audiences On "The hope was to understand why he's making bad decisions, and to understand his moral compromise and the perspective of moral relativism that he's had to adopt as a means of coping with the world, navigating his way through the world, and also providing for his daughter — who I think he's taken a very literal approach to 'how do I be a good parent?'. It's 'I provide for her and that's what I'm supposed to do, and as long as I have amassed enough financial security, then anything that comes our way, we'll be able to tackle and address as best we can'. Because they've had, as I said before, he's been kicked in the teeth from the universe before. Things have happened to him that were no one's fault that just sort of happened, and that happens to people. And I think that that gave him a certain kind of limp, that's an invisible limp that he walks with for the rest of his life until the events of this movie — and he hopefully shakes that limp. But in terms of 'was it ever anyone else?', no. I always liked the idea of it being this morally compromised lawyer, because I think something interesting about lawyers is that's a skillset that could be applied in any direction. And there's something interesting about the nature of the legal system and that everyone's entitled to representation, even guilty people. There's a certain moral vacuum. That's literally what they refer to it as, lawyers: the moral vacuum, a place where you don't make a moral judgment. And I thought that was always an interesting perspective to have for a protagonist. And usually I feel like the lawyer in Jurassic Park was killed quite unceremoniously, and I thought it would be interesting to say 'what if that guy was the hero?'. Or I thought a lot about the actress who's married to Kenneth Lonergan [Manchester by the Sea], who played Gerri in Succession, who's so great: J Smith-Cameron [Hacks]. I was like 'oh, what if she was the lead of a movie, that character?'. And so was it ever not that? I always hoped it would be Paul. I certainly entertained 'well, what if Paul says no'. And I thought about other people in the role if I had to, but thankfully he said yes and I never had to." On the Wide Range of Influences, From Succession and Jurassic Park to ET and Korean Cinema, That Helped Inspire Death of a Unicorn "I wish I could say that the tone was something I thought about and meditated on for a long time. It always felt like that was just the expression of the movie to me. I think unicorns are, in our consciousness, magical, in a way that they're not just monsters. You can't treat a unicorn like a xenopmorh, because I don't think then you're treating a unicorn — you can make a horror movie that features unicorns that isn't a unicorn horror movie, if that makes sense. You want to be true to the emotional associations that we all have with unicorns, to make sure that you're doing justice to that for all the unicorn lovers out there and for everyone who has a passive understanding of a unicorn that has a certain magical association. And so that sort of conjured, in my mind, a certain Amblin kind of magic — you know, that ET kind of way. And The Abyss also has that in spades, certainly. But then I also thought about subverting that, and that led me down a road of the Alien and Aliens and Evil Deads of the world. And An American Werewolf in London, certainly, too. So there was a lot of that hybridisation. But then at the end of the day, I was also thinking 'well, I don't think you could do a unicorn movie with a total straight face, as a unicorn horror movie. You have to be funny'. I think there has to be some awareness of the absurdity in that. I think if you just did that with a straight face, it would get real boring real fast. And so it kind of presented itself in this way, that it was like 'well, it's a monster movie' so it has to have these things like Jaws and Alien and Aliens, and those sort of movies — and Creature From the Black Lagoon and so forth. But then we have all this warmth associated with them. And so that brings in the ETs of the world. And there's a great Val Guest movie, The Abominable Snowman, which is wonderful and has these benevolent yeti monsters that are really interesting. And The Abyss, also again, to go back to that one, has these benevolent monsters, that it's on us not to fuck with them, you know? Like, they will decimate us if they decide to, but it's our prerogative to make sure they don't want to. So anyhow, these influences all coalesced, and I think it became clarified through a certain Korean sensibility — thinking about The Host or Train to Busan, or Thirst, which is a very different movie. But there's something about those movies, and I think a general Korean sensibility, is that they aren't afraid to combine influences and to swing, and to say 'we're going to be funny here and absurd, and then we're going to be scary over here, and then this emotionality is going to be building underneath all of that'. The Host is such a favourite movie of mine. It opens with Song Kang-ho [Cobweb] doing these brilliant pratfalls and physical comedy, and then it ends with this tragic loss at the end of the movie that's really heartbreaking. And then through the middle, it's almost like The Royal Tenenbaums on a monster hunt. It's this dysfunctional family of adult estranged siblings. And you're going 'wait, what? This movie does all of these things?'. And it has this anti-American, -colonial, -capitalist satire threaded through all that. And yet somehow I watch that movie and I'm like 'what a perfect movie'. My hope was when you watch those kind of movies — and Train to Busan is another one that contained zombies, action and high-concept, but also is a commentary about selfishness and self-interest, and then also this father-daughter story that makes me cry every time I watch it. There's something about that that's like, I don't know, somehow that has a spine that allows it move through all these zones. And I think if you commit to it, hopefully that's okay. So that's sort of what I was aspiring to do, I suppose." On Connecting Unicorn Lore and Mythology to Class Structures, Commodifying Nature, Colonialism and Capitalism "I outline a lot, so I try to accrue a lot of information and thoughts and research and material. John Houston has this great quote where he said 'don't start writing till you can't stop', and so I try to do that. So what I end up doing is, I end up thinking about things a lot. I very early on got to unicorn mythology, and I zeroed in on the Middle Ages — because I think the tapestries are brilliant, and I love them, beautiful pieces of art, but that's sort of when unicorn narratives became really cohesive and codified, in a way. Before that, there were unicorns, but they weren't in a traditional structure. And then in the Middle Ages, the hunt narratives became quite, not formulaic per se, but that was the archetypical unicorn story, it was about a unicorn hunt. And when I realised that, I was like 'oh, well this provides a basis for a parallel to a creature-feature structure', in the sense of those kind of James Cameron-y or Spielberg-y monster movies where very often they're on a hunt. That's what most of that second act of Alien is about. And same with almost the entirety of Aliens, that is about a monster hunt. And so that made a lot of sense to me. And again, that Val Guest Abominable Snowman, that's a monster-hunt movie. The Creature From the Black Lagoon: monster-hunt movie. There's a very traditional structure. But then when I started thinking about medieval unicorn mythology in a contemporary context, it also invites a lot of thought about class structure, and those are very much stories about social hierarchy. It's about a lord, it's about a king, a nobleman, sending out their court, all their servants, the people who have no choice in the matter, the people who have to do it, and sending them out into nature to capture the uncapturable, so that this this object of purity, this resource, can be owned and possessed and commodified. And so when I was like 'okay, well I'm updating unicorn mythology, unicorn myth', that's what the lore is. It's like, well, how could it not be about those things? And when you realise that unicorns were prized for their curative properties, it naturally invites a conversation with healthcare and pharmaceuticals. And so it's funny. How I like to write is just to find a string and start pulling and see where it leads me, and it seems like the story presented itself as being about class, about the social structures that we live in today and also about pharmaceuticals. And so it naturally provided this context to consider an oligarchic, industrialist family as if it was a former nobleman or noble lord's family with their fiefdom, but their fiefdom is an industry." On Enlisting Jenna Ortega to Be the Film's Emotional Centre, Audience Surrogate and Voice of Wisdom "I wrote the role and figured out the characters based on what the story was asking for and what their dynamics were, and then I got to the end of that process and we were like, with the studio, with A24, they're like 'let's start casting the movie'. And I realised, I was like 'holy shit, what have I done? Who can play this role?'. Ridley is such a challenging role because, yeah, she's the vehicle of exposition. She's the character who the audience identifies with. She's the most — I try not to write anyone as like a straight man, I think comedies are most fun when everyone has their own weird game that they're playing, but she's certainly among the most-grounded, probably. I think her and Anthony's character are the most grounded in terms of their perspective. And so, yeah, it's a really hard role to figure out. And I'm so fortunate, we only offered the role to one person and she said yes, and that person is Jenna Ortega. She's an absolutely just knockout performer. Every take is great. So I don't know, what did I have to do? I had to get lucky. I wrote Jenna a letter and I asked her to please be in my movie and save it. And she did. And so I just showed up every day and we'd talk about things a lot, but the truth is Jenna's just an incredible performer. She's so good. She's just one of those actors that you just point the camera at her, she's going to do it." On the Importance of Will Poulter's Comic Timing, and Ability to Lean Into His Character's Privilege and Obliviousness, to Help Set the Comedic Tone "Shep's voice was one that came off the page pretty early in the writing process, where it was hard not to keep writing for his voice. He's one of those characters that — and Will figured it out so beautifully — it's just a character that you just want to keep giving him stuff to say. You just want him to react. He's in a great position, too, as far as comic structure, in that he gets to react to a lot of things. He doesn't have to drive a lot of things. The scenes, he gets to just be present in them and be arrogant and lack any self-awareness. But Will totally landed it and nailed, I think, the tone. And did this amazing feat — that's a very heightened character that he somehow found an emotional centre for, and he grounded that character in a sense of, I think, inadequacy, and bravado around that inadequacy. And wanting to be told that he's enough as a person, trying to earn his parents' love and respect. And I think he, in doing so, built a character that's both heightened and yet grounded, and so both villainous and yet I kind of sympathise with him. I look at that character and I'm like 'oh, man, you've got into a bad situation where psychologically you've been put in this position that your parents have really done a number on you, and there's nothing you can do about it because it's all it's too late now, it's all locked in'. The dark humour of the movie and the pace of the jokes and dialogue all lives in the performance, and the Leopold family really gets to let that rip. They get to be unmoored. And Will totally got it. And Téa and Richard are also comic geniuses, I think, and totally understood the commitment to the bit. And I'm just so lucky they all chose to be in the movie." On How Scharfman's Experience as a Producer for Over a Decade Helped Him Make the Leap to Directing His First Feature "It was invaluable. I've worked as a producer for a long time. And it built up a comfort level on set. To be honest, when I started working in film, I wanted to be a writer and a producer, and I was a little bit scared of directing. It's a really daunting task, and I had, I hope, a respect for it, a reverence for it, that I don't think I could have — I didn't want to go out and be directing at the outset of my career, and I think I only gained that perspective over time, and the desire to do it as well, as I got more comfortable on set. So I would say producing the features that I have just built up my comfort level with the apparatus, of the machine, of a film set, which is such a specific working environment — and understanding how to problem-solve in that kind of context, how to be creative in that context, how to create the right environment. And that trickles into the writing in invisible ways, just the choices you make. I've seen filmmakers make great choices and I've seen filmmakers make choices they regret later. And not that any of those films that I made were dry runs or anything like that, those are films that I'm all proud of, but you just gain experience by being around an apparatus like that, by making movies and by being part of it. And I think I've gained a lot of experience. I've worked as a professional screenwriter for several years as well, not quite as long as I've been a professional producer, but you learn a tremendous amount by working in development on other scripts and by developing your own scripts simultaneously. So I like to think that it's just a holistic perspective. It's hard to isolate an experience that like 'this experience taught me that' — it's just all cumulative to become who you are and the lens through which you see the world. So I don't know exactly how, but I know it's helped me. I know I felt more comfortable on a set, and I know I've been around enough practical effects and stunts and things like that that I felt it was within my capacity to execute an execution-dependent film like this as my first feature. There's a lot to bite off in the film, but I don't think I would have been capable of doing that if I hadn't been building towards this over the course of over a decade of just learning about the filmmaking process." Death of a Unicorn opened in cinemas Down Under on Thursday, April 10, 2025.
Winter is well and truly upon us. Everywhere you look, Sydneysiders are decked in their downiest puffer jackets and thickest tracksuits. But don't let the oh-so-chilly air stop you, because the city is still in full swing. Winter is a season of warmth, driven by delicious roasts and hot drinks, and you don't need to rug up at home to enjoy that side of the season. Step into the warm sunlight and get ready to browse, because busy markets are popping up across Sydney to fill baskets and bags with all the fresh produce, tasty treats and homemade gifts you'd ever need. Start by pencilling in a visit to the Cronulla Winter Market. This 100-plus stall event is returning to its annual home of Don Lucas Reserve on Saturday, July 29 and Sunday, July 30, from 10am to 3pm. Here, you can get your hands on anything, from swimwear to ceramics. To keep your shopping energy up, fill your stomach with street food, baked goods, healthy choices and everything in between. If time gets the better of you, or if you're looking to get some serious shopping done, make plans for The Ultimate Winter Market EQ. This is being held on Sunday, August 6, from 10am to 3pm, under the Entertainment Quarter's Market Canopy. This is another 100-plus stall market, but it's in the heart of the bustling Entertainment Quarter, so expect live music and entertainment for all ages alongside the goods and food available. You're also within range of the local entertainment venues and can take advantage of two hours of free parking at the Entertainment Quarter. The Cronulla Winter Markets are running on Saturday, July 29 and Sunday, July 30, from 10am to 3pm at Don Lucas Reserve. The Ultimate Winter Market EQ runs on Sunday, August 6 from 10am to 3pm at the Entertainment Quarter. For more information on either, visit the Cambridge Markets website.
Today, Eric Bana is a world-renowned film and TV star with a resume that spans Australian and Hollywood fare. Black Hawk Down, Hulk, Troy, Munich, Star Trek, Hanna, Aaron Falk movies The Dry and Force of Nature: The Dry 2, US television shows Dirty John and Untamed: they're all on the Aussie actor's resume. At the beginning of 2000, however, he had a part in The Castle as his sole big-screen appearance, alongside his small-screen sketch comedy work in the likes Full Frontal, plus a few episodes of medical drama All Saints. Then came Chopper. Ever since Bana portrayed Mark 'Chopper' Read in the exceptional Andrew Dominik (Blonde)-directed flick, it's been one of the first roles that springs to mind whenever anyone thinks about the Australian talent. Well-deserved accolades came his way, including Best Actor at the Australian Film Institute Awards (which have since become the AACTAs). If you need a reminder of why his performance demanded such praise — and the film, too — catching a 25th-anniversary cinema screening of the iconic feature will do the job. To celebrate a quarter of a century since Chopper first hit Aussie picture palaces, the film is returning to local big screens for a limited season from Thursday, August 21, 2025. As well as the movie itself — one of the finest Australian entries in the true-crime genre, and a stunning feature debut from Dominik — audiences will also see 13 minutes of bonus behind-the-scenes footage, chats with Bana, Dominik and Read among them. How does Bana look back on the role that made him an international movie star, and tells one of the most-infamous crime tales in Aussie history? "Chopper was an incredibly unique and distinctive character. Getting the chance to play someone like him is rare. It's always a treat if a film holds up over time, and I'm proud of its space in the Australian film landscape," he advises. This isn't Chopper's first return to the big screen — it also enjoyed 20th-anniversary sessions, pops up on retrospective programs and received the Hear My Eyes treatment at MIFF 2022 — but it's always worth watching in cinemas. Marking the leap from making music videos to features, the movie also helped catapult Dominik's career, too, with The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, Killing Them Softly and Blonde all following, plus episodes of Mindhunter, and Nick Cave-focused documentaries One More Time with Feeling and This Much I Know to Be True. Check out the 25th-anniversary trailer for Chopper below: Chopper is returning to Australian cinemas from Thursday, August 21, 2025.
If crafting a successful sequel wasn't already a difficult assignment, doing so for a movie remembered for its quirkiness and surprise factor must border on the impossible. Still, when Kingsman: The Secret Service took in over $400 million worldwide, a follow-up was inevitable. And so two years later director Matthew Vaughn has returned to the world of suave secret agents with Kingsman: The Golden Circle. Let's be clear: this is a ridiculous movie in almost every respect, from the mad-cap story through to the action scenes, cameos and costuming. Everything in Kingsman: The Golden Circle is hyped-up, spun-around, slowed-down, blown-up or cut in half. Gravity is largely ignored, except when it's used as a weapon, and henchmen die with the same violent regularity as extras in Commando. There are robotic killer dogs, cannibalistic villains and Elton John ninja-kicking a bad guy in the face. As we said, it's ridiculous – but also surprisingly entertaining. Our villain this time round is none other than Academy Award winner Julianne Moore as Poppy, the world's leading and most ruthless drug tzar. Her Cambodian lair has been fashioned as an homage to 1950s Americana, complete with bowling alley, golden age cinema and a shake and burger diner in which she both conducts her business and minces her victims. She's an apron wearing Stepford Escobar who owns every second of screen time given to her. Tasked with stopping Poppy are the bespoke-suited Kingsmen in chav-turned-gent Eggsy (Taron Egerton) and his tech man Merlin (Mark Strong). Back too is Colin Firth's Galahad, suffering from a nasty bout of retrograde amnesia. They're also joined by their American counterparts The Statesmen, whose ranks include Halle Berry, Pedro Pascal, Jeff Bridges and a criminally-underused Channing Tatum. Silly and fun as it might be, there are some glaring problems with this film, most notably that it's unfathomably sexist. With the one exception of Julianne Moore's Poppy, every single woman in Kingsman: The Golden Circle exists only as a victim, a love interest or an assistant to her male counterparts. Given the movie was co-written by Jane Goldman, it's beyond comprehension why such rampant and unnecessary gender bias could exist in a movie where masculinity plays no meaningful purpose. Yes, it's about spies in sumptuous suits, but as one of the early scenes demonstrates, Eggsy's best friend and colleague Roxy looks as good if not better in the ole pin stripes and paisley, to say nothing of her abilities. Still, the film is entertaining in spite of its flaws and it thankfully retains enough shock factor to honour the original. The final scene also makes clear that the producers are prepping for part three. Love it or leave it, there's more Kingsman to come. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Nxc-3WpMbg
If you've ever wandered into Heartbreaker at midnight, or were lucky enough to perch at The Everleigh or Bar Margaux, you've felt the Madrusan effect — fastidious drinks, generous service and a belief that the right cocktail can change the temperature of a night. Zara and Michael Madrusan's new book, The Madrusan Cocktail Companion, is that ethos on paper: a sprawling, meticulously organised reference designed to be used, dog-eared and returned to again and again. [caption id="attachment_854881" align="alignnone" width="1920"] The Madrusan's iconic rock 'n' roll dive bar in Melbourne's CBD.[/caption] Originally designed as an in-house guide for their own teams, the Companion has evolved into what Zara describes as "the definitive reference guide for classic cocktails, young and old" — the result of years of collecting, perfecting and categorising recipes from across the globe. The finished product is a bible that is equal parts accessible and technical (and looks pretty chic on the coffee table, too). We caught up with the Madrusans to talk about their cocktail philosophies, the summer drink everyone will be sipping, and why aperitivo culture will never go out of style. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Bartender's Choice Consultancy (@bartenderschoiceconsultancy) CP: Let's talk summer drinks — if you had to pick one cocktail as the drink of this Australian summer, what would it be and why? Zara: The Pepino: a Blanco tequila sour with cucumber. It's light, clean and fresh. Tequila is thriving and we're here for it. CP: What trends are you noticing right now in the way Australians are drinking — either in bars or at home? Zara: Agave spirits are more popular than ever with our guests, and for good reason. There are so many amazing products available to us now. With more emphasis on health and wellbeing, low sugar, savoury cocktails are also very popular with ingredients like ginger, chilli and tomato. The martini is still having a moment (which is also music to our ears). This ongoing trend is pushing the industry to experiment with the classic formula, as well as creative garnishing, and scale — we love a half-size Hoffman House directly from the freezer, lemon twist, personally. CP: Spritzes and lighter aperitivo-style drinks have been huge over the past few years. Do you think that momentum will continue, or is something else about to take its place? Zara: The thing about aperitivo drinks is that they were deeply embedded in [Italian] culture long before they were popularised in modern culture. To so many people around the globe, they're not just drinks — they're a moment in time. Aperitivo culture connects people. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Concrete Playground Melbourne (@concreteplaygroundmelbourne) CP: For readers who want to impress friends at home this summer, which recipe from the book would you recommend they start with? Zara: Five-star cocktails don't have to be big, fancy-looking drinks. Some of the best reactions we've received from guests have been when we've offered simple, creative tweaks to well-loved classics — like adding a few dashes of absinthe to the negroni to make a 'Quill' or 'Ritz Negroni'. A subtle change that transforms the flavour profile, giving a crisp, dry finish to the bittersweet classic. Start with a base that people already know and love. This is where The Madrusan Cocktail Companion works wonders — if you know they love Gimlets, head to the Gimlet branch and you'll find a whole chapter of variations to explore. CP: The book draws on cocktail history dating back to the 1800s. Do you see any "forgotten classics" making a comeback this season? Michael: There are so many forgotten classics that are worthy of a resurgence, and we really hope this book brings them out of the shadows. I'm a big fan of blending base spirits — gin and Cognac go well, especially in refreshing drinks like the "Stay Up Late" from 1951. Zara: There are age-old cocktail categories included in the book that we don't see enough of currently. Simple drinks like the Sherry Cobbler from the 1860s deserve a renaissance this summer. CP: Non-alcoholic and low-ABV options are now firmly part of the drinking culture. How did you approach including those in the book, and what's exciting in that space for summer? Zara: Non-alcoholic cocktails deserve to be interesting and complex. The rise in their popularity is no surprise and shows no sign of slowing. Similarly, low alcoholic cocktails are a no-brainer. People are drinking differently, and it's exciting. We pushed our peers around the globe particularly with this category and included two distinct chapters in the 'By Popular Request' section of the book — 'Aperitivo and Spritz', which contains various low-ABV options, and a separate 'Non Alcoholic' collection with drinks spanning all styles. Don't skip past 'La Piña' by Jessica Gonzalez of Nomad NYC for sober summertime sessions — a Piña Colada riff spiked with jalapeño and lengthened with soda. CP: The scale of this book is staggering — but how do you personally like to drink when you're off-duty at home? Zara: We like a simple frozen Martini. It's truly a poem in a drink. 'The Madrusan Cocktail Companion' is out now — available via Murdoch Books. Prefer to have your cocktails made for you? Check out Melbourne and Sydney's best bars. Images: Supplied
As the chill of winter settles in, it's easy to see your enthusiasm for a night on the town being replaced by a deep craving to don your long dachshund-print pajamas and settle in for a dry and drama-less night watching Netflix. But there's one thing we know that's worth braving the cold for, and that's cosy beers at one of Sydney's fireplace-equipped pubs and bars. It's your chance to feel like Hemingway with an alcoholic beverage in one hand as you relax in a room filled with that incredible open fire. Here are sixteen of the best. AUSTRALIAN YOUTH HOTEL, GLEBE An inner west institution that offers respite from the hustle and bustle of the nearby Broadway, the Australian Youth Hotel has cosy lounges by a crackling fireplace. Grab a seat here — in front of the big screens — and you won't want to leave. If you manage to drag yourself away from the fire, check out the 'nude' function space, which from 1967-1974 operated as a brothel. While you're up, order a hearty meal from the restaurant — it does $15 steaks on Mondays and schnitzels on Wednesdays. [caption id="attachment_660833" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Alana Dimou[/caption] THE DOSS HOUSE, THE ROCKS A bootery, a boarding house and an opium den. These are just a few of the past lives of 77–79 George Street, but The Doss House is the latest moniker for this heritage-listed building — and this time round, it'll focus on whisky. The basement bar boasts five distinct spaces that each pay homage to a past tenant. The exposed sandstone walls and renewed original fireplaces are paired with brass fittings, antique mirrors, luxurious orange velvet banquettes and an antique chesterfield sofa. Behind the bar, you'll find over 150 different whiskies. Ask the knowledgable bartender to take you through them, then sit by the fire, whisky in hand, and forget about the dreary weather outside. THE LORD DUDLEY HOTEL, WOOLLAHRA Boasting the warmth and history of an old English pub, all dark woods and shadowy corners, The Lord Dudley is a perfect place to hide away this winter. A mock Tudor building complete with a creeping vine-covered exterior, it has a rabbit warren of adjoining rooms awaiting you inside. The maroon-carpeted floors sink in all the right places due to the storied halls being ploughed by a steady stream of drinkers who come seeking solace and warmth. You'll find the roaring fireplace in the lamp-lit, timber-panelled rear lounge, which is furnished with booth-style tables and doubles as the games corner. You can gather a mob of mates around and while away a winter night with a competitive game of Scrabble or the ever heart-quickening Connect Four. THE TREEHOUSE HOTEL, NORTH SYDNEY The Treehouse, an after-work retreat in North Sydney with an Alice in Wonderland vibe, isn't going to give you the typical old English fireside experience. Filled with gargoyles, vine-covered wrought iron and mirrors on every wall, the general whimsy of the bar is contrasted against some clean modern touches — the sleek, glass-encased fire being one of them. No wood logs here; this fireplace is treated as an artistic feature piece raised above the dining area, encouraging you to take a seat at one of the sleek black booths beneath and spend your night watching flames licking through a chrome hearth. While the menu isn't cheap (mains above $30), it's worth the price to sit after work with a glass of wine in hand. THE CRICKETERS ARMS HOTEL, SURRY HILLS A reliable local, the Crix has all the comfort and familiarity you need for a cosy winter's night. It's a beautiful old pub, boasting wooden floors and wall tiles, a laid-back atmosphere and plenty of character behind the bar. In winter, a fireplace is always lit and surrounded by cosy lounges. There's also a pool table that's free on Thursdays, so be ready for the fight. With $10 bar meals on Mondays, free trivia on Tuesdays and full roast dinnners of Sundays, it's the perfect place to make your warm home base all through the wintertime. HARPOON HARRY, SURRY HILLS Located on the corner of Goulburn Street and Wentworth Avenue, the century-old Macquarie Hotel building has been so beautifully restored that upon entering you immediately forget you're mere minutes from the CBD. With the wicker chairs, hand-painted Cuban detailing and sweet tunes, Harpoon Harry is the perfect place to sit by the fire and escape from the city grind. On the menu you'll find riffs on Mexican and southern USA dishes, such as smoked tacos, slow-cooked beef cheek, wagyu burgers and philly cheesesteaks. [caption id="attachment_663122" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Kitti Smallbone.[/caption] THE DUKE OF CLARENCE, CBD Named after the fellow who would go on to become King William IV, The Duke of Clarence is a particularly ambitious venture — it's an 1800s-style British tavern, somewhere Charles Dickens might have penned Great Expectations over a couple of ales and a pork pie. It's also the perfect place to escape to during the winter months — order one of the 500 spirits off the menu (and maybe the hearty bone marrow on toast) and settle down in front of the fireplace. Stay there long enough and you may be inspired to write a novel of your own. THE BUCKET LIST, BONDI BEACH Sometimes the perfect winter bar is in the last place you'd think to look — the beach. Nothing beats coming in from the biting winds of the coast to a shack warmed by a roaring fire, though it's too rowdy to ever be called 'cosy'. In winter The Bucket List serve a warming menu with the likes of fish pot pie (made with what's fresh that day) and lamb shank surrounded by glazed winter veggies and mash. You'll just need to add a glass of red to complete the hearty dishes. MORRISON BAR & OYSTER ROOM, CBD Enter, and you're greeted by an industrial-chic interior complete with exposed brick and concrete pillars. The mood lighting and dark wood add to the wintery appeal of Morrison Bar & Oyster Room, and the fireplace seals the deal. Well suited to the after-work crowd, it's a place to warm up next to open flame with drink in hand. For post-work noshing, it's the oysters that you're here for — head in between 6 and 7pm on Wednesdays and you'll get them for $1 each. THE DOLPHIN HOTEL, SURRY HILLS The Dolphin Hotel has made a splash in the Sydney food scene for its ultra-chic interiors, high-flying Italian cuisine and charming salumeria and wine bar. As you can probably tell already, this ain't no ordinary boozer. Aside from the dining room, The Dolphin boasts a number of different drinking and dining spaces, including a public bar, wine room, mezzanine and, our favourite winter spot, the open air terrace with fireplace. Cosy up with drink in hand and enjoy the rare winter sensation of feeling warm while sitting outside. The producer-focused wine list boasts more than 35 wines by the glass and over 150 by the bottle, so you'll have plenty excuses to get stuck in. THE FOXTROT, CROWS NEST The easily missed and almost unmarked Gothic doors on Falcon Street hide a darkened entryway to one of the city's most exciting hidden playgrounds. Forsake the lovely indoor courtyard for the season and head to the carpeted living room 'round the fire for a chance to feel the comforts of home with the addition of a luxurious drinks menu. Alongside a solid craft beer selection on tap, there is an impressively curated seasonal cocktail list, including the Disco Punch — with pisco, pineapple syrup and candied pineapple — and the Bison Grass Cooler with vodka, apple and lemongrass. Come Tuesday and Wednesday for $10 pizzas or Thursday for a $10 Jameson and apple juice. THE OAKS, NEUTRAL BAY The opulent fireplace at The Oaks Hotel is one of the finer you'll find at a pub in the city. Founded in 1885, The Oaks enter a new phase last year when the upstairs was redesign by Sibella Court. The pub's upper levels have been Courted into a bright, gaudy 1930s den of art deco meets art nouveau sophistication — with a serious amount of drapery. We're always down for drinking cocktails in venues that look like either the set of a Wes Anderson or Baz Luhrmann film, especially when there's a fireplace involved. LORD NELSON BREWERY HOTEL, THE ROCKS As Sydney's oldest pub (if we disqualify The Fortune of War for being demolished and rebuilt), this Australian monument is a great place to stare into the flames with a beer in hand and contemplate a long history of Australians taking shelter from the cold. With exceptional views straight across the harbour to watch for oncoming storms, naval prints on the walls and a warm atmosphere, it's the perfect old English-style pub in which to find sanctuary. The beer selection is particularly special, with seven beers brewed on-site. We suggest pairing a Victory Bitter (a classic English ale with a touch of caramel) and a beef pie with mushie peas and gravy for the perfect winter pig out. THE OLD FITZROY HOTEL, WOOLLOOMOOLOO With a theatre out back and roaring fire upfront, The Old Fitz has prided itself as a meeting place for artists, writers and musicians for over a century. After a night of supporting independent theatre by taking in a show and chatting with the locals, don't be shy about asking the bar staff for their marshmallow stash — they often have some in winter for you to roast over the fire (it's a bit of a local secret). The crowd is ebullient and warm, and industrial-levels of noise are rarely reached, meaning you can actually have a conversation with mates over a couple of brews. THE COMMONS LOCAL EATING HOUSE, DARLINGHURST Tucked back away from the rush of Oxford Street and behind a fern-filled sandstone courtyard, the Commons is a warm sanctuary of fireside whiskey, fine foods and maybe a little jazz. The heritage building has been kept intact, with sandstone and exposed brick walls a feature. The long, communal wooden tables surrounding the fire in the main room give you the feel of dining in an old farmhouse, which is exactly what the building was 160 years ago. Downstairs will reveal a cosy little bar with magazines, books and, if you're lucky, a jazz trio plucking out the tunes, and the well-balanced whiskey and cocktail menu will keep a fire in your belly. BAR NO.5, ALEXANDRIA Bar No. 5 doesn't just talk the talk about being a local joint. The repurposed warehouse Alexandria bar is focused not only on seasonality and sourcing local ingredients, but is also enacting a closed-loop policy for the venue — think foraging, bee keeping, solar panels and a composting worm farm to boot. It's a made-by-locals-for-locals venue, owned by Alexandria folk in an area keen for repurposed hospitality spaces. If all this doesn't make them neighbourhood champions, the bar also has an alcove dog area with leash hooks and a gas fire to cosy up by during winter. The best day to drop by is Sundays, when it's slinging weekly happy hour deals and live acoustic sets from 5–7pm. Top image: Australian Youth Hotel by Katje Ford.
Bondi locals, consider your weekend breakfast plans sorted. Lifestyle brand Venroy is teaming up with two of Sydney's most beloved names, Iggy's and PIÑA, for a weekends-only pop-up at its Bondi store, serving fan-favourite pastries, breads and iced drinks without leaving the Bondi bubble. Running across consecutive Saturdays and Sundays on December 6–7 and December 13–14, the pop-up will serve baked goods and drinks from 9am until sold out at Shop 1/20 Hall Street, Bondi Beach. On the menu: an exclusive Venroy x Iggy's 'V' Feta Twist, plus Strawberry Kouign Amann, plain and chocolate croissants, fresh baguettes, and Iggy's signature small and large round loaves. Drinks come courtesy of PIÑA, including the raving Iced Oat Matcha and Cold Brew, alongside an exclusive Venroy Cold-Pressed Pomegranate and Ginger Juice. There's also an exclusive lineup of limited-edition merchandise — a Venroy x Iggy's T-shirt, cap and tote. Expect lines, carbs and a very Bondi crowd, this Saturday, December 6 and Saturday, December 13.
Steak and frites: it's a timeless combination for good reason. Yet new arrival 24 York is betting the house on the quality of its combo — it's the only main on the menu at this new sharp-edged restaurant. Drawing inspiration from Paris' legendary Le Relais de l'Entrecôte, where steak frites has been the only dish served for 65 years, Sydney CBD will soon have a similarly hassle-free bistrot. Opening on Tuesday, July 23, this latest venue from Hunter St Hospitality (Rockpool Bar & Grill, Rockpool Lounge, The Collective) has moved into the former home of The Bavarian. Shifting from free-flowing German brews and pork knuckles, 24 York will serve the same MB2+ scotch fillet on Rockpool Bar & Grill's menu. However, not only is 24 York's atmosphere a little more approachable, but this premium cut is available for a fraction of the cost. Supplied by Gippsland's renowned O'Connor Beef, Executive Chef Santi Aristizabal, who leads the culinary direction, says this 220-gram steak offers the perfect balance of fat, flavour and smoky crust. Priced at $48 with your choice of sauce — chimichurri, peppercorn, mushroom or umami butter — a hefty portion of frites is also piled on your plate. Add a crisp green salad for $8 or round things out with a cheesecake tart and ice cream. As for 24 York's fit-out, don't assume the stripped-back menu extends to the interior design. With space for 160 diners, crisp tablecloths, leather banquettes and a polished bistro give the restaurant an upscale aesthetic. Yet there's little chance of feeling shocked when you front up to pay the bill — think of it like a steakhouse experience without the sky-high cost. "We've had a great 14-year run with The Bavarian, but what people want now — especially in this part of the city — is certainty, quality and value," says Frank Tucker, CEO of Hunter St Hospitality. "With 24 York, you know exactly what dinner is going to cost. No lengthy menus, no specials — just steak cooked how you like it, with your favourite sauce." Keeping with the theme, the drinks list is also succinct. Four wines are served by the glass or bottle, and beers like Asahi and Resch's are on tap. There are also four cocktails to consider: a martini, a negroni, an old fashioned and a spicy margarita. Opening daily for lunch and dinner, expect 24 York to deliver simple food, done better than most, for a solid price. 24 York launches Tuesday, July 23, at 24 York Street, Sydney. Bookings are now open — head to the website for more information. Images: Chris Pearce / Steven Woodburn.
From Asian-inspired wine bars to avant-garde dumpling houses and Korean restaurants bringing the soul of Seoul to Sydney, our hearts are all aflutter with the extraordinary contemporary Asian dining options currently gracing our fine city. Whether it's sashimi sorbet, green tea soft-serve or a burnt butter bibimbap you're after, we've got you covered. Welcome to our guide to the ten best modern Asian restaurants in Sydney. KIM RESTAURANT If you haven't yet indulged in the modern Korean trend that's sweeping Sydney, now is the time to start. Kim's consistent menu spans from small, punchy options like a flavour-packed seafood and shallot pancake ($14) to more substantial dishes like the vibrant ssam, which has you stuffing crispy barbecued chicken, chive kimchi and pickles into lettuce cups ($26). With its cute alleyway feel, intriguing traditional Korean drinks and an old school hip-hop sound track that would bring us here on its own, Kim Restaurant brings the spirit of Seoul to the heart of Sydney. 24-30 Springfield Avenue, Potts Point BAR H Power couple Hamish Ingham and Rebecca Lines continue to dazzle us at their gorgeous little wine bar in Surry Hills. The Japanese-sprinkled Chinese-fusion menu throws one punch after another with its clever, Asian-inspired bar food. Pull leaves of crispy battered saltbush off their branches and dunk them into a creamy chilli mayo ($14), enjoy silky strips of sashimi snapper brought to life by a trippy powdering of wasabi snow ($19) or take a moment to admit to yourself how delicious sea urchin custard is. The kitchen's commitment to clean, sustainable produce sings from every plate, and also from a gratifying wine and sake list focused on small producers and pure methods. 80 Campbell Street, Surry Hills SPICE TEMPLE Behind the mysterious billowing silk that marks Spice Temple's iconic entrance is a shrine to the chilli to which every lover of the sweet burn must make pilgrimage. Dark, dramatic and undeniably sexy, the underground dining room is host to Neil Perry's modern spin on regional Chinese cuisine and a list of exactly 100 wines hand-picked to match. The food is theatrical and striking in both flavour and aesthetic, from the "hot and numbing" crispy dry Wagyu ($22) to leatherjacket fillets bathing in a pool of heaven-facing chillies and Sichuan peppercorns ($39). Cooling desserts and clever digestifs complete an experience you won't soon forget. 10 Bligh Street, Sydney LOTUS DUMPLING BAR If we had to pin down humankind's two greatest inventions, they'd have to be cocktails and dumplings. So you can imagine our enthusiasm about the lively intersection of our two favourite things at beautifully designed Lotus Dumpling Bar on Hickson Road. Though you'll be competing for space with the pre-theatre crowd, the wait (or the foresight to book) is certainly worth it: from colourful xiao long bao ($12.80) to prawns encased in spinach rice dough ($13.80), the slippery little bundles of goodness are consistently top-notch, and should be accompanied by a bowl of piquant fried rice with duck and asparagus ($16). The cocktails are as great an attraction as the food, with a well-stocked bar and knowledgeable bartender making for a mouth-watering list. 3/16 Hickson Road, Walsh Bay JIMMY LIKS Jimmy Liks is an intimate place. With its glimmering lantern-light, sunset-coloured silks, rich wooden tables and tactile sharing plates, the Potts Point institution is a romantic space enlivened with the hum of close conversation and a sleek, jazzy soundtrack. The flavours are dynamic and authentic, with a distinctly modern edge: here, son-in-law eggs are of the free range duck variety ($8.50), while the chicken is served crispy-skinned in a split green curry spiked with wild ginger ($29). Be seduced by a vibrant, Asian-inspired cocktail list sprinkled liberally with pandan, kaffir lime, ginger and lemongrass, and complete your night with a delectable dessert platter for two. 186-188 Victoria Street, Potts Point STREET MARKET Take the stairway past the bountiful hessian sacks that overflow with pretty star anise, dehydrated mushrooms and an intriguing assortment of pulses and spices, and make your way into the sensory celebration that is Street Market. Golden pieces of crispy fried chicken are paired with a creamy kimchi dipping sauce ($13) in a dish that’s a bang-on doppelganger for the best served in the pubs of Seoul, while the sticky hoisin sauce that hugs the charcoal-grilled lamb ribs ($17) makes it difficult to stop before the plate is clean. With a long, varied and consistent menu, Street Market is the kind of place you can keep coming back to. 3/12 Fitzroy Street, Kirribilli NIJI RESTAURANT AND BAR Pretty, thatched lanterns suspended over an intricate wood-panelled entryway and a welcoming committee of friendly bartenders shaking Asian-inspired cocktails are the first hints that Niji is not your usual Double Bay establishment. The cocktail list is abuzz with curious Japanese ingredients like green tea sorbet, sparkling sake and celery-infused shochu, while the menu plays creatively with Japanese cuisine while maintaining its integrity and flavour. The 'salmon sorbet' ($19) is a well-executed and slightly mind-bending dish of cured salmon, nashi pear, wasabi sorbet and ponzu, and we can't go past the miso-marinated duck ($27), smoked over mesquite and alder woods and served in fine slices over a cradle of robata-grilled asparagus. 21 Bay Street, Double Bay LONGRAIN When Longrain's new head chef Louis Tikaram won the SMH Good Food Guide's 2014 Young Chef of the Year Award, he described his kitchen philosophy in one word: 'tastiness'. It's a philosophy that reigns supreme at Longrain, where Tikaram's Thai cuisine delivers consistent knockouts from your first bite of pomelo, coconut and chilli jam wrapped in betel leaf ($6), through dynamic favourites like stir-fried beef with Thai basil ($34), to your final spoonful of the iconic 'Longrain layered dessert'. A treasure trove of interesting wines and a broad, international beer list mean you'll have no trouble finding the ideal accompaniment to your meal. 85 Commonwealth Street, Surry Hills CHO CHO SAN With shareable contemporary food, culinary pedigree and a coolly minimal room, Cho Cho San is perfectly Sydney. Utilising traditional hibachi grilling and steaming, the menu is relatively light and healthy — a nice deviation in the present restaurant landscape. Ironically, the best dishes are those that sound the least appealing. The grilled kingfish head (a bargain at $14, since you're saving it from the bin) is surprisingly full of succulent, full-flavoured meat, and the side of raw, seasoned radishes with a pat of mild butter ($11) is an inexplicable taste sensation. Then there's that green tea soft-serve ($6). When you have a transcendent meal out of what sounds like World War II rations, you know you've had a special night. 73 Macleay Street, Potts Point MOON PARK The Korean restaurant hidden away in an upper story of an unmarked block in Redfern offers Korean food that's so modern it sometimes barely resembles the original, but for lovers of the contemporary it's certainly worth a visit. Brought to life by the team from Claude's, Moon Park is a low-key, minimalist space with an intriguing menu — the bibimbap ($26) features the unusual additions of walnuts and burnt butter, while the cucumber kimchi is a simple but punchy win of a dish. The desserts are kooky and wholly delectable, creating pretty pictures out of interesting elements like yuzu curd, burnt honey and shaved milk ice. 34 Redfern Street, Redfern View all Sydney Restaurants.
The Stoned Crow has been a fixture of Willoughby Road for many years and, as such, has undergone several transformations in its time. Situated in the middle of a bustling restaurant district, this local favourite offers a slick interpretation of the classic local watering hole. The interior features long wooden tables and plenty of hanging plants in a dimly lit setting. Stop by for a beer — there's a great mix of entry-level craft brews, including jugs of Young Henrys for $20. The menu has staple pub feeds and includes $18 specials from Monday to Wednesday, including rump steak, schnitty and parmy respectively. An impressive cocktail list of in-house specials and classics is also available, with a cocktail happy hour available from 9–11pm Friday and Saturday nights. In the past there has been both live music and DJs and, COVID restrictions permitting, we will hopefully see them returning soon.
John Malkovich took time off from being John Malkovich to be Everyone Else for a change. Shot by Sandro Miller in Los Angeles, a new series of photographs dubbed Malkovich, Malkovich, Malkovich recreate some of the most iconic portraits in recent history — from John and Yoko to Che Guevara, Dorothea Lange's Migrant Woman to Andres Serrano's Piss Christ. According to the exhibition statement, Miller decided to undertake the project in 2013, wanting to honour the photographers whose work had inspired him and shaped his career. After selecting thirty five images to recreate, Miller got in touch with his ol' mate Malkovich — who apparently immediately agreed. "John is the most brilliant, prolific person I know," says Miller. "His genius is unparalleled. I can suggest a mood or an idea and within moments, he literally morphs into the character right in front of my eyes. He is so trusting of my work and our process… I'm truly blessed to have him as my friend and collaborator." All at once creepy and genius with Malkovich rocking an excellent Marilyn and a spot-on Dali, the series is actually less about Malkovich than it is an homage to the photographers responsible for the portraits themselves: Dianne Arbus, Annie Leibovitz, Art Shay, Dorothea Lange, Alberto Korda. That being said, it's supremely satisfying to see Malkovich in dress-up like this — his Jack Nicholson and Albert Einstein are top notch. Sandro Miller, Albert Watson / Alfred Hitchcock with Goose (1973), 2014 Sandro Miller, Philippe Halsman / Salvador Dalí (1954), 2014 Sandro Miller, Alberto Korda / Che Guevara (1960), 2014 Sandro Miller, Andy Warhol / Green Marilyn (1962), 2014 Sandro Miller, Andy Warhol / Self Portrait (Fright Wig) (1986), 2014 Sandro Miller, Annie Leibovitz / John Lennon and Yoko Ono (1980), 2014 Sandro Miller, Arthur Sasse / Albert Einstein Sticking Out His Tongue (1951), 2014 Sandro Miller, David Bailey / Mick Jagger "Fur Hood" (1964), 2014 Sandro Miller, Herb Ritts / Jack Nicholson, London (1988) (A), 2014 Sandro Miller, Andres Serrano / Piss Christ (1987), 2014
Bondi is so much more than the most famous beach in the country. The surfside suburb may only be 20 minutes from Sydney's CBD, but it always feels a world away from the shopping malls in the city. There's a relaxed and health-and-environmentally conscious vibe no matter where you shop, from the organic butchers to the eco-friendly health and beauty stores. You can find everything you need to live comfortably by the coast — all within walking distance of the sand — and it feels good to be supporting proud family-owned businesses and local shop owners while you do it. To help you avoid the tourist traps, we've picked our favourite places to shop small in the beachside 'burb, with a little help from American Express. These local stores will be happy to help you find what you need — and you can shop small here with your Amex Card.
A Sydney stalwart has been saved, with longstanding Parramatta Road pub The Lady Hampshire being taken over by Public Hospitality Group (Oxford House, The Strand Hotel, El Primo Sanchez) and returning as a dedicated live music venue. Originally called the Old Hampshire Hotel, the Camperdown venue sat vacant for years before being given a makeover and reopening as The Lady Hampshire in 2016 under the guidance of Sydney publican Paddy Coughlan. This new-look iteration lasted about five years before closing during the pandemic without reopening. Now, The Lady Hampshire has scored another transformation, swinging its doors back open as a neighbourhood pub with a stacked live music program. "Bringing The Lady Hampshire back to life with live music as the focus is exactly what Sydney has been asking for," Public Hospitality Group's Entertainment and Event Manager Elliott Harper said, announcing the news. "When it comes to entertainment venues, we only want to foster growth and success across our city and think The Lady will be the destination for all types of musicians and patrons. The first month alone has some of the most exciting gigs Sydney has seen this year and we can't wait to bring it to locals and gig-goers." View this post on Instagram A post shared by The Lady Hampshire (@theladyhampshire) While the pub is open for a casual beer seven days a week — serving up wood-fired pizzas and tinnies of beer among its food and drink offerings — its biggest focus is live music. To celebrate its return, it's hosting a month-long party kicking off with a massive three-day in-venue music festival. A Month of Madness will kick off with the Lady Launch Weekender across Friday, April 14–Sunday, April 16. On the lineup for the musical celebration: Pacific Avenue, Fangz, Juno and Dedpan, as well as DJ sets from Mac the Knife and Nitecall. There will also be a live tattoo studio pop-up, a nail salon for both people and pooches, and $10 smashed cheesies with chips across the weekend. Across the following month of gigs you can then catch the likes of Bugs, Abby Bella May, Close Counters, Bootleg Rascal, These New South Wales and Good Lekker between Friday, April 21–Saturday, May 20. You can keep up to date with the gig guide at the revamped Lady Hampshire over at the pub's Instagram page. [caption id="attachment_893119" align="alignnone" width="1920"] These New South Wales[/caption] The Lady Hampshire has reopened at 91 Parramatta Road, Camperdown — operating from 10am Monday–Saturday and from 12pm on Sundays.
There's a crumbling, dinky old pub on Parramatta Road that you've probably driven past a hundred times. It's not on a corner, it's not particularly flash, and it's wedged between Ray's Outdoors and Istanbul on Broadway. But now it's set to be Camperdown residents' new go-to local — the lord mayor of Chippendale's The Lord Gladstone has revamped one of the suburb's legitimately hidden gems: The Hampshire. Playing partner pub to the Lord Gladstone, the Lady Hampshire (get it?) is the latest project from prolific Sydney publican Paddy Coughlan. Co-founder and ex-CEO of the Riversdale Group (The Vic on the Park, The Marly, Kinselas) and now founder of boutique Sydney pub company Bourke Street (The Glad), Paddy specialises in taking an underperforming pub and giving it new life, rather than building a brand newie. This time, it's Camperdown's long lost Hampshire, which has sat quietly closed for two years on Parramatta Road. The masterpiece of the pub has to be a giant mural by Sydney artist Scott Marsh, who's painted every last Aussie 'legend' you can think of, from Kath and Kim to Cathy Freeman, Adam Goodes to Steve Irwin (not sure about Reg Reagan, but that's just me). Out back, the Hampshire boasts a great openair beer garden, with a big screen primed for AFL grand finals and Rabbitohs matches — something pubs like The Vic have become known for. Alongside a custom smoker for smoked meats on the weekends, Paddy plans to lower the shed roof to create a hanging kitchen garden. Food-wise, the Hampshire will follow the lead of its predecessors, with classic pub grub done bloody well. They're going heavier on the tacos than the Gladstone, with eight on the menu, from baja fish to mushroom to 'drunk chicken' (tequila-drunk). Of course there's a range of burgers, featuring the 'Camperdowner' beef burger with double American cheese, streaky bacon, onion rings, fried egg, grilled pineapple, beetroot and the rest. Also on the menu, chicken schnitties and parmas, and a casual deep-fried Gaytime. But how will the Hampshire stand out in a renaissance of pub grub? "My theory on that, and I say this to all our managers, is you can go to most pubs in Sydney who have a pub-style menu, if you just read the menu they all read exactly the same — they've all got a schnitzel, a burger, a steak, a couple of other things right? But it's how it's cooked is the difference." His main piece of pub grub advice? "Beware the heart-shaped schnitzel... No two schnitties should look the same." The Lady Hampshire is open at 91 Parramatta Road, Camperdown. The kitchen is open 12-3pm for lunch, 6-9pm for dinner. For more info, visit their Facebook page. Check out the pub pre-renovation over here. Images: Steven Woodburn.
A local Sydney gin distillery has placed itself right in the mix of the Marrickville brewery crawl with a colourful new bar. Unexpected Guest started as a passion project on the Northern Beaches and quickly picked up steam, building a cult fanbase for its vibrant orange Kombi that would operate as a portable bar at weddings and events. Now, the team has picked up and moved to the Inner West, opening a playful distillery bar just a couple hundred metres from The Bob Hawke Beer and Leisure Centre, Batch Brewing Company and Baba's Place. "We really played that waiting game because we wanted to be in Marrickville. We wanted to be amongst the breweries," says Communications Manager Carl McEvoy. "We want people to jump in, have a drink, learn about our gins and then move to another distillery, or move to a brewery, or go out for dinner. We love that culture." The new bar is decorated with Unexpected Guest's signature shade of orange and the four fun characters that appear on the front of the distillery's four varieties of gin. You'll also find the beloved Kombi parked down the back when it's not away at events. If you're lucky, you might even head in on a day when DJs have set up on its tow tray to provide the day's soundtrack. Alongside the splashes of colour around the bar, the bathroom has also been given a flashy makeover. "It was quite a feat, but we have made everything about those bathrooms hot pink," explains McEvoy. "This place was a mechanic workshop, and then it got turned into a gym, and now it's a distillery, but it was just like the most economical bathrooms, just for gym members. So turning them into fun bathrooms for a distillery was so much work." Catering to groups big and small, the distillery boasts a classic selection of drinks to showcase the crew's wares. There's a $20 tasting flight, a series of gin and tonics, and a standout cocktail to pair with each of the four gins on offer. The Young Tom's Bathtub Gin is paired with yuzushu and soda for a sleek take on a tom collins, for instance, while the Disco Flamingo's Pink Gin is transformed with Gelato Messina lemon sorbet and sparkling wine in the I Scream and Squawk cocktail. Gin-averse visitors who have wandered in with their spirit-loving friends can opt for Green Vineyards wine, Willie the Boatman beers or Strangelove non-alcoholic ginger beer. "We've had a really nice introduction to the breweries around us. And, when we chatted with them, we thought it was a little bit moot to sell their beer," continues McEvoy. "So, we talked to Willie the Boatman, who's sort of just out of our area, and they were really keen because it meant the people that were coming to us weren't necessarily going to go all the way over to them." Venture further down the menu, and you'll discover a refined list of bar snacks featuring gin nuts, olives, taramasalata and truffle salami. There's also a basque cheesecake sourced from A.P Bakery and paired with a raspberry gin coulis — perfect for a group nightcap where everyone leans in for a spoonful of dessert. Adding to the community energy of Unexpected Guest, the menu concludes with a suppliers list so you can source your own yuzushu or gelato, and a selection of beloved breweries, distilleries and restaurants nearby for anyone looking to kick on. Unexpected Guest is located at 12 Cadogan Street, Marrickville. The distillery bar is open 3–8pm Thursday–Friday, 12–8pm Saturday and 12–6pm Sunday. Images: Daniel Kukec.
As much as we all love our coffee, it's no secret that the coffee bean industry is fraught with ethical issues, from exploitation of farmers to deforestation. What's more, coffee is the world's second most traded commodity, deferring only to oil. More than 2.25 billion cups are drunk every day worldwide. Here are five Sydney coffee spots where you can maintain your caffeine addiction while knowing that your cash is supporting chemical-free, ethical agricultural practices. THE O CAFE The O Cafe went certified organic before any other cafe in Sydney. Their coffee comes from Woolloomooloo homies Toby’s Estate, but it’s the Fairtrade Organic Blend. So you get all the earthy tones, spiciness and smooth finish that you’re used to, with minimum wages and humane working conditions added. Plus, there’s a seriously serious menu of potent superfood smoothies, with names like Liverlicious Green Smoothie (kale, spinach, parsley, mint, celery, cucumber, apple, camu camu, flaxseed and coconut water) and Mactac Energy Smoothie (avocado, mango, silken tofu, kale, spinach, almond milk and maca). 487 Crown Street, Surry Hills ESPRESSO ORGANICA At any one time, gourmet boutique roaster Espresso Organica sells up to 30 Fairtrade, Rainforest Alliance and organic single origins and blends. They’re constantly on the hunt for the latest in Grand Cru coffee beans, which they source from all over the world. And whenever they come across an outstanding crop, they buy it up — the whole kit and caboodle. So there’s every chance you’ll find yourself drinking a coffee that can’t be drunk anywhere else on the planet. 43 Majors Bay Road, Concord EARTH FOOD STORE If you need a caffeine hit to boost your swim, surfing session or coastal sprint, do it sans pesticides at the Earth Food Store. The team has been keeping the starving, salty, sandy crowd organic since 1992. Service is especially friendly, the vibe unpretentious and the coffee a delicious nutty, chocolatey house blend. Plus, you can match it with an array of exotic food products, like locally sourced honey from the Urban Beehive and Luvju organic chocolate. 81a Gould Street, Bondi Beach GET YORK COFFEE This light, airy cafe is smack bang in the middle of the CBD. Their coffee comes from Marrickville-based roasters and blenders Sacred Grounds, where the beans are 100 percent Arabica, fully certified organic and Fairtrade. Every producer is featured on the company's site. The Sacred blend has its origins in Nicaragua, Colombia, Papua New Guinea and Ethiopia and delivers a well-balanced flavour, combining sharp acidity, sweet and spicy tones, and a dark chocolate finish. 1 York Street, Sydney ABOUT LIFE Wherever you are in the inner city, you're never more than a hop, skip and jump away from an About Life organic cafe. Their beans are of the premium roasted, Fairtrade variety, and there's a range of organic milks to choose from - including dairy, soy, rice, almond and oat. In an added bonus for our beleaguered environment, coffees come in BioCups, which are sourced from managed plantations and 100 percent biodegradable. At $2.70 each takeaway, they're more affordable than many a non-organic hot beverage. 605 Darling St, Rozelle; 31-37 Oxford St, Bondi Junction; 520 Miller St, Cammeray Top image: Toby's Estate.
While the Sunshine Coast might be best-known for its world-class coastline and truly magnificent beaches, there's plenty to explore inland in this part of Queensland. And the charming town of Montville is the perfect base from which to set off on outdoor adventures in the subtropics. In fact, Montville might be one of the quaintest spots you'll find on the Sunshine Coast. Located on the Blackall Range, the town used to be known by the admittedly cooler name Razorback, but was changed following, of all things, a town meeting. Nevertheless, the picturesque hamlet is a superb spot for your next out-of-town escape. The town itself is home to great restaurants, cafes, boutiques and galleries, and it's on the doorstep of impressive scenic walks and swimming holes. Where to start? We've teamed up with Wild Turkey to put together a list of our favourite ways to enjoy the great outdoors in and around Montville. UPDATE: Due to damage from recent extreme weather in southeast Queensland, some places mentioned may be closed or operating differently. Check websites for the latest updates before visiting. [caption id="attachment_843812" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Tourism and Events Queensland[/caption] EXPLORE THE KONDALILLA NATIONAL PARK Montville is perhaps best known for its close proximity to the idyllic Kondalilla National Park. One of the best ways to take in the epic scenery here is via the Kondalilla Falls Circuit. The slightly challenging but rewarding four-kilometre walking trail takes you from the eponymous waterfall through a verdant valley of lush, green rainforest to a cool rockpool at the top of the falls, before leading to the bottom of the valley where you'll get the best view of the falls. The walk back up is a little tough, but you'll be rewarded with encounters with stunning native flora like bunya pines, piccabeen palms and pink ash. [caption id="attachment_843814" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Tourism and Events Queensland[/caption] SPEND A NIGHT IN THE SUNSHINE COAST HINTERLAND While there are plenty of cute Airbnbs and hinterland cottages in this part of the Sunshine Coast, the region is also perfect for camping. Located along the Sunshine Coast Hinterland Great Walk is the Flaxton walker's camp, which offers a series of campsites peppered through a towering eucalypt and ash forest with a ferny undergrowth. The site is only accessible via a 16-kilometre walk, but we assure you it's worth the effort — you'll be rewarded with truly majestic surroundings and be woken by birdsong as the sun rises. If you fancy bringing the 4WD, the nearby Hunchy Hills Bush Camp is situated on a former banana and pineapple plantation less than five minutes' drive from the centre of Montville. It offers a superbly secluded setting, with each of the three sites boasting a fire pit and log seats. [caption id="attachment_844583" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Elliott Kramer[/caption] SWIM, KAYAK OR PICNIC AT THE BAROON POCKET DAM The Sunshine Coast may well be an area synonymous with stunning beaches, but you'll be pleasantly surprised to know it also boasts some beautiful inland waters as well. Enter Baroon Pocket Dam, a picturesque lake located between Montville and the nearby town of Maleny that offers beautiful picnic grounds, swimming, fishing, as well as plenty of local wildlife. We'd recommend renting a kayak for a few hours to explore the lake and its many surrounding tributaries. [caption id="attachment_843815" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Garry Zhuang (Unsplash)[/caption] GO-KART ON AUSTRALIA'S LARGEST COMMERCIAL TRACK Okay, maybe you're a bit over bushwalking by this point, so you'll be stoked to know that the oh-so-nearby town of Landsborough is home to the largest commercial go-kart track in Australia. Whether you're an adrenaline junkie, looking for something to keep the moody teenager in the family distracted, or just keen for a revvin' good time, the aptly titled Big Kart Track is sure to be a hit. The 1.2-kilometre track includes a series of wide looped turns as well as some serious hairpins, which you can take on in a cart capable of reaching speeds of up to 70 kilometres per hour. The track is open seven days a week for you to live out your Formula One dreams, at much more manageable speeds. Nighttime and wet-weather sessions are also on offer for more experienced drivers. [caption id="attachment_843813" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Tourism and Events Queensland[/caption] EXPLORE THE MARY CAIRNCROSS SCENIC RESERVE Back to walking again, but that's only because there are just so many awesome places to check out while you make those steps count. The stunning Mary Cairncross Scenic Reserve is as scenic as its name suggests and is home to 55 hectares of subtropical rainforest overlooking the beautiful landscape of the Glass House Mountains. The reserve boasts a number of leisurely walking trails and guided tours that'll get you up close with the enchanting surrounds, while the Rainforest Discovery Centre is where you can learn about the diverse life that makes up the ecosystem of this beautiful forest via a bunch of cool multisensory educational exhibits. While you're out and about, keep your eyes peeled for local birdlife — the park plays host to nearly 150 different species. GO LUXURY CAMPING AND SLEEP UNDER THE STARS You've probably heard of glamping, but Starry Nights Luxury Camping takes things to a whole other level. Situated in the bucolic hinterland by the waters of the gently flowing Petrie Creek, these lush grounds host handmade tents spanning 75 square metres, each set on a raised platform of polished recycled barn floor wood. Inside there are hand-carved stone basins, a roaring fireplace, hot running water for both showers and opulent baths in the claw-footed tub, a fully stocked kitchenette, flushing toilets and king-sized beds with organic linen. Settle in among the eucalypts and rolling hills and take in a decadent evening under the stars. Find out more about Wild Turkey's Discovery Series at the website. Top image: Tourism and Events Queensland
The Potting Shed is the latest venture by Alexandria's food and coffee mecca The Grounds, and it must surely be the only Sydney restaurant where the entrance is adorned with a flaming wheelbarrow. As each table is nestled amongst planter boxes, hanging gardens and lush green foliage, selecting a spot for dining in the low-lit al fresco area conjures a sense of being part of a Disney princess's daydream. Hence, The Potting Shed is equally perfect for romantic dates or casual groups. While perusing the extensive menu, we recommend relaxing with a warm pear cider ($12) comprising vanilla bean, pear syrup and Hillbilly Cider, brewed locally in the Blue Mountains. This cosying refreshment is charmingly heated over a soft open flame at your table. Be sure to peek inside the tin teapot and retrieve the two soft pear cheeks infused with the aromatic spices. The first section of The Potting Shed menu, Share with friends, consists essentially of communal plates designed for leisurely grazing. The generous meals are therefore ideal for sharing as well as catering to those who enjoy sampling a little of everything. The crispy school prawns with sriracha mayo ($11) was a standout, as was the delectable cheese plate ($20 for two). This plate is handsomely laden with internationally sourced cheese, cured meats, fruit, marinated vegetables and also hosts an assortment of daily baked breads. If guidance is required, the cordial waitstaff can offer suggestions on the perfect pairing from their substantial wine list. The salads are hearty numbers; roasted baby beets with goat's cheese, radicchio and hazelnuts ($19) particularly impresses and would provide a fresh accompaniment to any of the meat-centric main courses. The mains menu features free-range locally produced meats, and with grand portions, consider sharing a selection amongst a group, unless you're starving. There's sticky glazed slow-cooked short ribs ($22) and crumbed veal cutlet with spiced plums ($24); however, it's difficult to bypass the charcoal Holmbrae half chicken ($28) — three hours of sous vide, then finished on the fire and served atop a bed of grains alongside an elegant salad of cucumber ribbons, pomegranate, fenugreek and walnuts. The charcoal chicken was so incredibly succulent it amazingly managed to possess the flavour of eight chickens packed into one god-like super chicken. On the lighter side, there's the Pansotti ($19), plump pasta parcels stuffed with sweet roasted carrots and goat's cheese, dressed with an earthy walnut sauce and a drizzling of marjoram burnt butter. This artfully balanced vegetarian dish is decidedly where the money is at. If you have any space left for dessert, don't pass up banana tarte tatin with coconut icecream and hazelnut praline ($12) or the mango and pineapple sundae with a scoop of salted caramel ice cream ($12). Otherwise, if you can't muster another course, there's a comprehensive cocktail menu, if you prefer your dessert to be of the liquid variety.
Located along Hassall Street, just steps from Parramatta Train Station, this local mainstay is an obvious choice for a casual midweek meal, after-work drinks (aim for happy hour between 5–7pm when selected beers, wines and spirits are just $5.20) or to kick on after an event at Bankwest Stadium. The expansive pub offers both a beer garden and a sports bar, with live games played throughout the bar and on the three-metre outdoor LED screen to boot. From the kitchen, it's slinging all the pub grub, from schnittys, parmas and burgers to beer-battered fish and chips and buffalo wings, and from Monday–Thursday, you can grab lunch with a beer or wine for just $17. And you can really kick-on late night here, with the bar open until 6am on Fridays and 4am on Saturdays.
Among the many great filmmaker-actor pairings that cinema has gifted the world, Ryan Coogler and Michael B Jordan have spent more than a decade cementing their spot on the list. It was back in 2013 that the two first joined forces, one for his feature directorial debut and the other for his first lead film role, on Fruitvale Station. Each time that a new Coogler movie has arrived since, including 2015's Creed, then 2018's Black Panther and its 2022 sequel Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, Jordan (Creed III) has been a key part — and after playing Oscar Grant, Adonis Johnson and Killmonger for his go-to helmer, Jordan is at the heart of 2025's Sinners, too. Five pictures into their collaboration now, how does Coogler manage to double down on working with Jordan? Literally, actually. This time, in the director's first horror film, he has cast his favourite actor in two roles. Sinners focuses on brothers — twins, in fact, called Elijah and Elias — who find more than familiar faces awaiting when they try to start afresh upon returning to their home town. They also find much greater troubles than have been haunting them in their lives elsewhere. This is a movie set in America's south in the Jim Crow-era, as well as a film where being able to enjoy blues music at their local bar is a welcome escape for Sinners' Black characters. But as the just-released second trailer for the feature makes clear, there's more than a touch of the supernatural to Coogler's new flick. Yes, things get bloody. Cast-wise, the movie also gets stacked, with Hailee Steinfeld (The Marvels), Wunmi Mosaku (Loki), Delroy Lindo (Unprisoned), Jack O'Connell (Back to Black), Jayme Lawson (The Penguin) and Omar Benson Miller (True Lies) co-starring. Sinners marks the first time that Coogler hasn't either explored a true story, jumped into an existing franchise or brought an already-known character to the screen — and alongside him working with an original tale, he's also telling a personal one. Inspiration came from members of his family, including for the film's setting and pivotal use of music. But Coogler also considers every feature that he's made to be personal. Asked at a press Q&A about the movie and its new trailer if this tops the list in that regard, he advises that "it's interesting because at each point in my life, that statement has been correct — but never like this one". [caption id="attachment_988567" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Gage Skidmore via Wikimedia Commons[/caption] "I don't want to give all of this away, but each time I make something — and none of the films that I worked on have had the horror or the thriller element like this one has — but each time I'm conquering a fear, a personal fear of mine, and this one is no different," Coogler also shared. For Sinners, Jordan isn't the writer/director's only returning collaborator. For a picture that's partly shot on IMAX — "I got to get some advice from Chris and Emma, who are masters of the form," Coogler offered, speaking about Christopher Nolan and his producer and wife Emma Thomas — he also reteamed with pivotal talents behind the lens. Cinematographer Autumn Durald Arkapaw (The Last Showgirl), production designer Hannah Beachler (Renaissance: A Film by Beyoncé), editor Michael P Shawver (Abigail), composer Ludwig Göransson (Oppenheimer) and costume designer Ruth E Carter (Coming 2 America) each return from either Black Panther, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever or both — some, such as Göransson and Carter, with Oscars for their past efforts working with Coogler. The filmmaker also chatted about his clearly rewarding creative partnership with Jordan, Sinners' origins, its mix of genres and supernatural elements, and his aim with using large-format visuals — plus how Stephen King's Salem's Lot proved pivotal, the eeriness of twins, why making movies is a form of catharsis for him and more. On Making Five Films Now with Michael B Jordan — and How Their Collaboration Pushes Coogler Creatively "It's incredible. With Mike, he was a working actor when I met him. He had been on some incredible television shows, basically been a professional actor since he was a school-aged kid, but he hadn't had a feature-length role where he was the lead just yet. So when we worked together on Fruitvale, that was his first time in a lead role in a movie, and it was my first time making a movie — so in many ways, we've grown up together in the industry, in these situations. I've definitely found a kindred spirit in him. He's somebody who's incredibly gifted. In some ways, it's god-given: his charisma, his ability to channel empathy without even trying. But the other facets are the things under his control: his work ethic, his dedication to the craft. And the other thing is his constant desire to want to push himself, to increase his capacity, to continue to stretch. Having both those things rolled up into one, and being somebody who's around the same age, we became work friends and eventually have become like family since. It's an incredible gift to have somebody like that, who you can call up and say 'hey, I've got a new one for you, what do you think?'. And I know he is always trying to look for new challenges constantly. He doesn't want to rest on his on his laurels. And I thought that this role would be something where we could challenge each other." On Injecting Personal Elements Into Coogler's First Horror Film "Each time I've made a film, it's become more and more personal. With this one, I was really digging into two relationships. One with my maternal grandfather, who I never met, he died about a year before I was born — but he was from Merrill, Mississippi, and eventually moved to Oakland, married my grandmother, and actually built the house that our whole family was based out of in Oakland. And I had an uncle named Uncle James who I came up with my whole life, he actually passed away while I was in post-production on Creed, and he was from another town in Mississippi — and he wouldn't really talk about Mississippi unless he was listening to the blues, unless he had a little sip of old Italian whisky, then he would reminisce. And I miss him profoundly. With this film, I got a chance to dig into my own ancestral history here in the States — not dissimilar to what I was doing with the Panther films, like that generational ancestral history, this is right there for me. And I had a chance to really go to the south and scout and think. And the film is about the music that was so special to my to my uncle — and I couldn't be happier with the film that we'll be able to show you guys in a few months." On the Movie's Supernatural Aspects "The film is very genre-fluid. It switches in and out of a lot of different genres. Yes, vampires are an element of the movie. But that's not the only element. It's not the only supernatural element. The film is about more than just that, and I think it's going to surprise folks in a good way. My favourite films in the in the genre, you could take the supernatural element out and the films would still work — but the supernatural element actually helps to heighten it, helps to elevate it. So I was aspiring to make something in that in that tradition. And the film has elements of all of the things that I that I love. It's really a personal love letter for me to cinema, to the art form, specifically the theatrical experience. It's interesting working in a post-COVID time, when everybody was sequestered — and I know I found myself missing that experience of experiencing things in a room with folks I didn't know, but still reacting in the same way, or maybe reacting in different ways and getting to enjoy that. The film is meant to be seen in that capacity." On Using Large-Format Visuals, Such as Shooting in IMAX, to Draw Audiences In "The whole effort was for the experience to be immersive. We wanted to let folks experience this world. And for me, it's the world that my grandparents were a part of. It's the world that they came up in. And it's a time that's often overlooked in American history, specifically for Black folks, because it was a time associated with a lot of things that maybe we're ashamed to talk about — but I got to talk to my have conversation with my grandmother, who's nearly 100 years old, and do some really heavy research, and it was exciting. To bring that time period to life with the celluloid format that was around then, but with the technological advancements that IMAX can provide, it's really exciting — really exciting." On How a Stephen King-Penned Vampire Novel Proved an Influence "A big inspiration for the film is a novel called Salem's Lot, and in the novel — it's been adapted quite a few times and in some really cool ways, but what's great about that novel is when Stephen King talks about it, for him it was Peyton Place, which is another novel, meets Dracula. What happens when a town that's got a lot of its own issues, a lot of interesting characters, meets up with a mythological force of nature and it starts to influence the town? So that idea for me was a great way to explore some of the real things in this place that my grandparents and uncles who influenced my life came from — but also that a lot of American pop culture came from, right there. One of the things we explore in the film is blues music and blues culture, and that became so many other things that affect what we do today. So it was great to be able to explore that. And that music has a has a very close relationship with the macabre, so to speak, with the supernatural. You hear stories about Tommy Johnson and Robert Johnson selling that souls to be able to play the guitar the way they do — the deals being struck. It was called the devil's music — and the dichotomy of these incredible singers, even still to this day, they learned how to make music in the church, but yet they chose to make music that maybe was frowned upon." On the Catharsis of Making Movies for Coogler "I'm blessed to have been able to have found this medium. I found it out by accident. But where I can work out deep, philosophical, existential questions that I may be struggling with, I get to work them out while contributing to an artform that that means so much to me and my family. Watching movies for us was a pastime, and it was a way to connect, it was how we travelled. So I feel like the luckiest person on the planet — but yeah, it is a form of therapy. Each film brings me closer to understanding myself and the world around me, I think." On Jordan Portraying Twins — and Why Twins Feel Supernatural "These are guys who there's nothing supernatural about them outside of them being identical twins. Now, when you dig into the research on twins, it is pretty strange. We still don't totally understand how we have specific identical twins, because it's not something that can be inherited. It's an anomaly. What we did on this was I hired a couple friends of mine who are filmmakers, Noah and Logan Miller — we hired them as twin consultants. They're about the same age as me and Mike, and they were able to talk to Mike and myself while we were working on the script, and he was working on prepping the characters, on what it is like to have an identical twin. Some of that work was just fascinating — like this idea of ever since you achieved consciousness, there was another version of you, right there, right there in front of you, sharing space. And how they see the world — how they see the world as 'us versus everybody else'. The other aspect of it is the fact that they're not totally different. They're actually are quite alike. They're different in subtle ways that Mike found. But it's an absolutely brilliant performance — both performances. I can't wait for folks to see him. It's Mike unlike I've ever seen him before, and I know him pretty well." On Why the Time Was Right for Coogler to Tell an Original Story "I think in terms of timing — and timing is everything, it can really make or break a project, now more than ever. But for me, in being a writer/director, the timing first has to start with me. And it felt like I was at a point in my life where I did want to try to do something original. And I realised I had been working on things that were based on pre-existing things, maybe a real-life situation, maybe a pre-existing franchise and cinema, a pre-existing comic-book franchise, and so I felt the itch to want to try. I could kind of feel like the kids are growing up, I'm getting older, I can feel time on my on my backside. So it turned out to be the perfect timing for me, personally. And at terms of looking around at the world and where we are, those two things seem to be lining up. But at the same time, you don't have any control over that one. You've got to kind of start with yourself. Even then, I did want to still play with archetypes. I guess it's original, but I'm dealing with a lot of archetypes — not just a vampire, but the supernaturally gifted musician, the twins. When I was coming up, every neighbourhood would have those twins who were well-known, sometimes notorious, just had a reputation as local celebrities. That idea is something that we're exploring in this, and a lot of other ideas. So I'm still digging into pre-existing things and culture as best I can, but synthesising them through my own personal lens." Sinners releases in cinemas Down Under on Thursday, April 17, 2025.
Joining beloved venues XOPP and Chase Kojima's Simulation Senpai on the top floor of Darling Exchange, Haidilao Hotpot has opened an expansive new restaurant, throwing its hat in the ring of Darling Square's dining precinct. The 200-seat venue offers traditional hotpot from midday seven days a week. Guests choose up to four soup bases for their hotpot with bases like spicy oil, mushroom, tomato and chicken all on offer. From there, diners can mix-and-match from the menu which is divided into meat, seafood, beans and noodles, vegetables and snacks. Highlights of the meat menu include wagyu beef M8, XO tongue, pork kidneys and marbled pork belly. Be sure to order the 'dancing noodles' at some point in the meal, where staff will hand-stretch them in front of you before dropping them into your hotpot. Pre-meal fruit and self-serve condiment bars featuring house-made sesame paste and a variety of oils and sauces are on hand to complete your meal, while added comforts like complimentary hair ties and plush toys to accompany solo diners are all provided to ensure you have the perfect hotpot experience. Those waiting for a table can also be treated to a complimentary manicure, subject to availability, so waiting has never been easier. Originating in China, Haidilao is an international restaurant group with venues across Sydney, Australia and the world. Walk-ins are available but if you want to ensure your spot, you can book by calling the restaurant on 02 7252 3500. Haidilao Hotpot is located at Level 5, The Exchange Darling Square, 1 Little Pier Street, Haymarket. It's open from midday with last orders at 8.30pm.
Beyond the paintings and colourful objet d'art on display in the shopfront of Punch Gallery, you'll find a trove of homewares, artworks, accessories and decorative trinkets. Here, you can unearth an unexpected gift or a treat to kit out your own home. If you've got magpie qualities and are easily transfixed by bright and shiny things, you'll lose time browsing the layer upon busily merchandised items handcrafted or produced by artisans from near and far. Image: Arvin Prem Kumar
Heartbreak High obsessives, your time is now: the 90s favourite has been revived by Netflix, bringing a new generation of Hartley High dramas into your streaming queue. Let's be honest — if you loved the show since way back when, it's always been your time; however, now you can experience the ups and downs of the Aussie series' next batch of high schoolers. A fan since the OG run, and always wished you lived in the show when you were at school? Just discovered the homegrown classic via the new version? Either way, if you're in Sydney on Saturday, September 17–Sunday September 18, you can nab some free threads to look the part. Netflix loves launching its big titles with pop-ups, and this one's no different — joining its The Gray Man barber, Stranger Things rift and Squid Game doll over the past 12 months. One thing that this boasts that those others didn't? That free clothing, with 1000 pieces up for grabs all up. Head along and you too can look like you've just stepped out of class — at a school that doesn't have a uniform, aka most teenagers' dream. Netflix has badged the pop-up a 'uniform shop' to fit the theme, though, but the range includes local designers and keenly sought-after thrifted items. Sydneysiders and folks who happen to be in town for the weekend just need to make a trip to 520 King Street in Newtown, where the thrift shop will be handing out pieces by HoMie, Clothing The Gaps, Jody Just, Off White and more. It's a first come, first served affair, and there'll be 500 pieces on offer each day. So, as always with give aways, getting in early during the shop's 10am–6pm operating hours is recommended. Given that the new version of Heartbreak High decks out its characters in everything from bursts of colour to grunge 90s attire, expect a variety of styles on offer. And, expect free temporary tattoos, too, as well as a photographer capturing high school portraits.
Whether you're looking for somewhere close by for an overnight staycation or you're planning a Saturday morning sojourn out of the city, put this leafy and light-filled cafe on your list. Greenhouse on Flora is your next-go brunch destination situated in the heart of Sutherland Shire — about 25 minutes out of Sydney's CBD. Locals Paula and Pablo opened this tranquil cafe back in January 2021, after Pablo (head chef) had spent about 15 years in the culinary game as a chef in two-and-three-hatted restaurants. Now they're providing a leafy oasis where slowing down is the name of the game, amid the hustle and bustle of Sutherland's busy retail strip. Enjoy excellent coffee in the tranquil (and to be honest, extremely 'grammable) interior and watch the world go by. If you think the only meal with having is brunch, you've come to the right place. The all-day breakfast menu changes seasonally — but sweet-toothed diners might opt for the cinnamon banana bread, or the vanilla and cinnamon French toast topped with coconut mascarpone, roasted coconut, banana, blueberries and maple syrup. And yes, you can add ice cream. If you're more of the savoury brunch persuasion, there are all the big breakfast and benedict options you know and love. But branch out and try one of the Greenhouse's specialities like the open omelette with crispy potatoes, pancetta, caramelised onions and manchego cheese served with fermented crumpets. Our pick? The three cheese toastie containing gouda, gruyere and cheddar, along with chives, bacon and jalapeno jam, fried egg and crispy leek. And if brekkie foods aren't your bag, don't worry. There are burgers, spaghetti, and even a lamb backstrap. Once you've appropriately fuelled for the day, spend a few hours checking out Sutherland Shire — there are sparkling waterways, national parks and boutiques. It's a soothing antidote to the rat race of Sydney's CBD.
Whenever Kmart drops a new homewares range — be it beachy and boho or colourful and cosy — it inspires a Pokémon-style response. If there's new linen, trinkets and furniture to buy, you've gotta deck out your house with them all. The Australian department store's latest must-buy pieces will spark the same reaction, too, all while heroing Wiradjuri artist Judith Young. She has teamed up with the retailer on the just-dropped Waluwin collection, the latest in the company's First Nations program. Waluwin is the Wiradjuri word for healing and good health, which Young is keen to highlight in the range of wooden bowls, serving platters, eucalyptus-scented candles, cotton quilt sets and more. Customers can also purchase other pieces of serving ware, tea towels, candles, decorative pots and a canvas art print. On sale since Monday, March 6 online and in-store, the collection keeps everything affordable — $10 gets you a reusable stainless steel tumbler, while queen bedding tops the price list at $65. Whatever you opt for, you'll see a leaf design that's "symbolic of the Waluwin way, and each leaf represents something different," Young explains. "Many Aboriginal people around this country will all have different varieties of plants and trees that they use to make them well, and that is part of the diverse story we have as Aboriginal people." We are all different, our artwork and stories are different, and each has deep significance, just as my markings have meaning to me and my family." For the Waluwin collection, Young drew upon her family's history, with her parents growing up along the Murrumbidgee River in Narrandera in New South Wales. Her mother Judith Williams (nee Johnson) was a watercolour artist, while her father Kevin Williams was a boomerang and artefact maker. Accordingly, watercolour painting and burning techniques both feature. So do lines representing tree carvings, dots that are all about mob coming together, circles that symbolise water holes, and plants such as wattle and tea tree. The collaboration with Kmart appealed to Young because "a lot of our mob positively connect and shop at Kmart around Australia," she notes. "So to have the opportunity to work with them on this collection will have an impact on family across Victoria, regional NSW, Sydney, Darwin and Adelaide. The deeper reason is that I felt that it was the right thing to do, from the first meeting the atmosphere in the head 0ffice with the design team set the flow for the entire collection." Together, Young and Kmart's design team worked through themes and topics within her artwork, including family traditions, and what various colours and markings mean. The aim: to ensure that each design has a story that connects to the land, and that exactly that came through in the finished products. "It was a new experience for me, working with a big company, and a challenge at first. The design team had respect not just for the image but the story and helped make it an easier process, as I did have some challenges with trust and getting out of my comfort zone — but to see how they were really careful when considering each marking, colour and every component was incredible. I felt respected and know that my story and that of my family has been honoured," Young continued. "From this collection, I want people to know my work is about health, healing, joy and peace, speaking to the importance of healthy minds, bodies and spirit. This comes from connecting with Country, eating well and listening to your surroundings. The collection is about covering yourself in a healthy way of living, from what you eat, drink, wear, and sleep under." Kmart and Judith Young's Waluwin collection is on sale online and in-store now.
The first stage of The Royal, the long-running Bondi pub, reopened in September, with punters able to quench their thirst yet again with daiquiris, espresso martinis and many take-home wines from the attached bottle-o. However, it's the pub's eatery we've all been waiting patiently for — and with Merivale steering the ship, we knew it wasn't going to be a half-hearted effort. And you'll be happy to know that, come this Friday, December 14, chefs Mike Eggert (Mr Liquor's Dirty Italian Disco, Pinbone) and Khan Danis (who worked at Rockpool alongside Neil Perry for 20 years) will be heading up the kitchen of the Totti's, a casual Mediterranean-style eatery serving up pasta aplenty, woodfired breads and classic Italian cocktails. The food is set to be a more mature version of that served at Dirty Disco — the six-month pop-up at The Tennyson Hotel, and the first collab between Eggert and Merivale — with the menu aimed at convivial sharing. Cooked-to-order Italian flatbreads will come straight from the woodfired oven to the table, to rip and tear alongside small plates of house-made charcuterie and Italian cheeses. Pasta, a focus at Dirty Disco, will also be central to the food offering here, with Eggert telling us to expect dishes like rigatoni with milk-braised pork belly, yabbi linguine and twists on classics, such as lamb bolognese. A Josper oven (part grill, part oven) will fire most of the proteins, including fish, house-made sausages and schnitzels charred to perfection, and sides including a radicchio and burrata salad and grilled eggplant. And remember that polenta, corn and chervil side that stole our stomachs at Dirty Disco? We can confirm it'll be making a comeback, too. Another aspect of the eatery similar to Dirty Disco is the drinks. While there's no walk-in fridge — you'll have to head over to The Tennyson's latest pop-up for that — the pub's in-house bottle shop allows the eatery to have an extensive wine list, with house wines, naturals, biodynamics and higher-end varieties, all available by the carafe. Hop fans will be taken care of with a long list of local beers and Mediterranean classics, such as negronis, and peach bellinis, will please the cocktail devotees. The 185-seater restaurant and courtyard might seem mammoth, but Eggert maintains that it will still feel like your local. "It's a big version of a small trattoria", says Eggert. "We want people to come in and be able to have a great bottle of wine with a steak, and still be in their clothes from the beach." The skylight and big alfresco area will take inspiration from a taverna on the Mediterranean sea, with huge olive trees taking centre stage to really set the scene. Find Totti's inside The Royal, 283 Bondi Road, Bondi, from Friday, December 14. It'll be open from 11.30am–12am, Monday–Saturday and 11.30am–10pm, Sunday. Food images: Nikki To.
The zero-waste movement is on the rise in Australia. People are using fewer single-use plastics, recycling more and thinking differently about what and how they cook. But creating a fully zero-waste kitchen at home can be a super daunting task. That's why we've spoken to Matt Stone, one of Australia's leading sustainable chefs. Stone (pictured above) has been interested in zero-waste practices ever since he started cooking at Margaret River's Leeuwin Estate back in 2003, and has continued to be a leading advocate for sustainable philosophies and ethical food concepts. Zero waste is clearly important to Stone. "Eating food in the current industrial food system is probably one of the most destructive things humans can do. Monocropping, the transportation of food and food wastage are the main problems within this system," he shares. But there are many ways to embrace zero waste — and we all have a role to play. While it can seem overwhelming, Stone urges us to take it all one step at a time: "Nothing is too small. Even if you just start with buying a tote bag and taking it with you everywhere. It can become overwhelming to think about moving to a complete zero-waste lifestyle — there are a lot of stepping stones to that, so just start somewhere." To help break things down, Stone has given us some tips on how to create your own zero-waste kitchen at home, in partnership with the NSW Government's Return and Earn scheme. [caption id="attachment_777555" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Unsplash[/caption] SOURCE LOCAL PRODUCE "For me, the first thing to look at is getting as close to your food source as you possibly can. The less distance the food travels and the less the food needs to be packaged, the better. It also means it's going to be more delicious." "And it doesn't have to be all or nothing. You can go to a farmers market once a week, or simply ask your butcher where the products are from, and get something that's local over something that's come from afar." [caption id="attachment_770182" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Jason Briscoe (Unsplash)[/caption] FIND MORE TIME TO COOK "Making time to cook is really important. When you have more time, you can do more with your ingredients. For example, it's best when you have time to make a delicious broth from leftover bones after roasting a chicken. Instead of just throwing out the carcass and leftover vegetables, you can turn it into a whole new meal." "I think taking time to nourish yourself and your family is a really important thing. People have had time in the last couple of years, and I hope that people continue to take time to cook." [caption id="attachment_807358" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Pexels[/caption] ALWAYS BE PREPARED "Make a habit of always having a few items with you. I think you should always have tote bags, a coffee cup and a water bottle when you go out. Tote bags because you never know when you might go past a fruit stall or need to stop by the market or grocery shop and grab something. It's really basic stuff, but if it becomes a habit then it really sets in. And that's a stepping stone to embracing more and more zero-waste strategies." [caption id="attachment_766152" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Lisa Fotios (Pexels)[/caption] START COMPOSTING "When creating a zero-waste kitchen, one great thing is to do some composting at home. And there are many methods of composting, from traditional open composting to electrically run machines that run off a small amount of power." "The more food waste we can save from going into landfill, the better. We need to stop looking at food waste as waste and start seeing it as fuel for future crops. And that can be done on a small scale from home with a little benchtop bin that you have for your organic waste, then taking it out to your composting system. It's a brilliant way to get closer to having a zero-waste kitchen." EAT LESS MEAT "Eating more of a vegetable-based diet is a huge way to minimise waste. Because when you buy proteins from butchers, they often come in polystyrene trays, plastic film and so on. Alternatively, vegetables are often bought in their raw form." "Having a few meat-free days is a really great way to minimise waste and live sustainably. Think of using vegetables a bit more deeply — grains, legumes, pulses, mushrooms and seaweed are great meat substitutes that can bring a lot of substance to a meal." "It's still okay to eat meat and fish. But spending more and eating less of those products is the way forward — getting better quality meat that's ethically sourced." [caption id="attachment_857454" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Markus Spiske (Unsplash)[/caption] GROW YOUR OWN PRODUCE "Another great little tip is to grow a pot of parsley or basil. For one, herbs will never taste better than when they are freshly cut. But it's also a really easy way to reduce waste. It's best to avoid buying a packet of herbs in a plastic bag being shipped from farm to supermarket. And people often throw half of their herbs out because they don't use them all. There is a huge amount of waste in that." "Keep an eye on your surroundings. Rosemary is a great example — there aren't many neighbourhoods in Australia where you can't find a rosemary bush. When you spot one, keep it in the memory bank for the next time you're cooking a roast lamb and you can just go for a walk and snip yourself a bit. You'll be surprised how much food you can find on the streets." [caption id="attachment_791852" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Polina Tankilevitch (Pexels)[/caption] RECYCLE RESPONSIBLY "Think about what you're bringing [into your kitchen] and what can be done with it [afterwards]," Stone emphasises. "Also, when recycling, make sure you are rinsing things and not contaminating your recycling with dirty food containers that might leak onto other stuff, stopping it from finding its future potential. Being conscious about how you're recycling is a big thing." A great way to start is by recycling your plastic, glass and aluminium drink containers — which have the '10c refund' printed on them — through Return and Earn. The NSW Government scheme is readily accessible (with over 600 return spots throughout the state) and gives you the choice between a refund and a charitable donation. So you're being green and giving back to your community. Ready to put your recyclables to work? Look no further than Return and Earn. Crunch your numbers at the impact calculator and see the real-world benefits your recycling will have.
When festival-goers converge on Woodford at the end of December for the southeast Queensland town's annual folk festival, they'll find a brand new addition at the event's Woodfordia location. Each year, the spot 75-minutes north of Brisbane by car turns into a thriving pop-up community for six days; however from this point onwards, it's also the site of a permanent new lake. Called Lake Gkula — a name that refers to the region's traditional owners, the Jinibara people, and specifically references spokesperson Uncle Noel Blair, whose indigenous name is Gkula — the body of water is now Australia's largest all-natural conservation and recreation lake, too. The man-made spot is also teeming with fish and plant life. More than 400 species of native freshwater fish are swimming in its waters, while over 4000 plants have been planted in and around the lake to date, with more planned. Crucially for both the lake's biodiversity and for human swimmers, the entire body of water is chemical-free, using pumps and injectors to keep both a constant water flow and high levels of oxygen. The water is pushed through two wetlands, which act to purify the lake while also encouraging microorganisms to thrive. If you're eager to go for a splash, it'll only be open to season campers during the 2019–20 fest, although swimming privileges will also given to artists and volunteers. Season campers will need to pay a ticket fee of $4 for adults, which'll help recover the costs of building the lake — and they'll also need to book in advance, with 50-minute slots available between 6am–6.30pm. For those who don't fall into those categories, you'll still be able to peer over the water at the lakeside bar, which'll be running during the festival and open to all Woodford patrons. At this stage, the lake will only welcome swimmers during the festival, but founder of Woodfordia, Bill Hauritz, sees Lake Gkula as a hotspot for the Moreton Bay hinterland area, so perhaps watch this space. "Groups and organisations outside our own are already expressing a keen interest in using this stunning new feature," he advised in a statement. "We know Lake Gkula will be an attraction; it's that beautiful." Costing more than $1.5 million to build, including funding from the Queensland Government, Woodford's new addition has sourced all of its water from onsite dams and a bore, with festival organisers aware that they're opening a watering hole in drought conditions. It's also partly powered by solar energy, and the Woodford team is working towards running the lake wholly on 100-percent renewable sources. The 2019–20 Woodford Folk Festival runs from Friday, December 27, 2019–Wednesday, January 1, 2002. For more information about Lake Gkula, visit the Woodford Folk Festival website.
For more than two decades, acclaimed New York artist Spencer Tunick has been staging mass nude photographs in Australia — and he isn't done yet. Sydneysiders, or anyone who's keen to disrobe for a new piece of art, you'll want to be in the Harbour City at the end of November. Your destination: a yet-to-be-disclosed beach. It's been 21 years since the country's first taste of the internationally famed talent's work, when 4500 naked volunteers posed for a snap near Federation Square in Melbourne as part of the 2001 Fringe Festival. Tunick then photographed around 5000 nude people in front of the Sydney Opera House during the 2010 Mardi Gras, headed back to Melbourne in 2018 shoot over 800 Melburnians in the rooftop carpark of a Prahran Woolworths, and went to the Whitsundays with almost 100 Aussies in 2019. Elsewhere, he's photographed the public painted red and gold outside Munich's Bavarian State Opera, covered in veils in the Nevada desert and covered in blue in Hull in the UK. But with his new Aussie installation, he's getting sandy and raising funds for — and awareness about — skin cancer. Saturday, November 26 is the date earmarked for the shoot, with Sunday, November 27 on hold in case the weather isn't quite right for naked folks on the beach. Tunick is hoping to amass around 2500 volunteers, with each participant honouring one of the 2000-plus Aussies who pass away each year due to skin cancer. "Skin unites us and protects us. It's an honour to be a part of an art mission to raise awareness of the importance of skin checks. I use the amazing array of body types and skin tones to create my work, so it feels perfectly appropriate to take part in this effort in that my medium is the nude human form," said Tunick, announcing his new installation. "It is only fitting that I use my platform to urge people to get regular check-ups to prevent skin cancer. I have not had a skin check in ten years, so I am one of the many who have wrongly ignored getting them regularly. One can say I am traveling all the way to Australia to get one!", Tunick continued. Dubbed Strip Off for Skin Cancer, the artist's latest work is timed to coincide with National Skin Cancer Action Week, which runs from Monday, November 21–Sunday, November 27 — and it is looking for volunteers. Tunick hopes to have a diverse mix of bodies in the shoot, with participants each getting a print of the photograph and, we're sure, a big boost of body confidence. The catch here is, of course, the location. Exact details of where the shoot is taking place will only be given to folks signing up — but if you're not usually located in Sydney, you will need to travel there at your expense. Those that do will not only be part of a piece art, but will also help a great cause. Strip Off for Skin Cancer will be shot on Saturday, November 26 on a Sydney beach. Head to the installation's website to register to take part. Images: Spencer Tunick.
It's finally footy season again and, now that stadiums are back in full swing, fans are being welcomed back to the field with open arms. After two adrenaline-fuelled hours watching a game at Sydney Cricket Ground, odds are you and your crew won't want to head straight home. Instead, spend the rest of your Saturday arvo with a drink in hand at a nearby watering hole. To make this next step easier, We bring you a a list of the best bars near the SCG that are perfect for post-match kick-ons. Whether you're celebrating or commiserating, head to these seven spots for margaritas, cold ones and pub grub — without even needing to wave down a taxi. Recommended reads: Where to Go for a Pre-Match Drink and Feed Near the SCG The Best Bars in Sydney The Best Restaurants in Sydney
Halloween has been and gone for 2024, but Australia isn't done with peering at pumpkins yet. One of the most stunning sights to see in the country right now, and on an ongoing basis, is a giant gourd that stands five metres tall. The fact that it's yellow and black, and also covered in polka dots, explains why this is such a spectacular piece of art: it's one of Yayoi Kusama's famous pumpkin sculptures. Back in April, Melbourne's NGV International promised that the end of 2024 and beginning of 2025 would be filled with spots and gourds when it announced Yayoi Kusama, its big summer blockbuster exhibition. Featuring 180-plus works from the Japanese artist, the retrospective opens on Sunday, December 15, displaying until Monday, April 21. Ahead of that launch, however, Dancing Pumpkin has already arrived — and been unveiled for gallery visitors to enjoy. Open to the public since Saturday, November 8, 2024 in NGV International's Federation Court, the 2020 piece is making its Australian debut. Until now, only two editions of it had been seen anywhere on the planet, initially in 2021 at the New York Botanical Garden and then in 2022–3 at the Museum of Islamic Art in Qatar. Yayoi Kusama itself is also a first, as a world-premiere that Aussie art lovers can only check out in the Victorian capital. Gourds and dots are among Kusama's trademarks, with Dancing Pumpkin combining the two in one of her biggest pumpkin sculptures of her career. Its towering height and legs in various poses — hence the name — means that visitors literally look up at the artwork. You can also wander beneath it. While checking out not just Dancing Pumpkin but the Yayoi Kusama exhibition overall is a summer must, the former is sticking around, with the piece acquired by the NGV. "We're delighted to unveil Yayoi Kusama's breathtaking Dancing Pumpkin sculpture ahead of our major exhibition surveying the artist's groundbreaking career. The newly acquired work, supported through the generosity of the Loti & Victor Smorgon Fund, will leave a defining impact on the NGV Collection and will be available for all Victorians to enjoy for many years to come," said NGV Director Tony Ellwood AM. When we say that this Kusama showcase, is big, we mean it. While the Japanese artist's work is no stranger to Aussie shores — and was the focus of a comprehensive showcase at Brisbane's Gallery of Modern Art back in 2017–18 — NGV International's ode to the iconic talent is the largest that the country has ever seen. Among its highlights is another of Kusama's usual fascinations: kaleidoscopic reflections. Visitors will also be able to scope out the world-premiere showing of a brand-new infinity mirror. The NGV has curated Yayoi Kusama with input from Kusama, with the end result stepping through the 95-year-old artist's eight decades of making art via a thematic chronology. Some pieces hail from her childhood. Some are recent. Her output in her hometown of Matsumoto from the late 30s–50s; the results of relocating to America in 1957; archival materials covering her performances and activities in her studios, especially with a political charge, in the 60s and 70s: they'll all appear. Half of the exhibition is devoted to the past four decades — so, pumpkins galore; giant paintings; and an impressive and expansive range of room installations, complete with her very first infinity room from 1965, plus creative interpretations since from the 80s onwards. Again, this is a hefty exhibition. It's one of the most-comprehensive Kusama retrospectives ever staged globally (and the closest that you'll get to experiencing her Tokyo museum without leaving Australia). Basically, wherever you look across NGV International's ground level, Kusama works will be waiting, spanning paintings, installations, sketches, drawings, collages and sculptures, as well as videos and clothing. For the first time in the country, 2019's THE HOPE OF THE POLKA DOTS BURIED IN INFINITY WILL ETERNALLY COVER THE UNIVERSE will unleash its six-metre-high tentacles — as also speckled with yellow-and-black polka dots. One section of the gallery will replicate Kusama's New York studio. Over 20 experimental fashion designs by the artist will also demand attention. Infinity Net paintings from the 50s and 60s, Accumulation sculptures and textiles from the 60s and 70s, and a Kusama for Kids offshoot with all-ages interactivity (fingers crossed for an obliteration room) are also on their way. Almost six decades since first debuting at 1966's Venice Biennale — unofficially — Narcissus Garden will be a part of Yayoi Kusama, too, in a new version made of 1400 30-centimetre-diameter stainless silver balls. Now that's how you open an exhibition, as this will. NGV's Waterwall is also scoring a Kusama artwork specific to the space, while the Great Hall will be filled with the giant balloons of Dots Obsession floating overhead. [caption id="attachment_950480" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Yayoi Kusama, 2022 © YAYOI KUSAMA[/caption] Dancing Pumpkin is on display at NGV International, St Kilda Road, Melbourne until Monday, April 21, 2025. Yayoi Kusama runs from Sunday, December 15, 2024–Monday, April 21, 2025. Head to the NGV website for more details and tickets. Images: Yayoi Kusama's Dancing Pumpkin 2020 now on display for the Yayoi Kusama exhibition at NGV International, Melbourne until 21 April 2025. © YAYOI KUSAMA. Photo: Sean Fennessy.
Fans of classic racing games like Mario Kart are in for a real treat as the BattleKart crew prepares to bring a live-action version to Melbourne in February 2024. For the augmented-reality racing game, drivers will jump into a real electric go-kart and whiz around an empty 3000-square-metre shed in West Footscray that's lit up by projectors. But you won't just be driving around a lit-up racecourse — you'll be properly interacting with it as well. Pass over mystery boxes to get bonuses like speed boosters, missiles you can shoot at other drivers (using the triggers on your steering wheel), and oil that causes others to spin out. It's all very Nintendo 64 Mario Kart, just without the licensing. And if racing isn't your jam, you can try a bunch of different driving games at BattleKart. Get around an augmented reality soccer game where you 'kick' balls around the lit-up field — or an IRL version of Snake where you try to grow the longest tail while avoiding everyone else. These do sound cool, but the adrenaline-inducing races are sure to be the highlight. BattleKart already has 23 sites across Europe, with this being its first Australian venture. According to its team, this will be the first time technology like this will be available to the Australian public as well. BattleKart is set to open in February 2024 at 50 McArthur Street, West Footscray. For more information, check out the venue's website.
In July 2018, The General Gordon Hotel, a mainstay watering hole in Sydney's inner west, was destroyed in a fire. The Sydenham pub was in the middle of renovations when the building caught ablaze resulting in extensive fire damage and the collapse of the roof. Three years on, the hotel has been rebuilt and reopened with a new look, a new roof and a new head chef. Following a multimillion-dollar renovation and under the new ownership of JDA Hotels, The General Gordon Hotel revealed its new look to the public on Friday, February 26. Running the venue is Sarah Lewis, industry veteran of 25 years and inner west local, while in the kitchen you'll find Kirsten Baker (Vic on the Park) leading the way as head chef. Having an experienced female duo at the venue's helm is fitting for the pub, which ran under the guidance of one of Sydney's first female licensees Bridget Smith in its early days. Baker has created a menu full of pub classics ready for an after-work or weekend meal. Classic pub mains, pizza, pasta and burgers make up the bulk of the menu, with vegan options including a chickpea and sweet potato burger. For those looking to elevate their pub feed to a full feast, the kitchen is fitted with a woodfire oven churning out roasted pumpkin, roasted half chickens and 12-hour beef short rib served with mushroom and shallot spaetzle and parmesan crumb. The layout of the newly renovated pub features a dog-friendly alfresco courtyard, bistro area, timber-laden sports bar and a bottle shop. Keeping to its namesake, the hotel also offers those looking for a spot to stay in the inner west, with eight hotel rooms starting at $160 a night. "We cannot wait to get that first schooner poured" JDA Hotels CEO John Feros said. "It's been a tough road for the pub. The devastation from the fire combined with the lengthy renovation has been a challenge for our team and the local community."
Chiswick Cellars is another family-run operation, which celebrated 26 years in the business in 2020. Located on Blackwall Point Road, the small business boasts a friendly team that is more than happy to help you decide what to purchase. The focus here is on the wine, though a basic liquor and beer offering is also on the docket. It's best to spend some time perusing the shelves — with so much on offer, you won't want to rush. Apart from all the booze, there's also a sizeable deli attached, so it's a great place to test your skills with wine and food pairing.
It's the little things that make the difference. And no one knows it better than The Little Guy, the most recent watering hole to join the Glebe Point road strip. Boysenberry cider, (free!) popcorn, a homely upstairs lounge-room and a 16-strong beer list are just some of the things that make this place stand out from the ever-expanding universe of small bars. The insanely friendly owners Anna and Dynn – formerly of The Clock in Surry and World Bar in the Cross - have somehow managed to retain their love for bar-goers, welcoming every patron through the door as if they were a best bud. They even admitted that the inspiration for the venue's name came from a drunken night out in Melbourne (a 'research trip'), which makes this joint all the more likeable. The beer selection is pretty astounding, featuring mostly local, lesser-known brews like Port Mac's 'Wicked Elf' and 'The Hangman' pale ale from Sydney. The wine list too stays largely within Oz, but features the odd Albarino from Spain and Nero D'Avola from Italy. The Old Mout Boysenberry Cider ($9) is tart and refreshing, and is worth a try if you can get past the fact it looks like pink lemonade. Byron Bay's Stone & Wood Pacific Ale ($8) is very light and approachable but if you're after something a little more robust, hand your car keys over to the bartender and go for the 2-in-1 Sierra Nevada (8.5%). Their short and sweet cocktail list is also worth a gander. The Passion of Ryest ($14) makes for a perfectly balanced rye whisky sour with fresh passionfruit, rounded off with Wild Turkey American Honey. The eats list is brief, but sophisticated and well-crafted. Cheeses, dips, cured meats and seafood (courtesy of Australia On APlate) come separately ($8) or together on a tasting board ($20). The Black Peppercorn Pâté, coupled with Jamon Serrano and pungent Woodside Edith Ashed Goats Cheese (warning: it's a pash-killer) is top-notch. The Little Guy has only a small team of staff, so to get the most out of your visit head down early evening and nab yourself a spot up at the bar. Otherwise you'll be competing with a heaving Friday night crowd. It'll be exciting to see this Little Guy grow over the coming year. Dedicated to supporting local sellers, it's run by the little guys, for the little guys, and it's setting the standard for the rest of the small bars in the inner west. Put this one on your to-do list for 2012.
Following in Taika Waititi and Jemaine Clement's footsteps isn't easy, but someone had to do it when What We Do in the Shadows made the leap from the big screen to the small. New format, new location, new vampires, same setup: that's the formula behind this film-to-TV series, which is now streaming its fifth season via Binge in Australia and Neon in New Zealand. Thankfully for audiences, Matt Berry (Toast of London and Toast of Tinseltown), Natasia Demetriou (Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga) and Kayvan Novak (Cruella) were enlisted as the show's three key bloodsuckers in this US spinoff from the New Zealand mockumentary, all in roles that they each seem born for. The trio play three-century-old British aristocrat Laszlo, his 500-year-old creator and partner Nadja, and early Ottoman Empire warrior Nandor, respectively, who all share an abode and the afterlife in Staten Island. In cinemas, the film version of What We Do in the Shadows already proved that the concept works to sidesplitting effect. Vampire housemates, they're just like us — except when they're busting out their fangs, flying, avoiding daylight, sleeping in coffins, feuding with other supernatural creatures and leaving a body count, that is. On TV, What We Do in the Shadows has been showing that there's not only ample life left in palling around with the undead, but that there's no limit to the gloriously ridiculous hijinks that these no-longer-living creatures can get up to. Based on every season so far, including season five, here's hoping that this vampire comedy continues forever. It was true as a movie and it's still true as a television show: What We Do in the Shadows sparkles not just due to its premise, but when its characters and cast are both as right as a luminous full moon on a cloudless night. This lineup of actors couldn't be more perfect or comedically gifted, as season five constantly demonstrates. Berry's over-enunciation alone is the best in the business, as is his ability to play confident and cocky. His line readings are exquisite, and also piercingly funny. While that was all a given thanks to his Toast franchise, Year of the Rabbit, The IT Crowd, Snuff Box, The Mighty Boosh and Garth Marenghi's Darkplace history, What We Do in the Shadows is a group effort. Demetriou and Novak keep finding new ways to twist Nadja and Nandor's eccentricities in fresh directions; their characters have felt lived-in since season one, but they're still capable of growth and change. Some ensemble comedies only shine when their talents combine. Some let one or two stars do all of the heavy lifting. As stellar as Berry, Demetriou and Novak each are, What We Do in the Shadows is the sharehouse ideal of a TV comedy: everyone contributes no matter if they're together or alone. That includes Harvey Guillén (Werewolves Within) as Nandor's long-suffering and ever-dutiful familiar Guillermo, and Mark Proksch (The Office) as energy vampire housemate Colin Robinson. At the series' outset, Guillermo could've just been a tagalong offsider and Colin that exhausting friend everyone has, but with vampire-centric spins. Guillén and Proksch are now not only scene-stealers — especially the former's looks to-camera and the latter's deadpanning — but the source of some of the show's savviest jokes and the subjects of a few of its best episodes. With its game cast making everything they touch a comic gem, TV's iteration of What We Do in the Shadows has never been afraid to take risks as its episodes have soared by. In season four, that meant watching Colin grow up again from a baby — and it was hilarious. Over its run, the show has also seen Guillermo discover that he descends from the undead-hunting Van Helsings, a precarious history given his usual companions. He still desperately wants to be a bloodsucker himself, however. Indeed, that continuing conflict is season five's starting point, with a bitten Guillermo not quite sinking his teeth into anyone yet, worrying about why and also struggling with keeping his possible transformation a secret from Nandor. If Nandor finds out that Guillermo has been turned by his convenience-store cashier pal Derek (Chris Sandiford, Moonfall), wounded pride and a fractured friendship won't just be the end result. As the familiar discovers, being given the chomp by anyone other than the vamp he serves is a faux pas punishable by death — his own, and his master's out of deep shame — in otherworldly circles. This plot strand is season five's new direction for Laszlo, too, as he commits to helping understand why Guillermo isn't feasting on necks like a typical bloodsucker. As he experiments and assists, Nadja endeavours to battle a hex. She also learns that a Little Antipaxos neighbourhood exists right there in Staten Island, gaining a tonic for her frequent homesickness. Season five's storylines get Colin draining souls on the local campaign trail, running for the borough's comptroller purely to feed during debates and other political events. Plus, The Guide (Kristen Schaal, The Bob's Burgers Movie) makes her presence known — more than that, she'd like to be seen as one of the gang — after her time as an envoy to the Vampiric Council, then aiding Nadja with running her vampire nightclub. Visits to the mall and to space, staging a pride parade with perennially clueless neighbour Sean (Anthony Atamanuik, Little Demon), trying to get Nadja's ghost laid: that all happens in early episodes across this latest season. So does What We Do in the Shadows' best staple, aka this supernatural crew bickering, bantering and roasting each other. Case in point: season five finds occasion for Laszlo and Nandor to squabble over whether wit and charm or hypnotism is the best way to bend humans to a bloodsucker's will. What We Do in the Shadows' characters are so well fleshed-out now, and so delightfully performed, that having two of them argue and attempt to one-up each other remains gleaming comedy. The show's writers aren't slumbering. Sharpness and silliness still combine in gags everywhere — about Laszlo learning that he's Kim Cattrall in a Sex in the City quiz, just for starters, and in having Nadja's spirit ask speed-daring partners "how do you feel about taking the virginity of a dead ghost?" as well. Spending eternity with someone, or a quintet of seasons to-date, means loving hanging out with them, though, and this show is understandably mesmerised. Check out the trailer for What We Do in the Shadows season five below: What We Do in the Shadows' fifth season streams via Binge in Australia and Neon in New Zealand.
Ten years ago, in March 2015, Netflix launched in Australia. It wasn't the first streaming service eager to give Aussies new couch-time choices — it wasn't even completely new, thanks to local film and TV lovers accessing the US version before the platform officially arrived Down Under — but it still gave the nation's at-home viewing landscape a milestone moment. The great streaming service rush followed, spoiling audiences for choice via an array of other platforms. Although another new streamer no longer seems to pop up every week, a big player has just hit the market: Max. Warner Bros Discovery's Max platform has launched to Australian viewers as at Monday, March 31, 2025. If you're a fan of HBO's TV shows, you'll be excited. You should also be well-aware of Max's Aussie debut, given that it has been rumoured since 2024, was then confirmed the same year, and scored an exact launch date earlier this year before dropping pricing and plan details. First, the crucial info for The Last of Us fans: this is where you'll need to head to check out the game-to-screen series' second season when it debuts on Monday, April 14. When The Rehearsal returns for its second season on Monday, April 21, you'll also need a Max subscription to see what Nathan Fielder has whipped up next. If you're addicted to The White Lotus or excellent hospital-set newcomer The Pitt, they're rounding out their current seasons on both Max and Binge, which was previously the home of the bulk of HBO's output Down Under. The Righteous Gemstones is among the other series playing on both platforms until their present run wraps up. Max is also your go-to for other HBO Originals, returning, new and old alike, such as House of the Dragon, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms and any other Game of Thrones spinoffs; Euphoria; upcoming IT prequel series Welcome to Derry; and everything from True Detective, The Sopranos, Six Feet Under, The Wire, Oz, Deadwood, Big Love, True Blood, Big Little Lies and Westworld through to Succession, The Larry Sanders Show, Sex and the City, Flight of the Conchords, Bored to Death, Girls, Veep, Barry and Enlightened. The platform's own Max Originals — so made for it, rather than for HBO — cover And Just Like That..., Peacemaker, The Other Two and more, while the Warner Bros television library also spans Friends, Rick and Morty (including Rick and Morty: The Anime), Gilmore Girls, Gossip Girl and others. Adventure Time, Looney Tunes and Scooby Doo are among the cartoon names available on the service. In addition, content TV networks Discovery, Cartoon Network, TLC, Food Network, ID and HGTV are also part of the platform. If you're a film obsessive, access to recent cinema releases at home is one of Max's drawcards. Movies from Warner Bros Pictures from the year, such as Joker: Folie à Deux, Trap, Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice, Twisters, The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim and Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story, are all available from launch. Going forward, Max is also set to screen blockbusters fast-tracked from their silver-screen dates. Warner Bros is behind big franchises like The Lord of the Rings, Dune, the DC Universe and Harry Potter, too, so expect them as well. On most streaming platforms, classic flicks aren't a priority. If you like a blast from the past with your viewing, the TCM hub boasts all-time greats such as Singin' in the Rain, North by Northwest, The Maltese Falcon, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Casablanca, The Wizard of Oz, A Clockwork Orange, The Exorcist, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, Rebel Without a Cause, Bonnie and Clyde, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, All the President's Men, Ben Hur, Cool Hand Luke, Mean Streets, Enter the Dragon and Gaslight, all from launch. In its first month of Aussie operations, Max will also welcome Brian Cox (The Electric State)-, Lisa Kudrow (No Good Deed)- and Parker Posey (Thelma)-starring new film The Parenting; Fast Friends, a game show about loving a certain sitcom; and Ted Lasso star Brett Goldstein's new stand-up special The Second Best Night of Your Life. From the Warner Bros back catalogue, Dune, The Batman, The Matrix Resurrections, Elvis, Black Adam, Shazam! Fury of the Gods, all ten seasons of Friends and three seasons of The Leftovers are also on the way. Regarding plans and pricing, there's three of the former — starting with a basic package that includes ads, then offering standard and premium options. The first spans full HD resolution and two devices streaming simultaneously, as does the second, with the latter also including 30 downloads to watch offline. Opt for premium and 4K resolution plus Dolby Atmos sound are featured, if they're available per title; four devices can stream simultaneously; and the downloads go up to 100. In a launch special until Wednesday, April 30, 2025, the basic with ads plan is available for $7.99 per month for the first 12 months or $79.99 for the first year (or $11.99 per month/$119.99 per year from Thursday, May 1, 2025). The standard plan special is $11.99 per month for the first 12 months or $119.99 for the first year ($15.99 per month/$159.99 per year afterwards), while premium is available for $17.99 per month for the first 12 months or $179.99 for the first year (or $21.99 per month/$219.99 per year afterwards). As for Binge, when it launched, giving subscribers access to HBO's catalogue was one of its big selling points. The deal between Binge, Foxtel and Warner Bros Discovery — which owns HBO — was extended in 2023; however, it was reported at the time, accurately so it proves, that Max might debut in Australia from 2025. Max is available direct to consumers via its website and app stores — you sign up for it by itself — for viewing via mobile, tablet, gaming consoles and connected TV, but it is still keeping a connection with Foxtel. If you subscribe to the pay-TV service, you'll have access to the Max app without paying extra. Max is available in Australia from Monday, March 31, 2025 — head to the streaming service's website for more details.
If you've ever had a coffee at Cuckoo Callay, a Middle Eastern brunch at Nour or a charcoal chicken feast at Henrietta, you'll find Lilymu familiar. There's pink neon on the walls, hibiscus in the cocktails and friendly staff on the floor. But, it's also markedly different to any of Ibby Moubadder and Jorge Farah's other restaurants. To start: it's not on Crown Street. In fact, it's on the other side of the city, in Parramatta Square. And it's not Middle Eastern. This time, the duo is, with the help of ex-Mr Wong chef Brendan Fong, serving up contemporary takes on Chinese and Southeast Asian dishes. As you'd expect from Fong, the dumpling are great. So good, we suggest ordering a round of the tom yum prawn dumplings swimming in bright refreshing soy, lime and chilli dressing as soon as you sit down. While you're ordering entrees, the crispy fried quail. This crispy golden bite-sied bird is bursting with enough flavour to put your favourite fried chicken joint to shame. [caption id="attachment_792832" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Black garlic mie goreng[/caption] Larger dishes continue with pipis in XO sauce (market price), beef cheek massaman with the requisite kipfler potatoes and roasted duck with Laos sausage. But the dish you've likely heard the most about (and seen pop-up regularly on the 'gram) is the mie goreng. Coming loaded with black garlic and bean sprouts, and topped with an egg yolk, it's rich and indulgent. It'll also leave you almost too full for dessert — almost. You can round out your meal with mascarpone parfait, coconut sorbet or one of the liquid desserts, including a Lilymu espresso martini and an affogato martini with vanilla ice cream. Those who prefer their cocktails slightly more savoury — and earlier on in the meal — will find solace in the spiced margarita or the sour plum negroni, made with Four Pillars' always-popular Bloody Shiraz Gin. [caption id="attachment_787138" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Nikki To[/caption] Images: Nikki To Updated Friday, March 31, 2023. Appears in: The Best Restaurants in Sydney The Best Degustations Under $100 in Sydney
We're all devoted to our own local cafe, but there's no denying that the inner west has had particularly rich pickings of them lately. After a spate of new openings in 2012, the area offers everything from big-breakfast old faithfuls to fine-dining-trained chefs and experimental commune-type sanctuaries. But if there's one quality that ties these disparate breakfast-to-lunch hangouts together, it must be their sense of community. They all pride themselves on their local and hyperlocal produce, in-house preparation techniques, and nose for what their most important customers — locals — want. So if you're an inner westie, here's our guide to the ten best cafes you'll want to visit and revisit. And if you're not from the area, well, it's time for an expedition. 1. Cornersmith Cornersmith is a legend worthy of its reputation. Originally a thread shop, the space is beautifully pared back, with a stark, tiled wall, a mustard ceiling and nary a vintage poster or knickknack in site. It feels a little French and a little like you’re sitting in a large kitchen of an old Australian home. A blackboard displays the simple menu, including a list of what fresh produce they have in that week. The menu revolves around these ingredients, which the co-owners, James and Alex, gather locally as much as possible — Marrickville residents who grow vegetables trade their excess for a jar of home-made jam or relish. Everything is made from scratch (they even have their own beehive), the service is super-friendly, the coffee is great. 314 Illawarra Road, Marrickville; www.facebook.com/pages/Cornersmith/294576130569750 2. The Grounds of Alexandria The team behind the Grounds have taken an industrial warehouse and transformed it into a homely, wholesome sanctuary. In fact, it's almost a town. There's the garden, which grows produce for the kitchen and doubles as an outside eating area for take-away meals. Listen carefully, you'll find the chickens around here too. There's also a kids' playground, gardening classes, on-site bakery, and a coffee roasting facility incorporating testig and a boutique school. On a Saturday morning, the place is brimming with families, children joyously patting ducks, bunnies, and guinea pigs that don't look too perturbed by the attention. It's tempting to see this as some kind of cult — though one that truly justifies the following.The only downside of this experimental paradise that we can see is the time you're likely to wait to get fed. Turn up early, plan a weekday visit, or pack your patience and wait for a table with a coffee in the garden. Building 7A, 2 Huntley Street, Alexandria; www.groundsroasters.com 3. Double Roasters Double Roasters has breathed life into a 1950s warehouse. Inside the cafe is a wave of activity: the espresso machine is purring away, with the barista furiously pumping out hot coffee; the coffee blender is sucking and spitting out aromatic beans; and staff are scurrying back and forth with plates of food. One of the selling points of Double Roasters is its passion for coffee. Single origin beans are roasted on site in 12kg batches, ensuring superior quality and consistency. The food menu is straightforward, but you'll definitely get bang for your buck. 199 Victoria Rd, Marrickville; www.doubleroasters.com 4. Excelsior Jones It's hard not to fall in love with Excelsior Jones. The friendly cafe sits in what used to be an old corner store in Ashfield and is a welcome addition to a quiet neighbourhood that was, before Excelsior, devoid of a local haunt. Co-owners Anthony Svilicich and James Naylor are both ex Le Monde, and also on board to bring a touch of brilliance to the modest menu is Adrian Borg, who previously held stints at Assiette and District Dining. House-cured salmon hash with pearl shallots, fried buckwheat, poached egg, and fresh herbs ($16) is nourishing and tasty to say the least, while the bacon and egg sandwich with capsicum relish and aioli ($10) will please any fan of this staple. The team is incredibly enthusiastic about providing a place where locals and people from all walks of life are welcome and feel comfortable, and the atmosphere definitely reflects this. 139 Queen Street, Ashfield; www.excelsiorjones.com 5. The Counter There's been a gradual takeover in the inner west cafe scene of smaller, well-designed cafes that focus primarily on coffee. Which, of course, a good cafe should. But the Counter in Petersham has also managed to include all the right eggs in its basket. Breakfast options are simple but with added tasty flares such as sourdough bread or homemade mayonnaise. The Smith's Sister ($14) is a classic of slow poached eggs and bacon on sourdough, while the Mr Smith Sambo ($9.50) mixes a soft egg, bacon, tomato relish, and mayonnaise between toasted sourdough. While there is limited space and you might find yourself having a bit of a wait for a table, the delightful staff, and fast service means you won't be frustrated by this smaller cafe. 96 Audley St, Petersham; 02 9560 2949 6. The Rag Land It's no secret that Redfern is definitely on the up. A little more gentrified, a little more hip. And while the Redfern/Waterloo border isn't exactly Sydney's most happening hotspot just yet, the Rag Land — a play on its Raglan Street location and light, bright bric-a-brac interior — is certainly a place worth visiting. Great food, sweet digs, and some winning coffee from one of the nicest teams we've met for a long time ranks high in our books. It's also more than reasonably priced, welcoming, unpretentious, community-minded, and has FBi radio peeps winging it down the road. 129 Raglan Street, Redfern 7. Black Star Pastry Just off King Street in Newtown, this hole-in-the-wall patisserie is unlike anything you've ever seen. With rebels in the kitchen and hipsters on the floor, Black Star is one of a kind. What sets them apart from the rest? The creativity tablespooned into every single mixing bowl. And the end result? An eclectic combo of offerings, sure to wow all of one's senses. For beginners, we recommend the strawberry watermelon cake with rose cream (four potions for $24). Then, try the lemon meringue tart with basil jelly, a genius concoction that will have you ordering a dozen at a time. For the kids, there's Ginger Ninjas ($4), which have replaced the somewhat jaded gingerbread man at this happening hotspot. 277 Australia St, Newtown; www.blackstarpastry.com.au 8. Trainspotting Choose life. Choose a job. Choose breakfast. Given it shares its name with the famous nineties drug film, it’s apt that Trainspotting is drawing addicts — albeit of a different kind. The brainchild of Cameron Macpherson, previously of Restaurant Pepper in Balmain and Pier in Rose Bay, this unassuming café is giving Lewisham locals a long-awaited caffeine kick, and coffee connoisseurs something new to buzz about. The breakfast menu features the usual suspects as well as a number of in-house specialties. The Trainspotting Envy ($13) — poached eggs on a bed of spinach leaves topped with a feta and basil sauce — goes down a treat. Shop 1, 3 Victoria Street, Lewisham 9. Paper Cup Paper Cup is a Middle Eastern treat in the inner west. As well as coffees (Coffee Alchemy beans, roasted in nearby Marrickville) the tiny galley service area puts out a focused breakfast menu and sandwiches, with Middle Eastern flavours providing a hit of spices and texture to the signature dishes. Arabian-style bircher muesli with poached fruit, yoghurt, pistachios and honey ($10), and the Dr Shakshuka eggs poached in cumin and chilli-infused tomato sauce with local ricotta and fetta ($13) are both excellent. There is a sweet local vibe here. The staff chat to the customers, and one of the parents from the school across the road supplies the gluten free chocolate brownies; another the chai tea. Everything else (besides the bread) is prepared right in front of you, with the assistance of an induction cooktop and slow cooker. 157/161 Cambridge St, Stanmore; papercupcoffee.com.au 10. Fleetwood Macchiato There's plenty to like about Fleetwood Macchiato aside from its punchline sagacity. The cosy cafe in the quiet neighbourhood of Erskineville is inviting from the moment you step in. Owners Tara, David, and Jai have previously already worked together so are no strangers to the industry and it's obvious. The simple fit out of wood panelling and white walls is home to a combination of good food, relaxed atmosphere and friendly service. Bread is provided from Organic Bread Bar in Paddington and it's worth noting that whatever they're putting between the slices is homemade and incredibly mouth-watering. A bacon and egg roll comes smashed with avocado, mustard mayo, spicy sriracha sauce, pickles, and mushrooms ($12.50) and a wholemeal baguette is overflowing with fig, taleggio, fennel, and a well-dressed watercress and mesclun salad mix ($11). 43 Erskineville Road, Erskineville; www.fleetwoodmacchiato.com By the Concrete Playground team.
Sydney's love affair with Japanese drinking and dining has just welcomed an exciting new player. Itō is the new izakaya that's opened its doors in the former home of the Surry Hills cafe Cuckoo Callay. ESCA Group (AALIA, Nour, Lilymu) has transformed the long-standing breakfast spot into a late-night haven for sake and seafood. With the addition of black stained floors, Tasmanian blackwood furniture and izakaya-inspired fabrics hanging from the ceiling, the Crown Street space has been reshaped from a bustling neighbourhood cafe to a welcoming watering hole. The new restaurant and bar boast room for 85 guests inside and an additional 25 in the al fresco area. Head Chef Erik Ortolani arrives at Itō with five years of experience as the Head Chef of Nobu, as well as time in charge of the Cho Cho San kitchen. With his wealth of experience, Ortolani has created a menu filled with classic Japanese flavours that's not afraid to experiment. "Whilst my heritage is Italian, my passion is Japanese cooking," says Ortolani. "It feels natural to me to use a combination of the two as a vehicle for creating a really unique menu that is still very signature Japanese, and that's exactly what we've done with Itō. Fresh seasonal produce, smart cooking, bright flavours." If you're popping in for a drink after work, you'll be greeted with an extensive collection of sake; a wine list celebrating Japanese, Italian and Australian drops; and a Japanese-inspired cocktail list. Food-wise, you'll find snacks galore. Edamame, hiramasa kingfish, spanner crab chawanmushi, yellowfin tuna with bonito bread and agebitashi eggplant are all on offer. You can also arrive hungry and enjoy a full Japanese feast at Itō. Heftier dishes like koji chicken and hibachi-grilled wagyu round out the offerings — while there are a pair of banquets starting at $89 for seven menu highlights and dessert. "We're so excited to bring the community on Itō's journey, to be an extension of the neighbourhood's desire to reconnect and socialise, with delicious and exciting food at the centre of every occasion," says co-founder and Executive Director of ESCA Group Ibrahim Moubadder. Find Itō at 413–415 Crown Street, Surry Hills. It's open for dinner seven days a week — from 5.30–9pm (for last bookings) Sunday–Thursday and 5.30–9.30pm Friday–Saturday — and lunch from 12–2.30pm Wednesday–Sunday. Images: Jiwon Kim.
It's the fun side of Wednesday, you've settled in at your favourite bar, and a couple more whisky sours wouldn't hurt. But when the lights come on at midnight you've got limited options this side of Elizabeth Street. Until Saturday, when a new neighbourhood bar and boutique music venue opens for business. The Soda Factory, located in the old home of Tone nightclub, is the latest venture from Graham Cordery of Experience Entertainment and his partner Michael Chase. They've stripped the place back to its industrial bones and, armed with a late-night trading licence, are aiming to bring something different to the 2010 postcode. "I'll go to a bar and what I really enjoy about it is the quirky features of the decor, or the really great service where they'll make me a cocktail customised to my taste," says Graham, "but what I don't enjoy is having to walk out the door at midnight." His solution has been to combine high-end cocktails, restaurant-quality food, and great entertainment under the exposed beams of one lofty roof. As for quirky features, you get that before you're even technically inside. To get in you first walk through Bobby's Boss Dogs, a fully legit fast food joint with neon sign, checkerboard floors, and a shiny chrome bar top. Pull up a stool and eat in, or pull on the handle of the coke machine to reveal the grungier Soda Factory. All the furnishings precede the year 1960, from comfy booths and mid-century furniture to tin chairs and wooden crates that can be moved out the back when things necessitate a dance floor. To have a fully functioning business with a secret door is, as Graham says, "absolutely a first" in the area. So what will you be drinking once you're in? The boys have brought Mitchell Warters over from London, where he spent the last two years mixing drinks at Richard Branson's members-only Roof Gardens to curate a cocktail menu in keeping with the old-school factory theme. Groups can go for share siphons like The Seabreeze Spritz ($35), a mix of cranberry, ruby red grapefruit, and fresh lemon with Ketel One Vodka served sparkling from a real '50s seltzer bottle. There are also ice cream-topped floats ($14) and a 12-strong list of specialty cocktails, including Graham's personal favourite, the Chocolate Passion Martini ($17) with Mozart dark chocolate liqueur, passionfruit, Tuaca liqueur, and Kettle One. Michael is also a trained chef and the guys are planning to make use of the full restaurant kitchen by rolling out a 1950s-inspired Italian share plate menu in April. It's "the kind of place where you can get a feed and a cocktail, as opposed to a purely music venue where you’ve got your standard fare of a VB lager or a vodka soda". Until then, nine gourmet dogs are on offer for $10 each, including the Frank Sinatra (a classic New York street dog with frankfurter, American mustard, pickles, and onion rings) and the Johnny Drama (beef sausage, bacon, sour cream, avocado, and tomato salsa). The entertainment has a slightly more contemporary flavour. Graham has spent over two years curating line-ups at Ivy and has a wealth of electronic music knowledge. He's already locked in Brooklyn's DJ Spinna, influential Manchester producer Greg Wilson, and hip-hop DJ pioneer Grandmaster Flash, but don't expect to only see stuff that requires turntables or softsynths. Michael used to scout talent for MGM Distribution and has already roped in a couple of exciting live acts including Australia's own Electric Empire, and during the week it might be local DJs or up-and-coming indies. "Anything that we feel to be cool [is going to get some airtime], whether it's Grandmaster Flash or a nu-disco DJ or a live band or an indie set," says Graham. "It could be jazz, could be blues, could be soul." But The Soda Factory is "first and foremost a bar", meaning there's only a cover charge when something really exceptional is on. Grandmaster Flash is only $20 and Greg Wilson just $15 on the door. Settle in early and you don't have to pay a thing. And on school nights there's plenty of low-key and free stuff to keep the locals satisfied. "Every Monday is movie Mondays. We're starting off with Ferris Bueller's Day Off on the twenty-fifth, so that should be pretty cool. Tuesday is Dollar Dogs, so just one dollar for a hot dog every Tuesday. Wednesday we're going to do a night with local talent; anything and everything that's on the more relaxed side of things. It could be an acoustic session or soul, but it will be definitely live. After that things get a little more upbeat." Says Graeme, "Anyone's welcome to drop by at any time, but we also have great gigs." Sounds good, guys. We'll see you Saturday. Mon - Wed 5pm - late, Thurs 5pm - 2am, Friday 5pm - 5am, Saturday 5pm - 5am; 16 Wentworth Ave, Surry Hills 2010. Update: The Soda Factory has finished its fit-out. Check out the pictures below.
It has extremely rare Japanese whisky, a $30 wagyu katsu sando and gold-flecked cocktails. We think Gorgeous George, the platinum-haired, flamboyant 1950s wrestler, would approve of his new namesake bar in Sydney. Run by the team behind fellow Darlinghurst bar The Long Goodbye — Flynn McLennan, Kirsten Snitzer and Dennis Jen — Gorgeous George is a far cry from its speakeasy-style sister. McLennan says the bar, like them (and like George), is "not very serious". Instead, it's "a little bit flamboyant, a little cheeky and a bit fancy". [caption id="attachment_733471" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Kimberley Low[/caption] The space, formerly home to Mister Pocket, is certainly fancy, decked out with gold, burgundy and lush leather banquettes, and with antique bottles lining the exposed brick walls. It's a bit cheeky, too — you'll find a drawing poking fun at the US president on the back wall. The flamboyant third of the equation is reflected in the drinks. As well as the aforementioned gold-flecked Tiger Mask (made with green tea gin, champagne and yuzu), there's a red velvet twist on a rob roy with cacao vermouth, beetroot and peated scotch; a hot poached pear drink made with glühwein reduction and armagnac; and the Fight Milk, which blends smoked porter, vanilla-bean infused rum and brandy custard. Then, there's the drink we think George would most certainly choose: the Chanel No 10. As well as draping himself in furs and lace, one of George's more extravagant habits was to spray down the wrestling ring with 'Chanel No 10' perfume before each match. This drinkable ode to the perfume is made with saffron and rose-infused lillet blanc, vodka, gin and is served with a spray of osmanthus fragrans (sweet olive) mist. According to McLennan, it's like a "really intense, very dry martini". [caption id="attachment_733469" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Kimberley Low[/caption] As well as all the cocktails, the bar is pouring some very rare whiskies, koji spirit and gins that the team picked up on a recent trip to Japan. You can try drops from now-closed distilleries, including the final vintage of Hanyu, a special bottle of Gingko and a 21-year-old Hibiki. Despite some of these bottles costing as much as $4000, McLennan is selling everything for under $100 a shot (a relative bargain). Like the spirits, the ten-item food menu (with one rotating sweet option) has a distinct Japanese lean. It's overseen by chef Jack New (Icebergs, Sokyo) and features gochujang chicken wings (which you may've tried during his stint at Darlinghurst's now-closed Edition), crispy salt and sancho pepper enoki and sweet and salty kombu almonds. [caption id="attachment_733465" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Kimberley Low[/caption] Bigger items include the 'sushi tacos' — where tortillas are replaced by sticky rice and served with nori sheets and salmon — and one very luxe wagyu katsu sando. Coming in at $30 ($4 more expensive than this $26 french dip we wrote extensively about), it's made from Cornflake-crusted highly marbled wagyu, crustless white bread and shiitake mustard. In the near future, Gorgeous George is looking to start up weekend brunches and invite-only omakase dinners for regulars. We'll let you know when any of those launch. Gorgeous George is now open at 13 Burton Street, Darlinghurst. It's open from Sunday–Wednesday 4pm–midnight and Thursday–Saturday 4pm–1am. Images: Kimberley Low.
In terms of physical proximity to the night sky, Sydney Observatory is a pretty good starting point. One of the highest points overlooking Sydney Harbour, its building houses three telescopes — including the oldest working telescope in Australia, which was built for the 1874 transit of Venus. And for those of you who prefer gazing at the star closest to us, without getting completely blinded, there's a telescope that lets you look at the sun. The Observatory runs night and day tours, workshops exploring early Indigenous astronomy and a range of short courses. Plus on those special days when there are eclipses, the Observatory hosts dedicated events. This is definitely the first step for every would-be Galileo.
Boasting a raft of awards, it's not hard to see why The Darling Spa is considered one of Sydney's most luxurious. Not only is it home to 11 treatment rooms, a steam room, Moroccan Hammam chamber and two opulent couples suites, but the Pyrmont venue also offers an extensive range of therapies that prove well worth the splurge. The entry-level facial costs $110 and the treatments quickly go north from there, but so too does the quality. Treat yourself to a balancing full-body massage (from $195), or perhaps surrender to an indulgent three-hour package that includes a full-body exfoliation, body wrap, scalp massage, hand and foot treatment and facial for $580. [caption id="attachment_847463" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Destination NSW[/caption]
