MOP's two current shows are stained with colours. Reko Rennie's Black Magic takes a leaf from Warhol, presenting four big linen canvases of spray paint cans, deified on a luminescent background of purples, or greens, or silvers, and black. The can is outside the art in a seemingly infinite space teeming with adoration or divinity. Staring at the frames, the background falls away and the cans hover in the centre of your field of view. In the cans' labels, the space goes on. At the back of the room is the glowing neon-lit Black Magic, with its neon colours shimmering the same hues as the screen prints around it. Rennie's work shimmers and beguiles, inviting you into a world where the bright lights never fail, and inanimate things buzz with energy and meaning. Even if you're never quite sure what the meaning is. Rennie is an indigenous artist who came to more mainstream art via graffiti, a journey summed up in the Message Stick titles of his images' long, thin cans of spray paint. Mark Titmarsh and Todd Robinson's Public Fitting is paint-splattered, a series of clothes spattered with acrylic paints. The clothes hang empty and abandoned in the centre of their gallery. Greens, greys and reds deform dresses shirts, shoes and coats, dripping down onto spotted cloths. The colours deform and enhance the outfits, much like Titmarsh's solo catwalk, which runs down one side of the gallery splaying paint on the covers of books - blue, red & pink splotches - like well-loved volumes in an painter's studio. Image by Rekko Rennie.
With 322 kilometres of harbour shoreline, more than 100 beaches and over 2,500,000 acres of parkland, Sydney is a wonderland for outdoorsy adventures. Over the past few months, the city's hospitality legends have been hard at work opening up new spaces which capitalise on Sydney's stunning surrounds — venues where you can linger over cocktails while staring at the sea, basking in the sunset or soaking up the greenery. And now that the long, balmy evenings are well and truly here, it's time to explore their efforts. To help you plan the perfect al fresco outing, we've put together a list of five of Sydney's latest and greatest outdoor spaces. From a book-stacked nook in the CBD to a fern-filled expanse overlooking the beach, these new hangouts have your summer sessions sorted. Don't let the season pass by without sipping a drink, or two, beneath the sprawling Sydney sky.
After being sold for more than $9 million in 2017, the Verandah is back with not one but two newly energized spaces. Owners Simon Tilley and Nick Wills have updated the 17-year old spot with an escapist jungle theme that'll have you ready for an island holiday. The new layout consists of two different settings fit for an array of occasions: a sit-down restaurant with Social at Verandah and the Verandah Bar for after-work drinks and nibbles. Notes of lush greenery and tropical getaway vibes are woven throughout the two spaces for a consistently cool atmosphere. Plus, the space has gained AHA Chef of the Year Brad Sloan who's curated a menu focused on native produce. Social at Verandah is the go-to spot for a dinner date or a meal with friends. Settle in for creative fares and a foliage-surrounded atmosphere featuring an intriguing mural by Chris Nixon. When it comes to food, the menu offers an array of different flavours and cuisines. Start with oysters ($4 each) or kangaroo tartare ($21) for entrees, then dive into a nettle gnocchi ($32) or a wagyu steak ($35). The Verandah Bar continues the tropical holiday theme with plants hanging from the roof and curved banquets. It's curated a food menu that adds flare to classic bar fares, like the pepperoni pizza with pork belly ($20) and Faloumi Burger ($17): a haloumi and falafel hybrid. The drinks menus for both spaces feature a global wine and spirits list, whiskey and gin choosings and tasty cocktail pitchers, like the White Peach Sparkling Sangria ($38) — perfect for sharing with friends.
It is nearly that time of year again: festival season. Time to gather your crew, put your (flat) dancing shoes on and enjoy some long-awaited, sunshine-soaked music. And with Parklife coming up early in the season in October, we know just the place to kick off your festival fun. Parklife began as a small music festival eleven years ago and since then has grown to become a music festival institution. While the festival has grown, the idea behind it has always remained the same - good people, good music and a darn good party. And this year the party will be no different, with headllining acts Digitalism, Duck Sauce, Gossip, Mylo, The Ashton Shuffle and more. The good folk at Bacardi will be in charge of the drinks, and are offering Concrete Playgrounders the chance to get their hands on one of three VIP double passes (each valued at $474) so that you can enjoy the festival in style. The double VIP pass includes entry for two to the Garden Bar, where you can escape the crowds and enjoy an open bar of mojitos and pina coladas, a massage in the lounge, VIP toilets with no queues and a chance to meet your favourite artists at the bar. For a chance to win one of three double VIP passes, just make sure you're subscribed to Concrete Playground then email hello@concreteplayground.com.au telling us in 25 words or less who would you like to get together with this year at Parklife. https://youtube.com/watch?v=r_5zCtDfc8A
It was a sad, sad day when The Vanguard closed its doors and left a collective hole in the hearts of music-loving Sydneysiders. Luckily, we don't have to wait long until the space is revamped as Leadbelly, a new bar and restaurant that will offer live gigs Thursday through Sunday — for free. Live music junkies Luke O'Donohoe and Zac Davis — who are also the co-owners of Tipple Bar & Bistro in Surry Hills — are the new owners of the Newtown venue, and jumped at the chance to open their second venue in the iconic King Street space. "We want to keep the legacy of Vanguard alive," says O'Donohoe. "They've done so much with the local music scene over the years." Their love of music runs deep, which is obvious from the venue's nomenclature. Named after the notorious musician Lead Belly who, as well as being the grandfather of blues guitar in the 1920s, 30s and 40s, was also a convicted murderer. Go figure. "The actual venue will pay homage to music itself," says O'Donohoe. "We don't think there's enough free live music in the city and it will be a point of difference for us." The venue hopes to pull in enough on the bar and restaurant side of things to keep the free acts coming. On the libations note, we've been assured that the cocktails and food will be top notch. Bar manager and 'Olympic' bartender Ben McFarlane (who's worked in various venues for both Merivale and the Urban Purveyor Group) will head up the seasonal cocktail list, while the food will have a bit of Southern U.S. flare. Think Louisiana-style po' boys and in-house smoked brisket. They'll also be slinging pizzas from their very own oven. While the official opening date is still up in the air, you can definitely expect Leadbelly to be up and running for September's King Street Crawl, which will act as perfect welcome to the Newtown neighbourhood. Their local ties will also extend to the prevalent craft beer scene — but not just with the usual suspects Young Henrys and Wayward. The bar will have its very own Leadbelly Lager, specially made for the venue. Yup, this place will fit right in. Leadbelly is set to open in August at 42 King Street, Newtown. Image: Google Maps.
There are over ten types of boneless chicken available at Basax, which you can have either oven-roasted or fried and finished with the likes of spring onion, soy garlic or even grated cheese. You can pair your protein with sides such as waffle fries, tteokbokki, or even fried dumplings. Also available is a range of hearty Korean stews and soups, including the ever-popular budae jjigae with ham and sausage, and an ox bone soup with sliced beef and beef tendon. Basax is open until 1.30am on Fridays and Saturdays, so you'll be able to satisfy any late-night cravings for some cheeky chook. Images: Arvin Prem Kumar You'll find Basax in our list of the best fried chicken in Sydney. Check out the full list here. Appears in: The Best Fried Chicken in Sydney for 2023
It's official: the sprawling venues atop Westfield Sydney are finally opening. Kicking off the launches is Babylon, a Middle Eastern-inspired restaurant, bar and terrace with a cool 800 person capacity. Take the lift up to this massive 1200-square-metre space, where an impressive calibre of hospitality vets are waiting to wine and dine you. Head Chef Arman Uz (Efendy) has created a menu that takes inspiration from his Turkish roots, as well as from the street eats of Israel, Lebanon, Cyprus and Egypt. His extensive 30-dish bar menu features the likes of duck gozleme, ground lamb pide, harissa chicken wings and meze aplenty — including hummus with wattleseed dukkah, charred Turkish chillies with molasses and smoked eggplant salad with woodfired capsicum. The restaurant alone seats over 200 and centres on a custom-built mangal (Turkish grill) and two rotisseries. Expect both eastern Mediterranean and Middle Eastern influences on the menu here, with share plates split between flora, fauna and ocean. There's 12-hour braised lamb neck served with Turkish dumplings and chilli butter, 72-hour sous-vide wagyu tri-tip with roasted eggplant purée and pan-fried snapper with tzatziki, pistachio and baharat rice. Enjoy it all with the house-made bread, which comes paired with za'atar spiced butter. [caption id="attachment_727047" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Steven Woodburn[/caption] Then there's the 330 capacity bar, lead by bar manager David Nutting (Restaurant Hubert, Eau de Vie). He's offering six Middle Eastern-inspired cocktails, including the Beykoz (vodka and sweet vermouth mixed with house-made watermelon soda, hibiscus and rose hip) and the Smoke & Baklava (mezcal with baklava caramel syrup). Plus, two batched cocktails: the Baharat Fashion — dark rum washed with Baharat butter, banana liqueur and chocolate bitters — and the Martini Alla Turk, a dry gin martini with rosemary vermouth and roasted cumin seed. This is all joined by a 250-strong whisky list, 400 spirits and 300 different wines, the latter thanks to sommelier Simon Howland (Nomad, Catalina). [caption id="attachment_727039" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Steven Woodburn[/caption] The fit-out is the work of Queensland architects Hogg & Lamb and Woy Woy interior stylists Stewart + Highfield. As the venue's name suggestions, it takes inspiration from the metropolis of old, with the rooftop terrace modelled on the Hanging Gardens of Babylon. It's many opulent features include Italian travertine archways, velvet upholstery, spotted gum timber and marble finishes throughout — used in the dark gold bar, verde fusion tabletops and black stone terrace floor. Babylon is the second Sydney venue for Mantle Group Hospitality, which also opened James Squires' high profile microbrewery, The Squire's Landing, in Circular Quay last year. And it'll be joined on the Westfield rooftop by the group's third venue Duck & Rice this week. We'll share the full details on that one with you shortly. Babylon is now open at Level 7, Westfield Pitt Street, Sydney from 10am–midnight daily.
It's the first film from Andrea Arnold in almost a decade, since 2016's Cannes Jury Prize-winning American Honey. It boasts Barry Keoghan in his first big-screen role since Saltburn made him a megastar. ("He could pretty much have done anything he wanted and he stuck with my small, low-budget film, so that's pretty spectacular," Arnold tells Concrete Playground.) It gives Franz Rogowski another exceptional part for his ever-growing resume (see also: Victoria, Happy End, Transit, A Hidden Life, Undine, Great Freedom and Passages). It unearths a stellar new talent in British Independent Film Award Breakthrough Performance-nominee and first-time actor Nykiya Adams. It sports a soundtrack filled with British sing-alongs, complete with a nod to its most-famous face's film past worked in among Blur's 'The Universal', The Verve's 'Lucky Man' and Coldplay's 'Yellow'. Bird is worth watching for each of these reasons alone — as well as for Arnold's blazing empathy, a hallmark of her work since her Oscar-winning short film days, and also the brilliant naturalism that always beams through in the cinematography by her regular collaborator Robbie Ryan (a two-time Academy Award-nominee for The Favourite and Poor Things). It's also a must-see for letting audiences discover how Arnold has spun a tender and moving coming-of-age fable that blends social realism with magical realism from a unique starting point: "it was an image of a naked tall man with a long penis standing on a tall building at night in the mist," she advises. "I think it's a metaphor." Bird began the same way that Andrea Arnold's work always does: with a distinctive picture. While every film, be it a short, feature or documentary, trades in visuals, of course, the writer/director's creative process for each of her projects commences with an image that comes to her, and that she's then driven to unlock. Such was her kick-off point when she started penning a movie that now sits beside Red Road, Fish Tank and Wuthering Heights on her resume as well — plus episodes of Transparent and I Love Dick, the entire second season of Big Little Lies and heartbreaking doco Cow. Rogowski portrays the titular character, who is indeed sighted on a rooftop. Adams is Bailey, the movie's 12-year-old protagonist. Keoghan plays Bug, her single dad, who she resides with in a north Kent squat — also with her brother Hunter (fellow first-timer Jason Buda) — and whose new engagement shatters Bailey's status quo. Arnold layers Bird with journeys and searches to belong. It's true for the girl at the feature's centre, who feels like the already-chaotic existence that she's living with Bug and Hunter is crumbling. It's accurate of Bird, the mysterious stranger on a quest that's tied to his past, too. Bug's impending nuptials, Hunter's own romantic situation: it applies to them also, as it frequently has to other characters across the helmer's filmography. Chatting with us in 2016, American Honey star Riley Keough described that picture as "like an experience, rather than like a film" and "really getting to that sort of place in people's souls"; again, that applies across every Arnold project. In her Oscar-awarded short Wasp, Arnold's focus is a single mother trying to start a new relationship. Red Road follows a CCTV operator who spots someone that she knows on surveillance footage, Fish Tank charts the change in a 15-year-old's life when her mum begins seeing a new boyfriend, Wuthering Heights obviously adapts Emily Brontë's gothic great about Catherine and Heathcliff, and American Honey heads on a US road trip. A female dairy cow earns the filmmaker's attention in Cow. Each unfurls a different narrative, even if dysfunctional families and growing up are familiar themes. "None of the stories are directly connected, but I'm quite interested in those kind of families, I guess," Arnold notes. "Maybe because my own family was quite sort of chaotic as a child." Her work is linked by a sentiment that's summed up wonderfully in an unforgettable line in Bird, too: "no one's no one". That piece of dialogue was pivotal for the director. Arnold is adamant about that fact, as she was about ensuring that the line made it into Bird. As she keeps demonstrating a devastatingly evocative and effective knack for seeing working-class reality with clear eyes while equally spying the world's beauty wherever her characters can snatch it, Arnold likes to let her films speak for themselves rather than unpacking their meaning — "I really believe in cinema being something that you give to the audience to have their own experience with," she says; "you want the audience to go to the bar afterwards and argue about what they think it meant, 'I think it meant this' or 'I think it meant that', 'no, no, what about that scene, because that scene means that'" — but she's aware of how crucial those four words are. Bird's evolution from that first image of a man on a building, delving into magical realism, casting Keoghan, discovering Adams, guiding naturalistic performances out of her actors, her approach to the film's soundtrack, making three-dimensional movies about the working class: we also spoke with Arnold about all of the above. On How Bird Evolved From Arnold's First Vision of a Man on a Rooftop in the Mist "Every time I write, I have an image that I then treat like a puzzle. It's like a mystery. The image is a mystery. Who's the man? Why is he naked? Why is he in mist? Why is he standing on a building? Is someone looking at him? Is he an alien? How old is he? The image encourages me to ask lots of questions, so it becomes a puzzle that I then have to solve. And usually what happens is, I know that if the image really keeps annoying me, like it keeps coming into my head, that it's something I need to explore. So I go off and I start making notes, and I start thinking about what are the answers to some of the questions, and that starts me thinking about scenes and possible other images and characters. And then I just build it from there, really. Which takes years sometimes. Not like every day, but it doesn't always make sense straight away, and I start digging around and 'yeah, that makes sense' and 'that doesn't make sense'. I keep — I think I started Bird years ago, five years ago or something, but then I did Cow and did other things, and so I came back to it. If I'd made it straight away five years ago, I think it would be a completely film to the one I made just now, actually. I think it would have been an interesting, different film. Because in five years, you change and you grow, and you do other things and your ideas change. So it depends on the kind of person I am at the time — and actually, interestingly I wasn't sure I should do it. Because I felt like somehow, the image, although I started with the image, that maybe I didn't need to really go there. But then I just kept going and did. And then I think some of the magical realism came out of that because I was pushing the idea more than I perhaps would have done. Maybe five years ago, there would have been no magical realism, but now there is." On Bird's Flight Into Magical Realism "It came naturally out of the process of writing. I didn't have any other films in mind. I love films like Pan's Labyrinth, for example. I think that's an amazing film, but it's not a film that I ever thought was anything like my films or anything to with me. When I saw that film, which I loved, I never thought 'oh, yeah, that I'm going to do that' or 'that's something to do with me' — I loved it for what it was, for its own creation. I never even thought about it. When I started writing, it just started coming naturally — the storytelling, my imagination just went there. So I just let it. It was liberating. I thought 'well, it's a film, I can make anything happen'. It's like magic, isn't it? You can do what you like. To me, it would seem like a natural progression from what I already do. Because I think, all the nature things I film, to me they're magical anyway. If you put a camera on something like a dragonfly, for example, that's about as alien and as magical as you can get. If you look at anything that we, all these things we have naturally in our lives, that are around — look at a worm. What an amazing thing a worm is, right. If you want look at a worm, film a worm and study it, you'd be thinking 'wow, that's like an alien. That's a strange thing. Does it move? How does it work? How does it live?'. I find all the things around us magical anyway. I literally find them fascinating. I find a snail, for example — you just have to look at those things and it's magical anyway. So to me, what I did just didn't seem so weird. It didn't seem so strange to me. It felt normal. It felt like an extension and natural progression of what I'd already done." On the Importance of the "No One's No One" Line — and How It Also Echoes Across Arnold's Other Work "That line just came while I was writing and I just thought 'oh god, that just sums up everything I care about. That just sums up absolutely everything'. And I was absolutely adamant. Because sometimes when you're filming scenes — my scripts end up being quite layered, I think, and I lose so much from my scripts when we film, because filming is so clunky compared with when you do layers in a scene. I might layer a scene with all sorts of things, and of course you film it and sometimes it's like driving a tank across your scenes. It's hard to achieve some of the subtleties that I put in my in my script. Sometimes I think 'maybe I should just write, because then I can have all the things that I want in there'. So often I'm improvising — or not, no I'm not improvising, I'm allowing things from the script, I let them go because I just have to, because the situation, the timing. Sometimes they have lots of non-actors, they don't remember a line or they don't always say it like it is. So often, the scene becomes sort of an echo of what I wrote, but not totally what I wrote. But that line, I was absolutely adamant that we didn't lose it. I was like 'it doesn't matter what'. And we had to hurry in that situation, because we didn't have much time to film in the station and we had some other issues that day. So we ended up with very little time to film on the station and outside the station, but I was absolutely like 'we're putting the camera there and we're going to get that line, that's got to be there'. It's my favourite line. And I think you're right, thank you for spotting that — it is something that I really care about and I think probably is across my work, and that is something I believe." On Casting Barry Keoghan as Bug "My casting comrade Lucy Pardee, who I work with — who's an amazing woman and who I've worked with for years — she knows me really well. She knows my worlds really well. She completely understands them. I've known her for many years. And she thinks about people she thinks will fit in my world. She mentioned him very early on, like ages before Banshees came out. And I met him just before The Banshees of Inisherin came out. And I hadn't seen him very much, actually, but she sent me a picture of him and I was like 'wow, I love the way he looks' — and he looked like he could fit straight in. Then I saw him in a couple of things, just small roles in things, and then I went to meet him. I don't always need to see them in another film necessarily. I like meeting people. And I'll always go on meeting. I feel like that's the genuine feeling that you get, from meeting a person. And I met him — he came down from Scotland when I was in London, and we had a meeting, and I just loved him the minute I met him. I think I offered it, we offered it, to him the next day. But that was quite a long time before we started — but I never ever faltered. I don't think I met anyone else for Bug, actually. I think I just met him and I was like 'yeah, totally'. But that's thanks to Lucy because she just knows me so well, so she picks people that she knows what I'm going to respond to and who feel like they go in my world. And then Banshees came out, of course, and I went to see it, and I just loved him in that. He was so fantastic in that. I was like 'yeah, we definitely made the right choice, without a doubt'. But I'd cast him before that came out so. And then, of course, he was in Saltburn. And then he went stratospheric. I actually thought 'he's never going to stay with our film', because he could do anything he wants now. But he did. So that was beautiful. He stuck with us." On Knowing That Adams, Who Only Auditioned to Get Out of a Class at School, Was the Film's Bailey "The first audition was with Lucy, the casting director, and then Lucy took her along to another — when she saw her, she brought her along to meet me after. So when I met her, she just came on a Saturday. We do the auditions up near where everybody lives, so they don't have to travel very far. So we were up in the area, and she came on that Saturday. I think she'd been playing football that day. She does football and stuff. She's very physical, very sporty. I think she did it to get out of a design and technology class, didn't she? I think that's the story. I think I heard her say that the other day — I didn't know that until I heard her say that. She did the audition more to get out of a lesson than she did because she wanted to be an actor. She just did it to get out of something. So I think even, I don't know when she came to see me, I'm not sure that she was still that not sure about this thing. I think I remember her walking in like 'yeah, what is, what is this thing?'. But I remember waking up when I saw her. I felt like she had a presence. And that I really took note of, I kind of thought 'oh, this this kid has got a presence'. It wasn't quite the sort of the kid that I'd written or been looking for, exactly. She was different. But I noted her and she woke me up, and I think you've got to pay attention to those feelings. That never left me, so she ended being the Bailey." On Guiding Naturalistic Performances Out of Bird's Cast "I shoot chronologically, which I think is a huge thing, and I particularly love it. I do that mostly for the people who haven't acted before, because I think it gives them some sense of where they are, and then they don't have to jump in and out of the chronology — they're not having to do a scene from the end and then a scene from the beginning. It gives them some sense of their journey. Then, because I do that, I do that with all the actors as well, of course — and then I don't show them the whole script. I give them scenes bit by bit. And then I think the actual day-to-day directing is, for me, every person I'm working with is an individual and your relationship then is an individual relationship — and different actors, different people who haven't acted before, need you or there's different ways in which you work with each of them. So there's not one way, I don't think, that I work with anybody. But I try to have relationships with everybody with, and for that to be like a living, growing, evolving thing that is something that we do as we go along." On the Use of British Anthems in the Soundtrack "Every character, I make a playlist for. So that was on Bug's playlist, these sort of very blokey anthems. I mean, 'Yellow' is a song that I absolutely love anyway. I try, all the songs I use, I try, even though the character's songs, I still want them to be songs I love — and I usually don't pick any song that I don't love. Most songs in my films, I love. And even if they're particular character songs, I still want to love them. So I try to find songs that I love for every character. So 'Yellow' is, I think, a fantastic song and. And 'The Universal' is a fantastic song. And 'Lucky Man'. They're all on Bug's playlist. Bug had that kind of playlist, sort of anthems, because I think he likes to sing and he likes to be loud, and he likes to sing these songs. He knows all the words. Then I made playlists for everyone else. I made a playlist for Bailey, but her music got drowned out by Bug's — every time I tried to have a song that was Bailey's song, it didn't happen because she's in the house and Bug takes over. So that happened naturally, actually. That wasn't an intention. I didn't mean for that to happen, but it did happen. And actually now, I realise it happened naturally because of the character and because of the way the world was. So that was something that was sort of a truth that happened, even though I planned something different — the truth came out. And then what happened is because we had Burial do some of the soundtrack, and I've never worked with someone doing a soundtrack before, so this was a new experience for me — but his music became more like Bailey's internal world. So she had her own music, but it wasn't songs. It wasn't songs that she would have on a playlist. It was more her internal world." On Making Three-Dimensional Films About the Working Class "I grew up in a working-class family and in that kind of area, so I very much feel that's something I very much understand and feel deeply connected to. So I don't have any judgment of anybody. I don't have that in my bones. So I think that's just going to come out in what I do. I don't have any sort of — I don't need to do anything because that's just how I feel. But I think like that about everybody. I think we should all respect and be kind and caring towards each other. I feel the world doesn't — I feel like that about everybody. I try not to judge anyone when I first meet anyone, or to judge anything or anybody. I try not to. I guess, of course, we probably all do on some level, but I try not to. And I just don't have that in my bones, so it's not going to be there in the film, I don't think. I don't think I'm making political — it's not a political gesture, not really. It's more about the people, I think. And it's more about trying to show people in three-dimensional ways. It's a privilege for someone like me who comes from that working-class background to be a filmmaker. What a privilege. What an amazing place I'm in that I've come from a working-class background, but here I am making films — what an amazing thing that is. And to me, I see that as quite a responsibility. And it's almost I feel like I need to really try to present it — I mean, obviously I'm making a film from my point of view, and that I'm not trying to make a wide political gesture, I'm just trying to make one from my point of view, in a way I understand, and that's all I try to do. I don't try to pretend I know everything, or I have great, sweeping view — obviously I wish the world was a more equal, fairer place for people. And there's plenty of wealth in the world to go around, isn't there? I'd like it that people weren't struggling to eat or to have somewhere to live. Originally in the film, I put the family — because of lockdown here and COVID, nobody went to work, and London at the moment has masses and masses of buildings, it has sprouted up like some sort of Blade Runner futuristic thing. And all the people that didn't go to their offices every day didn't want to go back into the offices. And I thought 'oh, there's all of these empty buildings now, all of these big office blocks, empty — why don't put all of the people that don't have homes there? There's so many people without homes. The homeless situation, it seems to be getting worse in every single country. When I go to America, they say the homeless thing is incredibly awful there. There are tent cities, and there are avenues and streets full of people living in tents and cars. I'm thinking 'but you've got all these empty buildings. You've got all of these office blocks that no one's working in. Why don't we just put everybody in there?'. So originally in the film, I put the family them in there. But we couldn't find a building like that to film in, so we didn't end up filming there. But the intention was there. My heart was there. So there's all these little things that I do care about that I put in the film, but I wouldn't say it's a big, sweeping political gesture. It's more about the people, more about trying to tell a small world in a way that I see as being true, as true to me. It's my truth — I'm not saying it's everyone's truth or a universal truth, it's just a truthful thing for me. There's things I care about in the film always. Everything I care about. But I would say I'm not trying to make a massive statement." Bird opened in cinemas Down Under on Thursday, February 20, 2025. Images: Robbie Ryan / Atsushi Nishijima.
Ask a few people when they fell in love with David Attenborough documentaries and you might receive an array of answers. Or, everyone might point to Planet Earth. The landmark 2006 series won both awards and love aplenty when it had the world's most-famous natural historian and broadcaster narrate a look at this pale blue dot we call home. Indeed, it was such a success that Planet Earth II followed in 2016, and now Planet Earth III arrives this year. In Australia, the third instalment in the franchise (because everything is now a franchise) starts screening and streaming from Sunday, November 26. Viewers heading to Channel 9 and 9Now can look forward to more spectacular glimpses at the rock from the sun, more time getting to peek at its creatures and more of Attenborough's guiding voice. Eight episodes will peruse the planet, each sending viewers to a different environment or focusing on a specific topic. The series starts with a look at the earth's coasts, including what happens where the land meets the sea, before diving deep into the ocean. From there, it's onto vast deserts and grasslands, then to the place where a tenth of all species live: freshwater. Next up is a wander through forests, before Planet Earth III embraces the extremes that its namesake has to offer. In episode seven, humanity's impact upon the planet is in the spotlight. Then, the series wraps up with a chapter devoted to meeting some of the folks in conservation who are fighting to save the earth. "In this new series of Planet Earth, we travel to the most astonishing wild places, see mysterious creatures, witness rare, spectacular wonders and reveal breathtaking animal dramas," said Attenborough during production, on location near Down House, Charles Darwin's family home. "The natural world continues to surprise us, but since Darwin's time it has changed beyond recognition, being transformed by a powerful force — us. We will see how animals are adapting in extraordinary ways to survive the new challenges they face. At this crucial time in our history, we must now look at the world through a new lens." Five years in the making, and boasting Planet Earth II and Prehistoric Planet's Mike Gunton as an executive producer, the latest must-see from BBC Studios Natural History Production also brings back a big name for its music: Hans Zimmer (The Creator), who has teamed up with Bleeding Finger Music's Russell Emanuel and Bastille's Dan Smith on the show's score. And those astonishing visuals, as glimpsed in the trailer for the series (and expected if you've watched Planet Earth and Planet Earth II)? You've got everything from drones and deep-sea submersibles to high-speed cameras, as placed in the oceans, in deserts, inside caves and in jungles, to thank. Check out the trailer for Planet Earth III below: Planet Earth III will start screening and streaming via Channel 9 and 9Now from 8pm on Sunday, November 26.
The 34th film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and the only one arriving in 2024, is giving the sprawling pop-culture franchise something that fans have been waiting for for years. Deadpool will officially enter the MCU. So will X-Men hero Wolverine. The movie? Announced in 2022, Deadpool & Wolverine has a date with cinemas this July. In the just-dropped first trailer for the flick, which arrived during the 2024 Super Bowl, the Merc with a Mouth obviously knows exactly what to say. "Your little cinematic universe is about to change forever" advises Wade Wilson (Ryan Reynolds, Ghosted) when he's brought into the Marvel fold by the Time Variance Authority. His way of describing himself now that he's in the MCU? "Marvel Jesus", of course. One won't stop cracking wise. The other prefers to say as little as possible. Naturally, they're about to become the Marvel Cinematic Universe's favourite big-screen odd couple. Reynolds has been playing Deadpool since 2009's X-Men Origins: Wolverine, so this isn't the first time that him and Hugh Jackman (Faraway Downs) are teaming up as their famous characters — but, again, it is the first time in the MCU. Before now, Jackman has already busted out the adamantium claws in nine movies, starting with 2000's X-Men and running through to 2017's Logan, which was poised as his swansong in the role. But when you've been playing a part for that long, in that many flicks, what's one more go-around? After a non-Wolverine gap spent starring in The Greatest Showman, The Front Runner, Bad Education, Reminiscence and The Son, Jackman is clearly ready to get hairy again. That Deadpool & Wolverine is part of the MCU, the comic-to-screen realm that's been going since the first Iron Man flick and will likely never ever end, isn't a minor detail. The two characters have always been Marvel characters, but because of rights issues behind the scenes, they've stayed in their own on-screen sagas. But when Disney (which owns Marvel) bought 20th Century Fox (which brought the X-Men and Deadpool movies to cinemas so far), those business issues disappeared. Deadpool & Wolverine arrives six years after 2018's Deadpool 2. It also marks a reunion in another way. Behind the lens: director Shawn Levy, reteaming with Reynolds after Free Guy and The Adam Project. Check out the Deadpool & Wolverine trailer below: Deadpool & Wolverine will release in cinemas Down Under on July 25, 2024. Images: courtesy of Marvel Studios. © 2024 20th Century Studios / © and ™ 2024 MARVEL.
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 the inner west suburb of Ashfield and is a welcome addition to a quiet neighbourhood that was, before Excelsior, devoid of a local haunt. Having to compete with popular neighbouring Marrickville and its drawcards of Cornersmith and Coffee Alchemy, Excelsior Jones is no doubt something the locals here will want to keep secret, especially with such a top-notch crew on board. Co-owners Anthony Svilicich and James Naylor are both ex Le Monde, so too is the barista, Julian Beresford, who is steaming out their own custom blend of Five Senses coffee to perfection. 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. The compact menu is a cracker. 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. For those who love a crunchy granola, go for the house-made version with roasted seeds, nuts, and creamy yoghurt ($10), and if you're around for lunch, try the chicken salad with black sesame, avocado, and bean shoots ($15) or a slow-roasted lamb sandwich with salsa verde ($14). Feeling nostalgic? Your undoing could be a malted milkshake ($6.50) or a spider ($6), a real tribute to the classic milk bar days. But it's the cheeseburger that will win over the famished ($16). The tomato relish could be the crucial component, or perhaps it's the fried spuds that accompany this time-honoured favourite. Either way, it'll be hard to wipe a smile off your face afterwards. The open space uses white wooden furniture with raw textures, and big windows help to highlight the abundance of air and space. Both James and Anthony are 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. They're so passionate, in fact, that the name 'Excelsior Jones' came from historical research Anthony did into the area. Formerly the name for the street, before the current Queen Street, Anthony thought the pairing of the two words had a nice ring to it and slight mystique. Moreover, in Latin, 'excelsior' translates to 'ever upward'. You get the point.
Staging the stories of holocaust survivors can be tricky business, particularly when pivoting between multiple generations. But theatre can also be a therapeutic means of exorcising the demons of history and finding glimmers of optimism. Written and performed by Olivia Satchell, My Name is Truda Vitz at the TAP Gallery, is a musical and semibiographical play that manages to strike the right levels of light and shade. Directed by Pierce Wilcox, it is a profoundly personal tale that sees a modern-day Sydneysider step into the shoes of the grandmother she never met. In many ways, this production occupies the imaginative space of what could have been. In terms of the facts, Truda Vitz, a Czech-Viennese Jew, fled Austria upon the outbreak of World War Two and lived as an Enemy Alien in England for several years. However, Satchell invents fictional details, bridging the gaps between actual events and elusive recounts in order to enrich the legacy of her grandmother. As the branches of her family tree unfurl, Satchell meditates on the effects of transgenerational trauma. Everything is in first person as she subtly shifts between characters, re-enacting past conversations and rehearsing new ones. However, she is most relaxed in her own skin, speaking candidly and self-reflexively about writing and performing the play as well as anticipating its reception. The transitions between scene and character are aided by musical interludes. An assured cellist, Satchell plays mournful, nostalgic and upbeat pieces that redirect the mood and allow space for reflection. The instrument is also well-utilised as a prop. As Satchell handles it with utmost care, the cello becomes a convincing human companion, whether it be a dance partner or a sleeping body. Satchell’s tightly worded script is rich with dates and details, roaming between Vienna, London, Sydney and Dunedin. This may account for the occasional stumble or a slightly laboured delivery at times. Nevertheless, there are plenty of poetic phrases and memorable anecdotes scattered throughout. For example, Satchell affectionately speaks about Truda's habit of adding jam to strong coffee. There's also the way she describes the aged hands of Truda’s dying mother as “fingers dipped in the sun” while tenderly cradling the cello. Played out against Isabella Andronos's elegant set design, it is a touching image. Driven by a spirit of curiosity, the bravery of Satchell’s script and performance is commendable, not only for its theatrical scope but also for its personal interrogation. At one point, she admits that although Truda's lover, David, may not have actually read her Goethe's love poems, somewhere they were read to someone. In this way, My Name Is Truda navigates the twists and turns of familial and romantic love. It speaks to our perpetual need to be affirmed and make sense of who we are and where we come from.
Fourth Village Providore has been a staple of the Mosman community since 2008, featuring a veritable medley of authentic Italian fine foods. Now the time has come to refresh its offering, with the relaunch of Fourth Village Panini Bar & Café. Serving as the latest chapter of this family business, diners can expect a welcoming communal experience where the simple pleasures of Italian cuisine ring through every dish. Bringing a new dynamic to the menu, panuozzo is set to be a standout favourite. Born on the outskirts of Naples decades ago, this classic Italian street food is where pizza meets panini. Made with woodfired pizza bread and stuffed with sumptuous ingredients, Fourth Village is offering delicious combinations like salami and mortadella with stracciatella alongside veggie options such as chargrilled Mediterranean vegetables. Drawing from the business' huge range of high-end goods, the menu extends into house-made focaccia, fresh burrata salads, pastries, woodfired pizzettes and Italian gelato. There's also a selection of tempting desserts, with Fourth Village renowned locally for its panettone french toast. Plus, it will undoubtedly be hard to resist a slice of tiramisu whenever you stop by for a coffee and panini. "While our restaurant has been a special place for many years, reopening as Fourth Village Panini Bar & Café has been a heartfelt evolution of our family's passion for sharing the authentic flavours of Italy with our community," says Dominic Quattroville, whose parents Peter and Annette founded the business. "The café brings a fresh and inviting space where everyone can enjoy our family recipes and traditions in a casual setting." The Quattroville family's culinary story dates back to 1997, when they purchased 100 acres of farmland in the Lower Hunter region. Now, the property's 3,500 olive trees are responsible for some of the finest table olives and handcrafted olive oils, whether you prefer Spanish Manzanillo, Greek Kalamata or Italian Frantoio. While olives were the initial focus, soon Fourth Village expanded into condiments, balsamic dressings, pickled vegetables and more. "Most importantly, this new chapter honours our family's commitment to genuine Italian hospitality, where every guest is treated like family. We're creating a space where people can drop in any time of day, whether it's for a morning coffee and pastry, a relaxed lunch with friends, or a quick afternoon gelato," says Quattroville. Fourth Village Panini Bar & Café is open Wednesday–Thursday and Sunday from 8am–2pm and Friday–Saturday from 8am-3pm at 5a Vista St, Mosman. Head to the website for more information.
"It's more like a doughnut-ice-cream-sundae tortilla hack," says chef Julian Cincotta. The cofounder of Butter in Sydney is usually found racing between restaurants, serving Butter's famed fried chicken and its sought-after cinnamon doughnuts. But, following a chat with Concrete Playground, Cincotta thought it was high time he joined TikTok to give that #TortillaHack a crack. "I've got quite a sweet tooth," he says. "I hadn't seen any sweet takes on the tortilla hack challenge, so this is my version. I think it's deliciously ugly — and pretty fucking tasty." Cincotta's remix isn't fine dining by any stretch of the imagination. It's exceptionally messy to eat, as you'll see from his pics, and supremely easy to make at home — "simplistic elegance at its best," he says. Cincotta's top tip is not to melt the ice cream too much: "make sure it's straight out of the freezer. It's all about that hot-cold sensation with a sweet-savoury bite." And, if you can't get your hands on a couple of Butter's cinnamon doughnuts, you can use any other doughnut, "but they won't be as good," he jokes. "Book an Airbnb and come to Sydney especially." Watch Cincotta's TikTok video to see just how OTT it is. Then, give it a go using the recipe below. [embed]https://vimeo.com/528663156[/embed] RECIPE 2 cinnamon doughnuts 2 scoops of Ben & Jerry's Strawberry Cheesecake ice cream 2 Cadbury Creme Eggs 1 flour tortilla METHOD Lay a tortilla on a chopping board. Use a knife to slice the wrap from the centre to the outer edge. Place two doughnuts on the left-hand side of your tortilla wrap. Add two scoops of ice cream to the top right-hand side of the tortilla. Add two Creme Eggs to the final section. Smash the creme eggs with the palm of your hand. "You could use a spoon or knife, but it's best to get your hands messy," says Cincotta. Fold the tortilla quarters starting from the bottom right-hand corner working anticlockwise. Toast the tortilla in a sandwich press without melting the ice cream too much. Finish with whipped cream, sprinkles and/or chocolate sauce. MORE FOOD PORN Cincotta didn't stop at dessert tortillas. He also remixed the TikTok trend to create a charcoal chicken tortilla with shredded chicken, garlic sauce, lettuce, shoestring fries, gravy, cheese slices and mayo. See the video here. Or, watch how he takes a BLTC and adds fried chicken and thousand island dressing, here. As Cincotta says, "There are no rules. If you want to put a cheeseburger in a tortilla, put a cheeseburger in a tortilla. It's all about personal taste and creativity." Follow Butter on TikTok. Top image: Videohead/Raghav Rampal
It's difficult to overstate not only the ubiquity of coffee in Australia, but also the part it plays in our day to day. As Bruno Maiolo, a life member (and incumbent president) of the Australian Specialty Coffee Association (ASCA), says: "Coffee is enshrined in our DNA. We cannot function without it." But how has our coffee culture changed over the years — and what's coming next? In partnership with Milklab, we spoke with six Australian coffee experts to get their thoughts. [caption id="attachment_755831" align="alignnone" width="1920"] St Ali[/caption] WHAT'S CHANGED The origin story of Australian coffee culture has become engrained in our nation's lore, but a quick recap. Italian migrants who came to Australia after WWII with the hope of a better future in 'the lucky country', also (thankfully) brought their espresso-making traditions with them. Cafes and espresso bars quickly popped up throughout Melbourne and Sydney, with their appeal quickly spreading beyond European migrant communities. "I refer to the Australian coffee scene as 'the new world'," says Herman Chiu (pictured below), director of Sydney cafe Haven Specialty Coffee. "Just like [Australia's] approach to winemaking, we learned [coffee] from industry pioneers. However, we had less traditional fetters, which allowed us to be more creative and open to new ideas." If one person — and their signature pork pie hat — has come to embody our 'new world', it's Salvatore Malatesta. The founder of the St Ali empire also thinks our being new on the scene has worked to our advantage. "The coffee culture was a broad church with no preconceptions of what was right or wrong," he tells us. "There was a genuine openness... Then there were a handful of evangelists (of which I was and remain one) who made it their life mission to make sure Australian won the coffee Olympics." He reckons we took home gold. Maiolo — who also runs Melbourne roaster C4 Coffee — has seen first-hand how Aussie coffee has changed over the years. "The emergence of 'specialty' coffee, and a whole lot of curious locals, has brought about a shift in what we are looking for in an espresso." He notes that these changes range from the grade of beans being purchased, to how beans are roasted. For coffee professionals, the consequences of this shift border on the existential: "These are now becoming contentious issues. Have we changed espresso too much? Have we created a 'new' drink or just bastardised a classic? Either way we have plenty of choices," says Maiolo. Chiu also notes the rise in specialty coffee as a game-changer. "In the early 2010s, although the specialty coffee scene had already been in Australia for quite some time, the general public still didn't quite understand the concept. Nowadays, walking into a cafe around the corner and ordering a batch brew or a cold drip from Ethiopia is such a normal thing." For Wendy de Jong, director of coffee at Sydney roaster Single O, black coffee is having a moment right now. "I see much more of an appreciation for black coffee in all methods — espresso, filter, drip bags," she observes. "We're pushing that charge a little I think, with innovations like our 'batch tap' (like a pub with a few beers on tap) and our commitment to delivering a high-quality coffee experience outside the cafe with our single-serve drip filters." To that end, home brewing seems to have taken off — perhaps not surprising given how much time we've spent at home these past 18 months. Andrew Wong, head barista at the Sydney CBD outpost of Industry Beans, has noticed this. "Home brewing is very common these days, with people ditching the instant and learning more about brewing their own coffee. It has become very attainable to have cafe-quality coffee at home," he says. This isn't all bad news for cafes, though. "[The rise in home brewing] created a great opportunity for us to communicate [with] and educate our audience about the coffee we source, our roasting and brewing philosophy and coffee knowledge in general," says Chiu. "I am sure [this] will push the industry to grow, as better educated customers will always be better customers, and lead to a better industry eventually." [caption id="attachment_825803" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Salvatore Malatesta by Eugene Hyland[/caption] As for the biggest change we've seen in the way we consume coffee? Many would say the rise of non-dairy milks. "The uptake of alternative milk has definitely had a significant impact on the industry," says Chiu. Maiolo adds: "Whether it is a health or dietary necessity or simply a lifestyle choice, it is an undeniable shift." It's something that Malatesta (pictured above) has also noticed. "Alternative milks are taking market share from the humble cow, with oat milk as my number-one pick as a front runner." Natalie Latimore, marketing lead at Milklab, agrees. "This is the year of oat milk," she says. "It's the fastest growing plant-based milk globally, and we're only just beginning to see the craze take off in Australia." It's not hard to imagine why: oat milk is a smooth, creamy and naturally sweet alternative to dairy — something that this writer can vouch for. Milklab's new oat milk, made with 100 percent Australian oats, has been developed in collaboration with baristas, Latimore tells us, "with the single aim of creating the perfect alternative milk to enhance the coffee experience." WHAT'S NEXT Nootropics and micro-dosing? Naturally infused flavoured coffee? These could be the future, according to the experts. "Nootropics, micro-dosing and adaptogens are all words that will become part of the everyday lexicon," says Malatesta. "The power of mushrooms is just starting to filter down to early adopters from fundamental enthusiasts. We are releasing a mushroom coffee mix soon, so stay tuned." Maiolo thinks that what we look for in taste will continue to develop. "Controversially, I believe we will see an emergence of 'infused' coffees," he says. "At origin, farmers are adding a new step in the processing of raw coffee by soaking them and infusing them with cinnamon, tropical fruit and other alternatives, thereby giving the final green beans taste profiles that you would not find naturally occurring." The knock-on effects of this could be significant, too. "This added process will inevitably fetch more money," Maiolo continues. "Farmers can potentially add interesting flavours to lower grades of coffee that would ordinarily be just a 'filler' and not fetch much money, and thus increase their sell price. Watch this space." [caption id="attachment_706983" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Industry Beans[/caption] Wong, meanwhile, thinks conscious consumption is on the rise. "People are more aware of, for example, the impacts of single-use coffee cups that aren't biodegradable — more and more people are using their own cups when buying their takeaway coffees which is great." The uptick in oat milk could be seen to run parallel with increasingly conscious coffee drinkers. For starters, oat milk ranks high on two important nutrients, namely protein and fibre, and it's also allergy-friendly for those with tree nut or soy intolerances. But perhaps even more significantly, oat milk is among the most sustainable and environmentally friendly milks available today, with one study showing that it can generate up to 80 percent less greenhouse gas emissions than dairy. As a sustainable crop, oats also aren't associated with deforestation or excessive needs for water. As for the coffee itself? "There are many places in the world which have no history of growing coffee but are now entering into coffee production," Wong says. "The impacts of climate change will also affect the way coffee is grown, with the ideal altitudes for growing also changing with it." Single O's de Jong also thinks that our changing world will inevitably have an impact on the coffee we consume. "With so many challenges to global supply chains at the moment I think we will continue to see coffee in that rare 'glad we have it' space, where it still feels really special to have a perfectly tasty brew every day." Ask for Milklab oat milk next time you order a coffee. For more information, head to the website. Top image: Julia Sansone
Restaurant Hubert is introducing a weekend lunch service from Saturday, February 5. The renowned French restaurant from hospitality group Swillhouse is bringing its beloved Three Martini Lunches to Saturdays, so you can get your days off started with a luxe French banquet. All the trimmings of a Restaurant Hubert feast will be on offer during Saturday sittings including the full a la carte menu, $11 martinis, specialty steaks and, of course, a healthy dose of jazz performed live in the Huberts dining room. After all, what better way to celebrate getting through another week of work than with a prime beef tartare, escargots in XO butter or caviar service. [caption id="attachment_701146" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Daniel Boud[/caption] The announcement comes at the conclusion of last month's Jazz January program which saw live jazz musicians perform in the CBD restaurant for all 31 days of January. And, if all your Saturdays are booked up with post-lockdown catch-ups for the foreseeable future, you can also head along to Hubert's Magnums and Movies which is running all the way until Monday, June 6. The annual celebration of food, wine and cinema will see attendees treated to a set menu dinner, magnums of wine, a showing of a classic film and plenty of popcorn in the restaurant's Theatre Royale. This year you can catch beloved movies from near and afar including Marie Antoinette; Priscilla, Queen of the Desert; and Lost in Translation. Bookings for Restaurant Hubert's weekend lunches are available from midday on Saturdays via the Swillhouse website or walk-ins are welcome if the restaurant isn't fully booked up. Restaurant Hubert is located at 15 Bligh Street, Sydney. It is open for lunch from midday Wednesday–Saturday and dinner from 5pm Monday–Saturday.
First there was payWave, then there was Cardless Cash (thank you, Commonwealth), and also PayPal Here, which allows you to pay for coffee and things via Bluetooth from your PayPal account. These got us closer to the minimalist, tech-driven dream — a cashless, cardless (and, effectively, wallet-less) society — but not quite there. That's all set to change though, with Apple switching on their mobile payment system, Apple Pay. Launching today with payments provider eWAY, Apple Pay will make poor buying decisions even more effortless, with one-touch payments online, within apps and IRL — if you have an iPhone and use AMEX, that is. At the moment, Apple Pay can only be used on the Apple Watch or iPhone 6 and above, by those with a directly-issued American Express credit card. Which would seemingly rule out most people under 50. But I digress. Already in use in the US and the UK, the Australian launch comes in a rather inevitable move towards doing everything on that little pocket-sized piece of machinery you call your iPhone. For the moment, Apple Pay is accepted at around 21,000 retailers, including David Jones, Coles, Woolworths and Zara. You can even pay for your Uber ride with it and, most deliciously, your late-night pad Thai deliveries from Eat Now. To use Apple Pay, you'll need to add your card to the Wallet app. Then, just use the iPhone's Touch ID to make in-app purchases, or hold your phone near the contactless reader in-store. If Australia is to follow suit of the US, Visa and MasterCard should be accepted by Apple Pay in the near future. At least, let’s hope so. That extra bit of plastic in your pocket is weighing you down.
One of Australia's most celebrated artists is the subject of a new exhibition on its way to Sydney after a premiere at Melbourne's National Gallery of Victoria. Co-presented by NGV Australia along with the Art Gallery of New South Wales, John Olsen: The You Beaut Country celebrates the incredible work of the eponymous painter, who for more than 50 years has captured the breathtaking Australian landscape in a way that few other artists ever have. On display at AGNSW from March 10 until June 12, the exhibition is focused primarily on Olsen's output from the 1960s, after the artist spent three years travelling around Europe. Alongside these works visitors will find a number of more recent pieces, including paintings, prints and watercolours. As always, the exhibition will be complemented by a number of gallery events, including a public conversation with the artist hosted by the Gallery's director Dr Michael Brand, guided tours and artmaking workshops that draw on Olsen's art for inspiration.
Redfern's historic post office building is set to get a new lease on life, with plans to transform it into a dedicated Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultural hub. Having bought the 136-year-old heritage site at the beginning of November, City of Sydney has now announced plans to put it to good use as part of its Eora Journey project, celebrating the cultures of Indigenous communities in the area. The CoS's Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander advisory panel helped to select the site, which is just a stone's throw from many key Aboriginal organisations, including the Aboriginal Medical Service Redfern and the Aboriginal & Pacific Art gallery. "Redfern has always been recognised nationwide as the epicentre of the Aboriginal rights struggle," explains former co-chair of the panel, Millie Ingram. "Our history should be on display for all people to learn and know about Aboriginal Australia and its history, before and after 1788." The Eora Journey, meaning 'the people's journey' in local Gadigal language, incorporates four different CoS projects, with the creation of this new knowledge and cultural centre to complement other ongoing works. They include building recognition through seven major public art projects, implementing a focused economic action plan, and developing a signature Aboriginal event to celebrate Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander culture and heritage. The post office's current tenants will remain there until later next year, while CoS consults with local Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities on ways to best use the cultural hub. Image: Dan Hocking
A future path of degeneration seems set: first you reduce your social life to interacting with Little Robot Friends instead of humans, and then inevitably, you start drinking with robots. Hopefully one-night stands with robots don't follow, but a yearly event in San Francisco doesn't seem too worried about this outcome. BarBot, a fundraiser hosted by the Robotics Society of America (launched all the way back in 1978 when robots were considerably less adept at shaking Martinis) takes its cues from Austrian cocktail-robot event Roboexotica. Inventors bring their mechanised bartenders to the event, demonstrating the many weird ways a robot can create and present an alcoholic beverage. Nerds still know how to party, y'all. It's a natural marriage when you think about it: cocktails require a very precise measure of different ingredients, and robots can be programmed to carry this out flawlessly. A robot-mixed drink might lack the flair of human interpretation, but chances are it'll be pretty good, and why shouldn't cocktails be automatically dispensed from a robot like coffee from a coffee machine? Monday morning would never be the same. Now in its seventh year, the two-day BarBot is growing in popularity, with 3000 drinks mixed for up to 2000 human attendees over the course of each evening. So who makes the barbots? Everyone from IBM top research brass to engineering students, and the diversity of entrants is reflected in the different ways their machines work, with spinning transparent cylinders of liquid, flashing lights and clever ornamentation. This year some bots were upwardly-mobile, touring the floor to tantalise guests with their offerings, while others utilised touch screens and one even took drink order specifications via dance moves on a DDR mat. Sense of humour is key: there was a requisite R2D2 and a steampunk barbot, and in the video you will see delightful classical statues pee out bespoke booze for one very lucky punter. Through this kind of fun interaction between people and technology, the RSA hopes to foster education and enthusiasm for the development of robotics. Via Gizmodo.
Have you ever really looked at your keyboard? Are there some key placements that actually make no sense to you at all? We all learn the key positions by rote when we learn how to Internet, but Apple — along with a lil Aussie company — are about to potentially change that forever. The tech giant (who just launched their new MacBook Pro yesterday) have been working with Sydney-based startup Sonder Design to incorporate their dynamic keyboard technology into the laptops you know and love. They announced that, from 2018, their laptops will feature dynamic e-ink keyboards. What the heck is an e-ink keyboard, you ask? It's a keyboard that changes the content on its keys according to what you're doing on your device. It's designed to customise your shortcuts, allow you to type in multiple languages, prioritise the peach emoji for lightning-quick butt references and generally make the keyboard work for you (as it should — c'mon people, its 2016). Why hasn't anyone thought of this before? Well, QWERTY currently has a stranglehold on the marketplace. There's a lot of conflicting stories regarding the QWERTY keyboard's rise to prominence. Some people believe Christopher Sholes designed it to slow keyboard typists down so their typewriters wouldn't jam (they say it's designed to alternate letter between each hand). Others claim it was designed with the help of telegram transcribers and has only once since been challenged in efficiency, by the Dvorak keyboard. Most likely however, it's a perfect example of a human invention that was in the right place at the right time. QWERTY was popular at the time Remington and Sons began to mass produce typewriters. And once typists knew one system, retraining them was a big waste of time. But this preamble about the history of keyboard is to give some context to what Sonder are doing with their new keyboard. Thanks to ~technology~ we've moved way beyond the restrictions of the typewriter — theirs is supposedly the "world's first" keyboard to use e-ink to make it dynamic. It's a big win for the Aussie tech company and, frankly, any technology that brings us closer to emojis is a win for us. Via The Wall Street Journal.
The portions are huge in this ramen eatery tucked away in Chinatown's Eating World. Add to that the fact that the collagen-rich pork broth is produced by boiling over 100 kilograms of pork bones on a daily basis, and you have yourself a bowl of ramen quite unlike any you've had before, with a thick and salty broth that goes down surprisingly well. The menu is simple, with two of the dishes being rice-based and the rest being soup-based. Try the tonkotsu ramen, served with slices of pork and seaweed in the aforementioned broth, which is so thick, it's practically gravy. The simple ingredients mingle well with each other and result in a flavour which is unique yet classic. And combined with the low prices and generous portions, there are more than enough reasons for Gumshara to be a staple in the diets of many a penny-pincher. Just keep in mind that their menu is take out only, so don't try to plan a romantic sit-down evening there.
Spoiler warning: this interview incudes specifics about The Survivors if you haven't watched the full series before reading. "Being new," Thom Green offers. "If it's fresh. If you haven't tackled it before. That's always a good drawcard, right?". "I really love a strong perspective in storytelling," adds Shannon Berry. "Good team, good filmmaker," pipes back in Green. "If it's someone you've always wanted to work with, whether that be a director or producer, a writer, an actor or an actress, that's always another good keyword or a key factor when picking a job," he furthers. And for Berry, too, " I think well-written". She continues: "I love reading scripts. Scripts are the baseline for everything, and I think when you get a script and it's just really good and you can really imagine everything, that's what's super exciting. It's reading a script and you go 'I cannot wait to see how this turns out' — or 'I cannot wait to be a part of it'." These are some of the pivotal elements that Green and Berry, co-stars in The Survivors, look for in a new project. With the six-part Netflix adaptation of Jane Harper's 2020 novel of the same name, they've ticked those boxes. Green comes to the series with a packed resume that already spans Beneath Hill 60, Dance Academy, Halo, Downriver, Eden, Of an Age, Ladies in Black, Exposure and Apple Cider Vinegar, to name just a few of his previous credits. Berry is an alum of Offspring, Romper Stomper, The Wilds, Foe, Winner, High Country, Fake, Watson and more. The pair have encountered all of these crucial aspects before, then, but bringing an adaptation of such an acclaimed author's work to the screen — a writer whose Aaron Falk books have proven huge hits on the big screen as The Dry and Force of Nature — was always going to stand out. In The Survivors, Green plays Sean Gilroy, one of two of characters who lost their older brothers to a tragedy 15 years prior. When Toby Gilroy and Finn Elliott attempted to rescue the latter's sibling Kieran (Charlie Vickers, The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power) from flooding coastal caves during a storm and didn't make it home, the scenic Tasmanian town of Evelyn Bay was forever changed. Kieran left quickly. Sean remained. Their respective parents — Damien Garvey (Nugget Is Dead?: A Christmas Story) and Robyn Malcolm (After the Party) portray Brian and Verity Elliott, Martin Sacks (Darby and Joan) is Julian Gilroy — are understandably still haunted by their grief a decade and a half later. As the anniversary of the incident approaches, Kieran comes home, his partner Mia Chang (Bridgerton season four's Yerin Ha), another ex-local, plus their new baby with him. The pain of a loss like this won't ever subside. The town's close-knit community hasn't been telling itself the full story, though. Everyone knows that someone else went missing on the same day that Toby and Finn drowned, but 14-year-old Gabby Birch's (Eloise Rothfield, How to Make Gravy) disappearance isn't treated in the same way. Berry plays recent arrival Bronte, who is staying with Gabby's sister Olivia (Jessica De Gouw, The Union), has become close with her fraying mother Trish (Catherine McClements, Apple Cider Vinegar) and is so furious that the teen's absence keeps being overlooked that she begins investigating it herself. With Kieran's return at its core, The Survivors charts the past lingering over and colliding with the present in multiple ways, then, including when there's another tragedy and the police start searching for a killer. [caption id="attachment_1008349" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Graham Denholm/Getty Images for Organic PR.[/caption] With George Mason (Black Snow), Miriama Smith (End of the Valley), Johnny Carr (Strange Creatures), Julian Weeks (Prosper) and Don Hany (Neighbours) also among the cast, Australia's newest Harper adaptation is filled with folks grappling with trauma, no matter where their tale starts or ends. Some have lived it for much of their lives. Others are determined to interrogate it. In their roles, Green and Berry are tasked with tackling the reality in different ways. Sean might appear externally laidback, but he's clearly deeply impacted by the events of 15 years ago. Bronte views Evelyn Bay, plus Gabby's disappearance and Finn and Toby's deaths, with outsider eyes — and, while making friends and settling in, even if only briefly, is driven to do what she can to redress a wrong. Being cast in The Survivors was an exciting prospect for both Green and Berry for an array of reasons — those key factors listed above and more. Green was already a fan of the book, while Berry revelled in the experience of reading it knowing that she'd be stepping into its tale. What does being part of a series like this mean to the two Australian talents? What did they initially see that they could bring to Sean and Bronte? When an intimate dynamic among a tightly bound community teeming with secrets and complicated family dynamics is so pivotal, how do you cultivate that with your co-stars? They're some of the other topics that we dug into with Green and Berry, alongside leaving an imprint in a limited time, the sense of responsibility that accompanies translating Harper's novel to the screen, the long-running appeal of murder-mysteries in Australia and more. On Being a Part of a Tasmania-Set Mystery Series About Tragedies Past and Present Colliding — and One That Adapts a Jane Harper Novel Shannon: "Well, this was my first time going to Tassie. I've never been to Tassie before. So it was amazing to come with the show. And I was just so excited to work with so many Aussie legends. And I've worked before with both Cherie Nowlan [The Irrational] and Ben Lucas [Nautilus], the directors, so it was really exciting to come back together with them again. And I think just it's really amazing to tell Australian stories and to film them here, and to show how beautiful our country is. Tasmania is just such a beautiful place, it kind of became a character within itself. And that's what I really loved about it." Thom: "I think for me, I loved the book. I absolutely adore the book. So that was a huge reason why I wanted to do it. Tasmania as well. I love Tasmania. And then it was the cast. It was the cast, and Cherie and I had worked together on Dance Academy so many years ago, and so that was also — there were so many factors on why I wanted to come do this. But I think that it was the book, mainly, because I was such a big fan. I was like 'I've got to be a part of this'." On Green and Berry's Starting Points with The Survivors on the Page — and Their Approaches to Helping Bring the Book to the Screen Thom: "I read it the year it came out — and then when I was cast in this, I didn't actually go back to the book. I knew the story, but I think I was actually drawing more from stuff I'd seen, to give it my own flavour. So that was building the wardrobe, and the hair and makeup, and you're building all that. So I didn't go back to the book. I didn't try to draw anything from that. I decided to take a step back and do my own thing, so hopefully it did it justice." Shannon: "I read the book. I had read The Dry previously, so I was familiar with her work. Love The Dry. But I had not read The Survivors until I found out that I was cast on the show. So that was super exciting. I think it's such a rare experience to read a book for the first time and see your character's name and go 'that's me' — which was just a really cool, really cute experience. And I'm a huge reader. I love to read. So it was just really special to read it and imagine myself in that world and imagine all the potential. And I think it's been absolutely amazing to watch it. It makes me giddy to think about." Thom: "Yeah, it's one of those things as well, like you can do jobs and sometimes the experiences can be less than glamorous — and this was actually so much fun. We all just got along so well as well, so it just makes it, you go into work each day enjoying it, and then you're wrapping for the day and everyone's hanging out with each other. And it reads on the screen." Shannon: "100 percent." Thom: "It always reads on screen." On Building the Show's Close-Knit Character Dynamic with the Rest of the Cast Shannon: "I feel they made it so easy. It got to the point where I knew I wasn't going to be working on it for a whole lot of time, and meeting you all, I then got very jealous that I wasn't going to be able to spend as much time with you guys [to Thom] as the rest of them — because everyone was just so lovely and so welcoming, and it very quickly really did feel like a family vibe. I always feel that when I step into Aussie spaces with Aussie cast and crew. Everyone's just absolutely the best. So I did feel quite jealous when all of my stuff was done and I had to leave you guys to your own devices." Thom: "I think a good indicator is that, what, it's been 14 months since we wrapped, and George Mason was Facetiming me yesterday from Perth, from his next job, to have a yarn. So that's just a good indicator of how well we all got along." [caption id="attachment_1008351" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Graham Denholm/Getty Images for Organic PR.[/caption] On What Green and Berry Were Excited to Bring to Sean and Bronte Thom: "I think that I felt very comfortable talking to Tony [Nowhere Boys, Glitch, Stateless, Clickbait and Fires' Ayres, who is behind The Survivors' streaming adaptation] and to Ben and to Cherie about the complexity of Sean. So that I felt I was able to bring — from my first take, I remember thinking 'I think I know how to do this'. And you kind of do your take and you sort of go 'well, this is what I think'. And Tony came back and said 'that's what we think as well'. So talking to Ben, there's so many layers. Everyone, every single character in this story, has layers. But I think that was what I felt — that's the part I'm quite happy with what I did, was that vulnerability and intelligence." Shannon: "I think with me, I really enjoyed relating to Bronte. We both moved out really young, moved across the country to a different place, and had to make our own friends and find our own way. So that was really exciting, reading the book, to relate to her in that way. And also talking with Cherie a lot about her art project, and she's so passionate about what she does, and I really relate to her in that sense as well. So it was really exciting to talk about her shared passions and how that drives her in this universe. And I just really related to that a lot. So that was super exciting, to remind me of my young days." Thom: "I'm going to say as well, but for Shannon, Shannon wasn't with us the entire time. So when an actor has to come on, and only come in to do a day or two, and then knock it out of the park and get on the plane and leave — that's a testament to Shannon." On the Task of Conveying the Impact of Trauma in Layered Performances Thom: "It takes a lot. You've got to really sit with the script for a while, I think. It sounds really morbid to think, but if you've dealt with it, you can draw from that — if you dealt with it your personal life. Some people don't like to do that. Some people do. I like to — I do sometimes. I feel like it helps. But I think it just takes a lot of time of sitting with the director and really fleshing out each layer, as I was previously mentioning — fleshing out each single layer and just building on top of it. So when you get on the set and you're setting up for the take and you look at the director, you go 'okay, now what do we need to remember? This, on top of this, on top of this, on top of this'. And then as long as you're thinking, it usually shows in your eyes and your body. That's how I approach it." Shannon: "Yeah, taking it with the instinct on the day. You've done all your research." Thom: "Yeah. Yeah. Exactly right. You're letting it go. How about you?" Shannon: "Yeah, I agree. I agree with everything that you said. Because a lot of Bronte exploring Evelyn Bay and this, she has this whole relationship with Trish that we never get to see in the show but is so prevalent and so alive throughout conversations — I think a lot of it was, yeah, sitting with the script and thinking a lot about 'what would those conversations have been like?' What would their relationship have been like?'. And having that in the back of my brain. So then, when I went in on the day thinking about where I had met these people before, even where I'd met Sean, when we meet each other, and thinking about how I met Ash [Mason's character] — I think it was just doing a lot of prep, and I write a lot of diaries for characters that I do sometimes. So I wrote a lot in Bronte's POV about where I met those people and what we had done together, and then coming in with that. And then just going on the day with instinct." Thom: "Then, I think on top of that as well, so if you've seen very strong series that deal with it and seeing what works — like what affects you when you watch it? What part of the show do you like? You know, in shows you might watch. So that's another visual to draw from, going 'okay, well that works on camera for that type of genre' — especially for this, the mystery, the murder-mystery genre in particular. You watch some of your favourites, there's too many titles to name right now, but watching what you enjoyed the most of that and going 'okay, can I use that? Can I take a little bit from that and a little bit from that, and put it all together in my little tool chest?'." On Leaving an Imprint and Making the Most of Your Character's Scenes When They're So Pivotal to the Narrative Shannon: "I think before doing the show, it reminded me a lot of Twin Peaks — it reminded me a lot of Laura Palmer. So I was privately calling myself the Laura Palmer of the show. But I think it was definitely a challenge to make sure that — I think the most important thing, for me rocking up, was making sure that I had a strong sense of self within her. And that I had a strong sense of who she was, what her dreams were and why she was there. And yeah, I think it was just made really easy by the fact meeting everyone and getting to work with you [to Thom] and getting to work with everyone, it was easy for her to feel fleshed out and like I belonged — which I think made it a whole lot easier." [caption id="attachment_1008350" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Graham Denholm/Getty Images for Organic PR.[/caption] On Expressing a Laidback Air, Alongside Pain and Vulnerability, in a Storyline That's Keeping Audiences Guessing Thom: "It's so difficult trying to, that balancing act. I still remember days on set with Cherie — and particularly with Cherie with her episodes, and going 'we need to do this again because of A, B and C', and then having to say 'well, we don't, we can't show our hand too early. We can't show this. We can't show that'. So trying to mask certain things. We're trying to throw a curveball. I kept saying to Cherie my biggest thing was trying to mask one aspect with another, and that was trying to help throw people off for the whole thing. But you're 100-percent right, just trying to convey that, it's really tricky. You really need to go through each episode and see where your character's come from, where they're going, and make sure you're following that line, that throughline, the entire way through. Otherwise, people who watch it will go 'that doesn't make sense. Why was this person doing this after doing this?'. I think in the end, I think we did pretty good. I think we did pretty good with keeping that balance. But it's hard to say, right? You watch something and you're like 'could have done this, could have done this'. It's very, very hard — I think, probably the hardest I've had to do that." On Whether Any Pressure Comes with Starring in an Adaptation of a Well-Loved Novel From an Author Whose Other Books Have Already Sparked Hit Films Thom: "I think so. Definitely. The Dry was so successful. And you've got Eric Bana — then you've got Force of Nature with Anna Torv. And then it's like, then you're like 'alright, now it's Shannon and Tom and The Survivors'." Shannon: "I think at the end of the day, you just want to make sure you're walking away, when you're doing the job and then also when you finally get to see it, that you have that feeling of doing it justice." Thom: "Yeah, you're right." Shannon: "And that you feel like you've done the best that you can." Thom: "Yeah, 100 percent." Shannon: "I think I'm really happy. Are you happy? [to Thom]" Thom: "I'm happy. But we had a good team. Like Tony, and Andy Walker [The Survivors' producer, Deadloch], were ... " Shannon: "Amazing." Thom: "I think at times, I don't know about you but for me, it only really dawns on me, I think, when someone like yourself [to Concrete Playground] raises that or brings that up. On set, it didn't feel like that. On set, it just felt like we were making a cool project with our friends and a cool crew. And then afterwards, you go 'oh yeah, shit, that's right. This is — yeah, we're in good company here'." On Why Murder-Mysteries Seem to Strike Such a Chord in Australia — Whether We're Making Them, Watching Them or Both Thom: "It's like when that time — was it like 2010? — when Nordic noir really blew up with Trapped. And I inhaled Trapped and Fortitude, all on SBS On Demand, and it was like then it exploded. And then The Bridge was also happening at the same time, and the American adaptation. And there was Broadchurch. So it was all happening elsewhere, and I think Aussies just flocked to it. As to say why, are we just perverse? Do we just want to watch it?" Shannon: "I think maybe also, I think Australia as an environment is so vast, and I think it's just such an excellent backdrop, too, to a lot of murder-mystery." Thom: "Yeah." Shannon: "Like you think of really good shows like Mystery Road, and there's all of that desert. We always just have such beautiful landscapes for such devastatingly twisted stories, which I think there's something to be said in that contrast." Thom: "I can't understand like the psyche, why we all love it — but I mean, I inhale them. I absolutely inhale them from everywhere, from each country. So I think now, it's like we've got some cracker series that are murder-mysteries, and I'm sure there's more to come. But as to saying why, like why we and devour them so much, I don't know. But hopefully people ... " Shannon: "Devour this one." Thom: " … devour this one the same." On What Green and Berry Make of Their Respective Paths to The Survivors Thom: "My foundation is coming from — I mean, my first job was a murder-mystery, actually, now that I'm remembering. It was actually a murder-mystery for Channel Ten back in the day. But for stuff like Dance Academy, I started with young-adult television, and then I think mine was quite diverse. I went from that to the Halo series for Microsoft in Canada. And it was like guns and aliens. And then it's Of an Age, this romantic, queer love story set in Melbourne. And now it's this murder mystery, which is so, at times, can be quite confronting. Diverse, I think, is the keyword there." Shannon: "I think I agree. It's been — I love working in Australia, and I'm so lucky to have done so many Australian things in my time. And yeah, I think I'm just really lucky to be able to sit here and say 'yeah, I'm an actor. I did it'. I'm from Perth originally, so it was always that feeling of isolation being in Perth and wanting to do acting. But I've just been really lucky. And I've been really lucky to do a lot of incredible things, meet so many incredible people. And then, yeah, getting to work with Cherie and Ben both on The Wilds, separate seasons, and coming back to work with them again, was just such a treat. I've just been really lucky. I think that's the main word, lucky. I'm so honoured to be able to do a lot of things in Australia and beyond." The Survivors streams via Netflix from Friday, June 6, 2025. Images: courtesy of Netflix © 2025.
December might be the merriest and jolliest time of the year, but the end of March and the bulk of April is Melbourne's funniest period. That's when the Melbourne International Comedy Festival arrives, tasking comedians from around the globe — including plenty of local talents — with getting the city laughing. When attendees aren't giggling at a world-famous name, they're discovering the amusing folks who'll become tomorrow's rib-tickling stars. From Wednesday, March 26–Sunday, April 20, 2025's MICF is here to get the Victorian capital chuckling, complete with a hefty lineup. By the numbers, this year's festival features 1000-plus performers — more than 130 of them from overseas — putting on 690 shows, and also 182 stages running in 133 venues. And then there's the type of gigs on offer, from solo stand-up to galas, cabaret to circus, and everything from sketches and improv to plays and all-ages fare as well. One of the big highlights full lineup — which started being announced in 2024 — is the Australian debut of Fantasmas star and creator Julio Torres, who is playing exclusively in Melbourne. Also on the bill: Mark Watson, Sara Pascoe, Danny Bhoy, Rhys Darby, Ruby Wax, Paul Foot, Nazeem Hussain and Zoë Coombs Marr, plus Michael Hing, Melanie Bracewell, Broden Kelly, Claire Hooper, Joel Creasy, Andrew Hansen, Lizzy Hoo, Wil Anderson, Jenny Tian, John Safran, Jimeoin, Reuben Kaye, Ray O'Leary and Sh!t-faced Shakespeare doing A Midsummer Night's Dream. The list goes on, including Adam Kay, Flo & Joan with One Man Musical, Desiree Burch, Rahul Subramanian, Sumukhi Suresh, Tom Allen and Buffy Revamped, which relives seven seasons of the series in 70 minutes as told by Spike. From there, the talents still keep coming, with Amy Gledhill on the bill fresh from winning the Edinburgh Comedy Awards 2024 Best Show prize, Jin Hao Li also on the roster after being nominated for Best Newcomer at the same accolades and 2023 Edinburgh Festival Fringe Award-winner Ahir Shah making the trip as well. Chloe Petts, Chris Parker, Guy Montgomery, Guy Williams, Urzila Carlson, Pierre Novellie, Rosie Jones, Anirban Dasgupta, Urooj Ashfaq, Charlene Kaye, Sarah Keyworth, Arj Barker, Carl Donnelly, Elf Lyons, Iliza Shlesinger, Kai Humphries, Kemah Bob, Schalk Bezuidenhout, Sofie Hagen: they're also among the international contingent. Back with Aussie humour, Alex Ward, Amy Hetherington, Becky Lucas, Bron Lewis, He Huang, Luke Heggie, Tommy Little, Luke McGregor, Mary Coustas, Sammy J, Yon from Tripod, Cameron James, Dave Hughes and Geraldine Hickey keep the list going — and, of course, have a whole heap of other homegrown company. And if you're looking for shows and events with a theme or twist, a David Bowie tribute, comedy whisky tasting, rooftop laughs, an improvised movie mashup, a murder-mystery, a comedy musical about op shops and a Jane Austen-inspired cabaret are on offer. Or, you can head to RocKwiz live, a Shrek burlesque, comedy pub crawls, a true-crime comedy walking tour and a 90s-loving game show. As proves the case every year, this is an event for comedy-loving Melburnians and visitors to the city to get excited about, then plan their entire schedules around. Adding to the fun, the fest's gala is back, taking place at the Palais Theatre to open the year's guffaws, while the Opening Night Comedy Allstars Supershow, The Annual Great Debate, Aboriginal Comedy Allstars, Asian Allstars Gala and Upfront's focus on female and non-binary artists are all making welcome returns. To discover your next favourite comedians, the lineup also features RAW Comedy, Deadly Funny and the Class Clowns National Grand Finals. [caption id="attachment_996219" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Jonathan Birch[/caption] "The world's biggest comedy festival is here and we couldn't be happier. We're ready for surprises, brilliant takes on serious issues and serious silly-ness for all who need it," said Melbourne International Comedy Festival Director Susan Provan, launching the event for 2025. "Hundreds of venue staff are swinging into action to support all our Australian and visiting faves and Melbourne's bars and cafes are ready to make sure everyone is fed and watered. It's the best time of year in our beloved city. Melbourne does fun like no other." The 2025 Melbourne International Comedy Festival runs from Wednesday, March 26–Sunday, April 20. Head to the festival's website for further details and tickets. Images: Nick Robertson / Ian Laidlaw / Nicole Reed.
The good folks at Assembly are expanding. Soon, you'll stepping straight from their cocktail-conjuring treehouse into an Italian restaurant. As faithful Assembly-goers know, the crew likes to do things just right. So, they're bringing in an iguanadon-sized, handmade woodfire oven, all the way from Italy. Plus, they've invited none other than former Da Orazio Pizza & Porchetta chef Nick Pulcher to create the menu. Just some of the yummy, yummy dishes he's come up with are: fresh burrata cradled by heirloom tomatoes, Spanish onion, roasted capsicum, olives and basil ($19); tagliolini al nero di sepia – housemade, black-ink tagliolini sautéed with crab meat and prawns ($26.50); costolette di agnello — lamb cutlet raised on New South Wales's rolling pastures and served up with green pea puree, baby carrots and caramelised Spanish onion ($33.50); and that delizioso classic, panna cotta ($12). Chef Antonio Buonomo will be staying warm next to the oven, where he'll whipping up an immoveable Napoli-style feast. You can get stuck into his pizzas in the restaurant or in the bar, or take them home. Among the deliciousness on the list you'll find margherita — San Marzano tomato, mozzarella fior di latte, parmesan, basil, olive oil ($18); quattro formaggi – buffalo mozzarella, mozzarella fior di latte, gorgonzola, smoked provola cheese, fresh basil, olive oil ($24); and salumi – San Marzano tomato, mozzarella fior di latte, ham, mild salami, hot salami, Italian sausage, basil, olive oil ($25). Some might find Assembly's Regent Place location strange for a small bar, but we reckon it's a great escape from the CBD's madness and fast food chains, when you don't have time to travel further afield. The interior is a bit of a paean to the many forces shaping international design. If you use a knife and fork to eat pizza (you heathen!), you'll be wrapping your hands around Italian cutlery. Some of the crockery, all the concrete lights and the marble table come from there, too. Meanwhile, other bits of crockery were made in France and Denmark and the tiles are Espanol. Digging the timber that the tables and chairs are made of? It's all recycled, eco-friendly stuff from Tassie. Find Assembly restaurant at 488 Kent Street, Sydney from Wednesday, February 17. Head down for lunch and dinner seven days a week. The bar opens from midday daily.
With stunning views out to Finger Wharf at Woolloomooloo, dining at China Doll is always special, no matter the occasion. Taking inspiration from a number of cuisines across Asia, the a la carte offerings include a range of dim sum options alongside mouth-watering mains such as wagyu beef shin Penang curry and Cone Bay barramundi with shiitake mushroom dashi. There are also several banquet choices, depending on whether you're dining as a couple or a larger group. The luxury option consists of 11 separate dishes, from king salmon sashimi with blackened chilli dressing and pork belly with chilli caramel to Alaskan king crab alongside black pepper, sesame and lime. Image: Destination DNSW
If you like chocolate and hazelnuts, odds are that you like Nutella. Actually, it's incredibly likely that you love it, are obsessed with it, and have eaten it slathered on bread, oozing out of doughnuts and combined with every other food you can think of. The popular spread brings out that kind of obsession in people, so it's hardly surprising that the brand is creating a whole place dedicated to the chocolate and hazelnut-flavoured concoction — albeit just for one weekend. Between January 10–12, 2020, Hotella Nutella will be a real place that'll actually exist, rather than somewhere that Nutella fans have just dreamed about since they can remember. It's coming to Calistoga in Napa Valley in California, and it'll make sure that visitors know exactly what it's about. Think "larger-than-life jars of Nutella and breakfast decor, and hazelnut and cocoa spread-inspired hotel items", according to the company's press release. Also on the agenda: two Nutella-filled meals, with one all about breakfast for dinner and the other focusing on brunch. No prizes for guessing what the star ingredient will be in all dishes whipped up, of course. There'll also be a pancake art session, which'll no doubt test just how creative people can be when it comes to drizzling Nutella over the sweet favourite. Yep, everyone's had plenty of practice at that. Alas, don't go getting too excited. These kinds of branded pop-ups always come with caveats, as Taco Bell's hotel did earlier in the year. At Hotella Nutella, only three Nutella lovers and their guests will be able to stay, they'll have to win a competition in order to do so, and entries are only open to US citizens. Given the cult-like following that the brand has inspired around the world, it's worth crossing your Nutella-loving fingers that it decides to do something similar for fans elsewhere. For more information about Hotella Nutella, visit the competition website. Images: Nutella USA.
It has been five years since Deliveroo started speeding through Australia's streets to bring takeaway meals to our doors. And, as we all like to when a birthday rolls around, it's celebrating. This is the kind of party that rewards everyone, too, with the company delivering $1 meals from more than 26 eateries across Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Adelaide. Each day this week, between Tuesday, November 10–Friday, November 13, Deliveroo is picking a city and gifting its residents meals at $1 a pop. A different number of eateries will be taking part in each location, and they'll each be offering up 100 meals at the gold-coin price. So yes, that means getting in quickly is recommended. First up, from 1–5pm on Tuesday, November 10, is Adelaide. On the menu: dishes from Burgertec, Goodlife Modern Organic Pizza, Cheeky Chook, Blue & White Cafe and Lukoumades. Then, from 12–6pm on Wednesday, November 11, it's Melbourne's turn — with Chicken Episode Plus, Bistro Morgan (including in Collingwood), Tadka Hut, Gelato Messina in Richmond and Royal Stacks Brunswick among the eateries involved. [caption id="attachment_783738" align="aligncenter" width="1920"] Royal Stacks[/caption] When Thursday, November 12 rolls around, Sydneysiders can get their cheap food fix between 1–4.30pm — from Little L, Fishmongers, BL Burgers, Manoosh Pizzeria, Johnny Bird, The Italian Bowl and Burger Patch. Finally, to close out the week of super-affordable eats, Brisbane's Gnocchi Gnocchi Brothers in Paddington, Ginga Sushi Japanese at Emporium, Brooklyn Depot in South Brisbane and The Yiros Shop will get in on the action between 2–5pm on Friday, November 13. There are a few tricks to the $1 special, however. It will really only cost $1 — there's no delivery cost on top of that — but exactly what each restaurant will be offering for that price won't be revealed until the day. And, a new restaurant will appear on Deliveroo's Instagram every hour, which is where you'll find out what's on the menu. From there, you'll just need to search for '$1 deals' when you're ordering online or via the Deliveroo app. And yes, that's an easy way to decide what to eat on the relevant day in your city this week. For further details about Deliveroo's $1 fifth birthday specials — which are on offer in Adelaide from 1–5pm on Tuesday, November 10; Melbourne from 12–6pm on Wednesday, November 11; Sydney from 1–4.30pm on Thursday, November 12; and Brisbane from 2–5pm on Friday, November 13 — keep an eye on the company's Instagram feed. Top images: Johnny Bird, Gnocchi Gnocchi Brothers.
An exciting venue celebrating music and Japanese cuisine is coming to Solotel and Matt Moran's Barangaroo House in September. Rekōdo is a new restaurant and vinyl bar set to arrive on level one of the expansive multi-storey restaurant and bar from Friday, September 16, offering up top-notch eats, sake and tunes curated by some of Sydney's most beloved musicians. Starting with the food, Head Chef Paddy McDermott's menu will be based around vibrant and inventive Japanese-style dishes. Guests will be able to keep things light with the likes of DIY tuna belly, avocado and roe temaki hand rolls, or kimchi and fontina cheese taiyaki waffles. Looking for something a little more hearty? Feast your way through Rekōdo's whole fried snapper or mondanyaki noodles — or the charcoal-smoked red miso eggplant, which will arrive to your table still cooking in a donabe clay pot. "Leaning into the music vibe of Rekōdo, I'd say we're going for a 'high fidelity' approach to the menu — familiar flavours but having a little fun in the way they're presented," says McDermott. While the food may be enticing, the most exciting element of Rekōdo is the music. Boasting a huge collection of vinyl records, the venue will enlist the curation skills of a different tastemaker each month to select the tunes. Kicking things off will be Meg Mac, showcasing the eclectic music taste that has inspired her beloved catalogue of ballads. Following Mac's reign as the curator, Donny Benét and Lazywax are already locked in to take over the speakers in October and November respectively. "I'm obsessed with all the amazing voices in the world, so I've included some of the singers I love like Sam Cooke, Amy Winehouse, Dusty Springfield, Enya, Leon Bridges and my new local discovery Telenova!" says Mac. "One of the things I love about vinyl is the artwork. I like to put the covers up on my piano when I'm writing, it helps inspire me and I can swap them around depending on what mood I'm in. So, I'm excited to flick through some of these covers at Rekōdo next month!" And yes, there will be vinyl dance parties. Acclaimed local DJs Ayebatonye, Adi Toohey and Soul of Sydney DJs are among the roster of talent that Rekōdo has pulled together, all hopping on the decks and get the party started each Thursday–Sunday. Rounding out your visit to Barangaroo's new multi-faceted space is the drinks list. Bar lead Pauric Kennedy is pulling together a now 20-strong list of sakes which will be able to be ordered by the glass, as a tasting flight or in cocktails. Add brown sugar umeshu, tangerine and elderflower tonic to your sake and you have a refreshing Tokyo Tipple, for instance "The Rekōdo experience is about mixing sound, drink and good times with shared friends," co-owner and restauranteur Matt Moran says. "Paddy has done a great job creating a menu that reflects this, with a mix of small and larger dishes all designed to share so you can tailor it to whatever vibe you're after." Rekodo will open on Friday, September 16 at Level 1, Barangaroo House, 35 Barangaroo Avenue, Barangaroo — operating from 12pm–12am Tuesday–Saturday and 12–10pm on Sundays. Images: Steven Woodburn.
Last year, Swiss artist Pipilotti Rist brought her hypnotic 30-year retrospective to the MCA. The mesmerising and immersive artworks, dubbed Sip My Ocean, only hung around for four months, but now you can catch another one of her works in Sydney — every night. Sparkling Pond, Bold-Coloured Groove & Tender is Rist's new dazzling artwork, which has just been unveiled beneath Park Lane, one of Central Park's residential towers. Colours and gently animated videos are projected onto three different areas — looking a bit like 'urban electronic bonfires' — every night from sunset till 11pm. As well as colours and images evoking Sydney plants and vegetation, the projections use algorithms of waves to create a 'watery world'. The colourful artworks are free to visit, and touching, sitting and even lying in them is encouraged. Pipilotti Rist: Sparkling Pond, Bold-Coloured Groove & Tender can be viewed from sunset to 11pm every night. Images: Pipilotti Rist: Sparkling Pond, Bold-Coloured Groove & Tender, 2018, courtesy the artist, Hauser & Wirth and Luhring Augustine. Photos by Mark Pokorny.
Booking a trip has changed significantly over the last few decades — just 40 years ago, the only way to book a flight, really, was through a travel agent. It wasn't until the early '90s that travellers could take the reins and actually book a ticket for themselves online. Thankfully, we have progressed. Gloriously. Travelling is only getting easier due to the evolution of highly useful, intuitive apps. These ten currently available apps will make your travels that much smoother. And the better news? None of them cost a cent. FOR HEALTH MATTERS: TRAVWELL Let's be real. Health is an easy thing to take for granted while travelling. Powered by the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, TravWell brings a great sense of calmness to travellers going overseas. We suggest downloading this well before departing. Users can select the destination they are travelling to, and the app will list which vaccines and medications to take. TravWell also has space to store photos and organise documents such as vaccine records. Plus, for every destination that the app covers, there are corresponding emergency services phone numbers on hand. FOR CONVERTING CASH: CURRENCY CONVERTER PLUS This app is one of the most popular out there, drawing over one million downloads worldwide. Currency Converter Plus hosts 191 currencies and regularly updates conversion rates. When you don't have access to Wi-Fi in that Moroccan souk or Beijing market, the app's ability to work offline definitely comes in handy. It can also convert currency to gold, silver and platinum, perfect if you're indulging in a cheeky jewellery shop during your stopover in Abu Dhabi or Dubai. The calculator function is what separates this app from the rest. Say your Vietnamese feast in Hanoi costs 200,000VND, and you have $5US dollars you want to use — enter both into the app and it will calculate and convert simultaneously, saving you the brainwork. FOR OFFLINE MAPS: MAPS.ME As much as we'd like to assume that our orientation skills are on point, sometimes we get it wrong. Really wrong. And you end up six kilometres away from your hotel, in the dodgy depths of a city with no idea how to get back. MAPS.ME, to the rescue. The app is trusted by over 65 million travellers, probably because it's usable offline. Simply download the map of the country or city you are visiting (when you have internet connection), and it's there for good. Within the app, users can search for restaurants, attractions, ATMs and public transport. We're not done. MAPS.ME also gives people the option to book accommodation through Booking.com. Alternatively, you can't go wrong with offline Google Maps. FOR EDITING HOLIDAY SNAPS: SNAPSEED There's an inordinate number of photo editing apps out there. A lifetime could be devoted looking for the best. Let us save you a little bit of that time. Snapseed, which was created by Google, is not only ridiculously easy to use, but also fun. It has 26 tools and editing features including the ability to adjust exposure, contrast, saturation, ambiance, fix skewed lines, alter perspectives, heal areas of a photo, add in text and throw on a filter. And when you're all finished playing around, Snapseed provides the option to upload to your edited masterpiece straight to Instagram. FOR CONQUERING LANGUAGE BARRIERS: GOOGLE TRANSLATE Speaking of Google (again), it's insanely hard to beat Google Translate at its game. The app offers the most languages out of any single translation engine out there — a mere 103. Now, translating words, phrases and sentences is one thing, but pronouncing them is another. Users can listen to translations before attempting and potentially embarrassing themselves. The app has evolved dramatically since its birth, now integrating a photo feature where you can hold your camera up to a text while Google magically translates it, given the font is readable. The fairy godmother of translators, we're naming it. FOR GROUP TRIPS: SPLITWISE Travelling with friends can get tricky money-wise, no matter how much you try to prevent it. Attempting to recall who shouted what at NYC's Please Don't Tell and how much that friend owes you for dinner at Hong Kong's Ho Lee Fook is too much to keep track of sometimes. Splitwise is a simple way to share bills, and keep track of what everyone has paid. Each person creates an account, and from there groups can be formed. Users then log in to see their balance, what is owed to them and what they owe to others. FOR AIRPORT RELAXATION: LOUNGEKEY LoungeKey is the ultimate airport lounge library. After entering an airport or city name into the app, a list of lounges on offer comes up. LoungeKey details exactly where lounges are located in an airport (don't laugh, some are harder to find that you would assume), what facilities are included, and provides photos, trading hours and prices. There is also a 'nearby' function for when you are absolutely exhausted and just want to pop into the closest lounge. FOR EXPERT RECOMMENDATIONS: GUIDES BY LONELY PLANET There's a lot of noise when it comes to travel guides and recommendations, but among all the madness is Lonely Planet — one of the most trustworthy and inspiring names out there. The Guides app incorporates advice from local experts, including must-see sights and essential tips for each location. There's also an offline maps function, language phrasebooks and a currency converter. It's an all-in-one app, currently covering 100 cities, with more to come. FOR CONNECTIVITY: FREE WI-FI FINDER If you don't fancy buying a sim card in every country you visit, and therefore heavily rely on finding a Wi-Fi connection, this one's a winner. Free Wi-Fi Finder promises exactly what's in its title —free Wi-Fi connection spots, with absolutely no charges. The app lists locations in over 50 countries. You can search by state and city, or locate the closest to wherever you find yourself at that point in time. The app also gives users the option to list Wi-Fi spots themselves and assist other travellers. People-powered, we like that. FOR FINDING THINGS TO DO: AIRBNB (FOR THE 'EXPERIENCES' FUNCTION) Airbnb continues its rampage of revolutionising the travel industry. The app hosts a plethora of affordable accommodation options — apartments, cabins, igloos and beyond — opening up a world of travel to those who were unable to access it before. In late 2016, the app took things up a notch, launching Airbnb 'experiences'. These are curated events, tours, classes and workshops created by local guides, inspiring people not just to travel to a place, but immerse themselves in it. Experiences span from two-day food tours in Seoul, three-day salsa camps in Havana or cocktail-making classes in San Francisco.
If you're looking to level-up your vino game, who better to have on your side than Australia's oldest family-owned winery. Barossa Valley's Yalumba has been crafting fine wine since 1849 — a stint that's spanned six whole generations. And in addition to its stable of top-notch drops for all occasions, the independent label is helping Aussies elevate their wine-sipping experience with its own Yalumba Wine Club. With a little something for seasoned wine aficionados and novices alike, the Wine Club lets you to tap into expert wine knowledge, exclusive offers and product specials, as well as to access a range of special events and tastings. And despite the swag of goodies that comes with it, membership won't cost you a cent. Sign up and you'll nab ten percent off select purchases in the online wine store and at the beautiful Angaston Wine Room, including plenty of those premium red wines that have become synonymous with South Australia's Barossa Valley. You'll also score exclusive access to a series of seasonal wine packs, chosen by Yalumba's winemakers. Order one of these bad boys delivered to your door, whip out the selection for your next dinner party and prepare to impress your guests with your newfound vinous smarts. Yalumba Wine Club members can also look forward to free shipping on online orders over $200, exclusive dibs on a bunch of limited releases and special wines, and invites to Yalumba events, including premium tastings and masterclasses held all over the country. You can sign up to the Yalumba Wine Club for free over at the website. FYI, this story includes some affiliate links. These don't influence any of our recommendations or content, but they may make us a small commission. For more info, see Concrete Playground's editorial policy.
It's been a long 15 years since NSW beer-lovers have been able to crack open a tinnie of Reschs pilsener, that much-loved can affectionately coined the Silver Bullet. Producer Carlton & United Breweries replaced these venerable vessels with an arguably inferior bottled version in 2005, and fans have been mourning the loss ever since. But all is right in the world once again, with CUB finally responding to the public's thirsty pleas and putting the legendary tins back into production. From next week, Reschs Silver Bullets will be gracing your local bottle shop once more, reclaiming their rightful place in beer fridges across the state. What's more, the relaunched can has scored a tick of approval from the Reschs Appreciation Society — a crew of hardcore fans that was founded a decade ago and includes some of the Silver Bullet's strongest advocates. The new tin design features the same silver tones and map of NSW worn by the original, but with a more modern finish. There's also an added shout-out to the Society on the bottom of each carton. [caption id="attachment_778022" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Reschs Appreciation Society members[/caption] "We stopped making Silver Bullets 15 years ago because sales were down," explained Reschs Marketing Manager Hugh Jellie in a statement. "But the Society's passion has helped us realise this was a mistake." The new 375-millilitre Silver Bullet cans will replace the equivalent pilsener stubbies, but you'll still be able to get your hands on the 750-millilitre glass longnecks. The beer recipe itself remains unchanged. The Society is celebrating the return of their beloved brew with a live-streamed knees-up at Paddington's Imperial Hotel on Saturday, August 15. Access is for members only, but you can sign up for free here. Reschs Pilsener's revamped Silver Bullet cans will start rolling out from the start of August. Find them at your local NSW bottle shop.
Chances are, you know and love the Sydney Opera House. You've probably been inside, sat in those red velvet seats, politely clapped, and gone home by 11pm. But once a year, that all goes out the window. When Vivid LIVE rolls in, the much-loved venue transforms. Every room, from the majestic Concert Hall to the underground Studio, becomes a stage for some of the world's most exciting artists. In 2025, the lineup is a two-week invitation to broaden your musical horizons, discover your next obsession, and see the Opera House completely lit up. So, whether you're in it for the big names, the sweaty dance floors, or the rare gems you'll still be talking about next year, here's your guide to the best of Vivid LIVE 2025 – and why you won't want to miss a minute of it. For the Emotionally Epic Starting big and in an Australian exclusive, ANOHNI will deliver her haunting, multi-octave vocals alongside band The Johnsons for two exclusive nights, marking the final Johnsons band concerts in Australia. A few days later, you can settle in for Beth Gibbons (yes, the searing voice behind legendary UK trip-hop band Portishead), performing her debut solo album Lives Outgrown to Australian audiences for the first time. Both performances will be in the Sydney Opera House's Concert Hall, so you know it'll be a goosebumps-on-the-neck kind of night. For the Party Into late-night raving? Head underground. The Sydney Opera House's Studio is the go-to spot for sweaty, dance floor euphoria. Sydney collective House of Mince returns with a very special guest, the legendary Berghain resident Boris to keep the BPM high and the party going all night long. Trackwork will celebrate its fifth birthday with a genre-jumping party featuring Brodinski, Vv Pete and Utility. To top it all off, DUNJ, Barney Kato, Mad Racket and dstreet will deliver psychedelic, percussive and hypnotic underground electronic parties featuring guest appearances from global talent. [caption id="attachment_1002273" align="aligncenter" width="1920"] Jordan Munns[/caption] For Something Intimate In the Utzon Room (the most intimate space in the Opera House) you'll find a lineup of rising and trailblazing local talent that's dialled-in, stripped-back and emotionally charged. ARIA Award-winning First Nations collective 3% bring uncompromising, powerful hip-hop. Then there's SAHXL, a 21-year-old Indo-Fijian Australian singer blurring the lines between trap, hip-hop and R&B. And rounding it out are commanders of Sydney's DIY punk scene G2g, whose loud, infectiously ragged energy will jolt your system. It's a rare chance to see some of Australia's most exciting new voices up close and personal before they blow up. For Something Different Over in the Joan Sutherland Theatre, things are set to get deep, weird and wonderful – just how WavyLand likes it. For its seventh birthday, the cult Aussie tastemakers are curating a lineup that jumps between genres and generations, from transcendent Thai-Swedish rap force Thaiboy Digital to boundary-pushing American hip hop innovator BKTHERULA. There's also Pale Jay, the mysterious LA-based jazz vocalist and pianist, performing a seductive blend of slow disco, lovelorn soul and Afrobeats. Marking only his second-ever live performance, he'll take to the stage with his signature red mask and honey dripped vocals, delivering a soul-stirring set that transcends genre. And on June 1 comes the first performance in 30 years from influential 90s British group The Sabres of Paradise. The Australian exclusive show will channel the energy of their legendary Sabresonic warehouse raves and honour the groundbreaking legacy of co-founder and DJ, the late Andrew Weatherall, all accompanied by a spectacular visual display. [caption id="attachment_1002272" align="aligncenter" width="1920"] Jordan Munns[/caption] For the Vibe Seekers You don't have to know the full lineup to have a great night at Vivid LIVE. This year, the Sydney Opera House transforms its iconic harbour-side setting with the launch of the Forecourt Food Village — a vibrant, open-air dining destination offering Cuban and Korean street food from celebrated chefs Danielle Alvarez and Jimmy Ryu. Plus, the return of Newtown hospitality legends The Midnight Special to the Concert Hall foyer, with an ethereal late-night pop-up bar The Aurora, providing a lively spot for everyone (open to the public) to unwind between shows or after enjoying the light displays, as well as the sensory dining journey from Danielle Alvarez, a unique First Nations dining experience in a hidden Opera House location and special festival offerings across all four Opera House restaurants. And this year's 'Lighting of the Sails' is Kiss of Light, a celebration of visionary Australian artist and activist David McDiarmid, which will see the sails light up with a bold, technicolour tribute to queer identity. Whether you're seeing a show or just passing through, it'll be completely unmissable. As the Sydney Opera House's Head of Contemporary Music, Ben Marshall, said: "There's nothing quite like Vivid LIVE at Sydney Opera House. As well as gathering many of the world's greatest musical talents here, we're welcoming the vibrant communities that infuse our music scene with the sounds of Sydney itself." "This is what makes Vivid LIVE stand apart – experiencing this great range of incredible international and local artists inside a living work of art." Vivid LIVE at Sydney Opera House runs from May 23 to June 14. For more information or to book your tickets, visit the website. By Jacque Kennedy
Sydneysiders love a market, especially one where you can revamp your wardrobe. There's nothing like finding that new 'fit for your next night out. There's the thrill of searching through the racks to stumble upon the piece. Plus, shopping secondhand and upcycled clothing is more sustainable than buying your clothes new. That's why the Second Life Markets have become such a hit, not only in Sydney, but across the country. The beloved get-together of stallholders is back in the Harbour City on Saturday, March 16, but this time it's mixing things up, partnering with Machine Hall Precinct for a day dedicated to designer vintage threads. If you're after a Dexter Wong piece from the 90s, 2001 Stella McCartney, a throwback Balenciaga chimney jacket or a terracotta Acne Studios denim set, this is the place to be. You can wander through pop-ups from vintage curators including Qurated, KOT-J, Filter Store, Mari Maria, Feeber Archive and Sybistro, stumbling upon your next statement piece to impress your friends with. There will also be DJ sets from KUTA, PEA OH MA and Matthias. And, there will be food and drink stalls so that you can stay well-fed and browse with a bev in hand. The market will run from 12–6pm. The cost of entry varies but is $21 max and, in the sustainable spirit of the market, it's asked that you bring your own reusable shopping bags with you on the day. If you want to make a day out of it, there are plenty of quality spots to grab lunch before or a drink and dinner after you shop (if you don't spend all your hard-earned on cute outfits). Our local picks are 'Oti, Palazzo Salato, Cantina OK! or Cash Only Diner, depending on what you're after.
We're a long way from New York City's Lower East Side, but it'll feel a whole lot closer (for at least one night) when celebrated speakeasy-style cocktail bar Death & Co hits Down Under. The NYC team will be visiting three much-loved venues across Australia for a series of cocktail-fuelled dinners. Out to offer locals a taste of their contemporary drinks mastery, Death & Co's David Kaplan and Alex Day are swinging past Perth's Wolf Lane on January 29 and 30, before heading east to hit The Winery in Sydney on Sunday, February 2. They'll wrap things up with two dates at Melbourne laneway bar Trinket: a sold out session on February 5 and a newly added one on Tuesday, February 4. Launched in 2006, the NYC bar is considered something of a pioneer in the world of modern cocktail bars, having scored a slew of big-time awards, played host to a roll-call of bartending legends and birthed its share of now-iconic cocktail creations. Each of the Aussie dinners will see the team showcase five crafty concoctions, matched with five courses from the host venue. The tour's a collaboration with US label Aviation Gin, which just so happens to be owned by your good mate Ryan Reynolds, so you can expect lots of gin. There will be sips like the Have At It welcome shot, blending Dry Sack Sherry, gin, lemon juice and grapefruit, and the Trust Fall: a fusion of Aviation gin, pisco and vermouth, finished with lychee liqueur, raspberry, absinthe and Peychaud's Bitters. At The Winery, the booze is carefully paired with dishes like 'drunk mussels' done with gin, absinthe and tomato, spanner crab toast with stracciatella and caviar, and a deep-fried carrot cake to finish. While, at Trinket's dinner, you'll find the booze carefully paired with dishes like a wallaby tartare with Davison plum and gin jam, fried quail with Yarra Valley caviar, and a lamington-inspired take on a Magnum ice cream for dessert. Tickets to each event clock in at $95 per person (or $145 if you also want a signed copy of Death & Co's own book, Cocktail Codex). All that should leave you feeling pretty inspired to try out some drinks wizardry in your own home bar. Death & Co hits Wolf Lane at 321 Murray Street, Perth on January 29 and 30. Tickets are on sale now here. The Winery at 285a Crown Street, Surry Hills, on February 2. You can grab those tickets here. The pop-up ventures to Trinket at 87 Flinders Lane, Melbourne, on February 4 and 5. Tickets here.
Among the many topics and ideas sung about in Hamilton, the fact that life is about seizing chances is up there with the most pivotal and resonant. In 2024 in Australia, it's time to take that notion to heart. So, you haven't seen Hamilton onstage yet? You have but you're eager to catch it again? Don't throw away your shot — the smash-hit musical is returning Down Under in July, but only to Sydney. After that, it'll finish its Aussie run. Lin-Manuel Miranda's masterpiece initially made its way to the Harbour City in 2021, then went to Melbourne in 2022 and Brisbane in 2023. The Australian production also travelled to New Zealand, Manila and Abu Dhabi, and will hit up Singapore next. Following that is its Sydney comeback, where the biggest thing in musical theatre in the 21st century — and a game-changing, award-winning, rightly raved-about sensation — will make Sydney Lyric Theatre the room where it happens from Tuesday, July 30, 2024. Hamilton's Australian return was announced in 2023, but now it has been confirmed that Sydney is its only stop. Also new news: locking in the cast that'll take to the stage, including some familiar faces and a few newcomers. Jason Arrow is reprising the role of Alexander Hamilton, Akina Edmonds returns as Angelica Schuyler, Elandrah Eramiha is back as both Peggy Schuyler and Maria Reynolds, and Brent Hill again slips on King George III's crown. This time, however, Vidya Makan will play Eliza Hamilton, Gerard-Luke Malgas does double duty as the Marquis de Lafayette and Thomas Jefferson, Etuate Lutui is Hercules Mulligan and James Madison, and Googoorewon Knox plays George Washington. Also, Tainga Savage steps up from the original Australian company — plus the international tour — to taking on the parts of John Laurens and Philip Hamilton. Still new to this song-and-dance take on 18th-century American politics? Not quite sure why it has been the most-talked about theatre show of the past decade? The critically acclaimed hip hop musical, for which Miranda wrote the music, lyrics and the book, is about the life of Founding Father Alexander Hamilton, as well as inclusion and politics in current-day America. In addition to its swag of Tony Awards — 11 in fact, which includes Best Musical — it has nabbed a Grammy Award and even a Pulitzer Prize. Until 2021, Australians eager to see the show had to be content watching the filmed version of its Broadway production, which started streaming via Disney+ in 2020 (and yes, it's as phenomenal as you've heard). If you're not feeling financial enough to nab a seat, cross your fingers that the $10 ticket lottery, which offers Hamilton tickets for less than the cost of lunch, will return as well. In March 2023, Miranda came to Australia to see the local production, calling the cast "so fantastic". "I remember seeing Jason Arrow's audition — it had to have been April or May of 2020, and it was around the time that we were watching and editing Hamilton for [the Disney+] release. So they were really stacking up against the originals in a very tangible way, and so we were really proud of the incredible company that we were able to put together from there locally," he said at a press conference in Brisbane "Every original cast is like a four-minute mile," Miranda continued. "They said scientists proved you couldn't run the mile in under four minutes, and then someone did it, and then suddenly everybody's running it — and I feel like original casts are like that. It's impossible to find that first cast, and then it attracts the people who know they can do it." Hamilton's 2024 Sydney season will play Sydney Lyric Theatre from Tuesday, July 30, 2024. Head to the musical's website for further details and tickets — with seats currently on sale for shows until Tuesday, October 31. Production images: Daniel Boud.
Aussie icons like the Big Banana, the Big Crab and the Big Pineapple will forever loom large in your childhood memories. But they might be soon overshadowed by the country's next giant side-of-the-highway landmark: the Big Milo Tin. After a social media callout last month saw 80,000 Milo fans scramble to throw their support behind the idea, the proposition has snowballed, and Australia is actually going to get its own super-sized homage to the homegrown choccy malt powder. If you're thinking, 'we don't need that' — well, of course we don't. The whole thing is a big publicity stunt to celebrate Milo's upcoming 85th birthday. The structure is set to be erected by Nestlé itself somewhere in and around Smithtown on the mid-north NSW coast, where Nestlé's factory is located. Milo has the go-ahead from the local area, and is currently taking suggestions for the structure's location. The town is just off the Pacific Highway between Port Macquarie and Coffs Harbour — it's no doubt hoping to become a prime road trip pit-stop on the way up the coast. Although both Milo and Big Things are both integral to understanding Australian culture, we're not too sure about how we feel about having a big commercial product taking up space on the side of the highway. At least the Big Banana has a water park. If you really, really care about the Big Milo Tin's future, you can jump on Milo's Facebook page to throw your own suggestions into the ring. It's slated for completion in 2019, to coincide with the brand's 85th birthday.
Thought bingo was for your nan? Think again. Hijacking the traditional format of bingo and combining it with raves, conga lines and lip sync battles, Bingo Loco is 50 percent one of those strange dreams you get after eating too much cheese and 50 percent just a walloping good time. And it's returning to Sydney in partnership with DesignMyNight for its biggest edition yet on Saturday, July 10. This time around, a lineup of well-known comedians will take on MC duties, while confetti showers and smoke cannons go off throughout the evening. Plus, UK-based EDM and hip hop hero Example will be joining in the fun with a special guest performance. On the night, an anticipated 3000 bingo ravers will compete for ultimate glory (and prizes) over the course of multiple rounds — this is Bingo Loco XXL, after all. In between the traditional bingo games, you'll be expected to groove to classic 90s rave bangers, partake in dance-offs amd battle others for lip sync queen titles. Basically, be prepared for many high-octane, energetic activities — gone are the days of simply raising your hand when you've got a full sheet of numbers. Some pre-bingo muscle stretches and vocal warm-ups are well-advised. You'll vie for prizes, which in the past have included Coachella tickets, mobility scooters (nan, listen up), trips to Vegas and convertible cars among other goldmines. Bingo Loco has been running across the globe for a few years and is now in the middle of an extended Aussie tour, with show proceeds going to the Make-A-Wish Foundation Australia. Bingo Loco XXL will hit The Dome at Sydney Showgrounds on Saturday, July 10. Tickets cost from $65 per person and can be purchased here.
Twinkling fairy lights, hot melty cheese, mulled wine — and your own private igloo to cosy up in while you enjoy it all. If that sounds like the kind of winter scenario you'd like to snuggle into, then here's a pop-up you'll definitely want to make a date with. Following its 2022 debut in Canberra and subsequent sell-out events in Melbourne and Adelaide, the Raclette Igloo Experience will descend upon Sydney for the first time ever this winter. Setting up shop as part of the upcoming Bastille Day festivities, this immersive event will take over the rooftop of Broadway Shopping Centre from Saturday, June 29, to Sunday, July 28, serving up a healthy dose of charming Euro winter vibes. "Raclette isn't just a meal – it's a French tradition of sharing, laughter, and indulgence," says event director Vincent Hernandez. "At the Igloo Raclette experience, we bring that same warmth and joy to Sydney, allowing people to create unforgettable memories together while indulging in lots of cheese." Available to book for groups of six or eight guests, each of the igloos is named after a different French ski resort. The set-up is designed to transport you straight to some wintery wonderland in the heart of Europe, complete with faux snow tumbling softly from above. As the name suggests, the cheesy hero of this experience is the raclette, which'll be served up family-style at your table, ready to be spilled over traditional accompaniments like cured meats, boiled potatoes and pickles. A huge amount of cheese is being brought over from France for the occasion, with up to two kilos of the stuff to be set aside for each group. You'll even get your own raclette guide to show you the ropes and have you dining like a proper French foodie. Guests will enjoy a glass of mulled wine alongside with their raclette feast, although each igloo is also kitted out with its own mini bar full of French wines and soft drinks available to add on for an extra cost. You'll wrap things up in very toasty style, too — huddled around a roaring fire pit with your crew and roasting marshmallows for dessert. The Raclette Igloo Experience clocks in at $99 per person, with various day and night bookings available. Catch the Raclette Igloo Experience on the Broadway Shopping Centre rooftop from June 29–July 28. Bookings can be made over on the website. Image credit: BBR Group.
Most Sydneysiders will be familiar with legendary restaurateur Maurice Terzini's Icebergs Dining Room and Bar, a Bondi icon that has been a must-visit stalwart of the city's hospitality scene for more than two decades. And yet, despite being synonymous with Sydney's most famous ocean views, Terzini, who has helmed dozens of successful venues in Australia over the past 30 years, has become an increasingly familiar sight on the streets of Kings Cross and Potts Point in recent months. Spotting the renowned tastemaker strolling up Macleay Street — with his armfuls of tattoos and achingly cool fashion-forward wardrobe — could be reasonably chalked up to his short-lived but wildly popular pop-up Snack Kitchen — a laidback Italian-leaning cucina-cum-wine bar he co-opened alongside his son Sylvester on a corner plot set to be redeveloped into luxury apartments. However, it turns out that there's another reason behind Terzini's recent visits to the Glittering Mile. [caption id="attachment_967005" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Nikki To[/caption] The restaurateur is turning impresario to launch an innovative new venture on Bayswater Road, set to welcome its first punters this spring: a 21st-century cabaret club developed in partnership with Peter Shopovski of queer party collective House of Mince. The dinner-and-a-show concept is aiming to rekindle the now-dormant glitz and excess that was once so essential to The Cross' identity, but through a blend of hospitality and hedonism that is firmly rooted in the now. Much like Snack Kitchen, Mirage KX will be a temporary "residency" within a building awaiting redevelopment. However, Shopovski says that while it may be here for a good time not a long time, the venue will help reclaim the area's status as the nightlife hotspot of Sydney — a reputation that was all but erased by the now-repealed lockout laws. [caption id="attachment_969835" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Dean Tirkot[/caption] "Reviving this vernacular of nightlife in Kings Cross is important to me. It's about reconnecting with a vibrant history that once defined the area's identity and bringing that energy back to life," Shopovski says. "Kings Cross has always been a hub of creativity, diversity and bold expression, and restoring that essence feels like paying homage to its legacy. It's about honouring the past but also infusing it with new energy, ensuring that the spirit of Kings Cross continues to thrive and inspire." For more than a 13 years, House of Mince's collective of artists, DJs and rabble-rousers have created vibrant, unapologetic, joyously safe spaces for the LGBTQIA+ community to gather and celebrate. From Marrickville warehouses and Mardi Gras dance parties to residencies at Dark Mofo, Vivid and Subsonic, and even takeovers of the Sydney Opera House, House of Mince has set the gold standard for queer party events in Australia — so much so, that they are the official Australian partner of the mythically cool Berlin nightclub Berghain, presenting associated artists when they visit on Antipodean tours. "It's not just a show; it's a statement, a community celebration and a night out that champions the curious, the courageous and the captivating." While it might seem like something of a departure for Terzini to take on a live performance venue, the Mirage KX concept is a passion project that's been in the works for several years, building on previous collaborations between House of Mince and Bondi Icebergs during 2023's Sydney World Pride and this year's Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras. "Maurice and I have admired each other's careers for years and there's always been a mutual pull towards collaboration." Shopovski explains. "Maurice's reputation for redefining the hospitality landscape makes him the ideal partner for realising the vision for this venue. Partnering with such a revered legend means a lot to me — it brings a depth of expertise and a touch of prestige that elevates the project. It's not just about combining our creative ideas but also about learning from Maurice and ensuring that every aspect of the venue reflects both [House of Mince's] bold vision and his unparalleled standard of excellence." [caption id="attachment_969838" align="alignnone" width="1920"] (L–R) Ché Daniel and Peter Shopovski[/caption] A night at Mirage KX will be an immersive experience, where the boundaries between hospitality and performance will blur. "Imagine stepping into a space where the energy of the House of Mince parties is transformed into a more intimate, yet no less euphoric, experience," Shopovski says. "You can expect a mix of provocative, boundary-pushing acts, sexy decor and an inclusive atmosphere. It's not just a show; it's a statement, a community celebration and a night out that champions the curious, the courageous and the captivating." To achieve this seamless melding of service and performance, Terzini and Shopovski have tapped front-of-house veteran Ché Daniel, who boasts stints at top Sydney diners including Restaurant Hubert, Billy Kwong and Longrain on his resumé. Guests can expect service that is polished and sophisticated yet infused with elements of the unexpected. Mirage KX will be one of the boldest additions to the area's nightlife in years, but a Kings Cross renaissance has been in the offing for a while now, in large part thanks to the efforts of Club 77's Dane Gorrel and hospo heavyweight David Spanton who saved treasured institutions Piccolo Bar in 2021 and Cafe Hernandez, rebooted as Vermuteria in 2023. Spanton has also channeled another fabled venue from Kings Cross' past at his latest venture, The Hook, a piano and oyster bar that, in part, pays homage to the Bayswater Brasserie — once one of Sydney's ritziest restaurants. [caption id="attachment_969839" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Dean Tirkot[/caption] Mirage KX is set to open this spring. Follow the Mirage KX Instagram account for future updates. Top Image: Dean Tirkot.
It has been 21 years since The Offspring topped Triple J's Hottest 100 with 'Pretty Fly (For a White Guy)', a win that still ranks as the annual countdown's most controversial result to date. It has also been nearly four decades since the band first formed in the early 80s, and almost 30 years since it came to mainstream attention with hits like 'Come Out and Play' and 'Self Esteem' — but the Californian outfit isn't done belting out its catchy brand of punk just yet. Offering music fans their latest huge blast from the past, The Offspring is heading to Australia and New Zealand for a massive tour in 2020. No, it won't be doing that brand new thing, but rather playing all of its famous tracks — including 'Gotta Get Away', 'Why Don't You Get a Job?', 'The Kids Aren't Alright' and the song that's forever cemented in Australian radio history, obviously. Still led by frontman and guitarist Bryan "Dexter" Holland — the band's only remaining member from its initial 1984 lineup, so you can definitely call him the original prankster — The Offspring will hit up Perth, Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane and Auckland in April. And, because one old-school band isn't enough, it'll have company in the form of Canada's Sum 41. Basically, this big tour is your excuse to pretend its the late 90s and early 00s, bust out the appropriate attire — retro sneakers are a must — and get the words "gunter glieben glauchen globen" stuck in your head for another couple of decades. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AltMeuPkWRs THE OFFSPRING 2020 AUSTRALIAN TOUR DATES Perth — Sunday, April 19, HBF Stadium Adelaide — Tuesday, April 21, Entertainment Centre Theatre Melbourne — Thursday, April 23, Margaret Court Arena Sydney — Friday, April 24, Horden Pavilion Brisbane — Saturday, April 25, Riverstage Auckland — Tuesday, April 28, Spark Arena Early bird tickets for The Offspring and Sum 41's Australian and New Zealand shows go on sale from 9am local time on Friday, January 31, with general tickets on sale at 9am local time on Monday, February 3. Visit the tour mailing list to sign up for further details. Top image: Sum 41 via Selbymay for Wiki Commons.
When it comes to exploring Broome (Rubibi) and the Kimberley, we recommend packing your sense of adventure. This vast, varied stretch of country holds some of the most breathtaking landscapes and unique experiences in the world. There's ocean wilderness and colourful coral wonderlands, Aboriginal cultural sites and places of ancient, enduring story and significance. You'll see otherworldly rock forms, lush greenery and sprawling lakes, optical lunar illusions and sideways — yes, sideways — waterfalls. There's nowhere like it, and there are so many ways you can explore. Whatever way you want to adventure, we've got a standout spread of activities here to choose from — and a few ready-to-go trips if you're already packed and ready. It's time to choose your own quest out west.
With International Margarita Day landing on Wednesday, February 22, bars and tequila brands across the country have received the memo that it's time to celebrate everyone's favourite salt-rimmed cocktail and run with it. In fact, they've been marking the whole of February as Margarita Month. From free margs to multi-venue festivals celebrating the drinks, there are plenty of ways patrons can get in on the action. One of the more tongue-in-cheek promotions is a cocktail giveaway popping up at two of Australia's most beloved bars, Tio's Cerveceria in Sydney and Los Amantes in Melbourne. The pair of tequila-loving venues have both teamed up with El Jimador to give away free margaritas, but only to a select few. Playing on the longstanding tequila maker's name, anyone named El or Jimmy can claim one free cocktail. Just show your ID and you'll be presented with a margarita on the house. The promotion does extend to anyone with Jimmy- and El-adjacent names including James, Jim, Elle, Ella and Ellie. El Jimador has also populated a helpful map on its website to make sure you can always find a margarita around the corner. The venue finder shows partnered venues that you can hit up during Margarita Month for the cocktail of the moment. FYI, this story includes some affiliate links. These don't influence any of our recommendations or content, but they may make us a small commission. For more info, see Concrete Playground's editorial policy.
Now, you can cycle all the way from Green Square to Central Station without having to shake off a dirty look from a single road raging driver. The City of Sydney has created a 2.4 kilometre long bike path, keeping two-wheelers entirely separated from four-wheelers; linking Zetland, Waterloo, Alexandria and Redfern. "It’s a really important route," says City of Sydney Cycling Strategy Manager Fiona Campbell. "Green Square’s going to see 40,000 new residents in coming years and those people are only fifteen minutes’ ride from the city... It’s going to be such an attractive option that I think lots of people are going to use it." In addition to functioning as a commuter route, the path will also serve as an arts-leisure adventure. "There’s the National Centre for Indigenous Excellence [at 166-180 George St]," Campbell explains. "There’s also Prince Alfred Pool at one end, a skate park in Waterloo and the City’s Library and facilities at Joynton Park, which it connects to." On Saturday, June 14, between 11am and 2pm, Prince Alfred Park will host a massive launch party, dubbed Roll Through Redfern. Australian Balkan Gypsy trio Lolo Lovina will provide the live soundtrack, the Veggie Patch Van will be selling gourmet delights and there’ll be pedal-powered smoothies, as well as free coffee (yes, you read that right, FREE COFFEE). You’ll also be able to score bike help without spending a cent — whether you need safety tips, route advice or assistance of the mechanical variety. Meanwhile, Green Square’s regular markets will be happening at Joynton Park between 9am and 2pm. Everyone who gets themselves a stamp either there or at Prince Alfred Park will enter a draw to win a $1,000 bike package, a Magellan bike computer or a bunch of Prince Alfred Park Pool multi-visit passes. The Green Square-Central cycle way brings the Council one step closer to the realisation of its masterplan — to ensure that Sydney cyclists can enjoy at least 200 kilometres of bike paths by 2030. "We’ve already got about 110, 120 kilometres of network, though much of it’s not separated," Campbell says. "We’ve got twelve kilometres so far of separated cycleways. The 200 is going to be made up of mixed traffic streets and shared cycle paths as well. A lot of it just needs upgrading." The statistics indicate that pro-cycling campaigns and infrastructural changes, particularly segregated paths, are making a big impact at road level. "Each facility that we open sees a massive increase in cycling," Campbell confirms. "Accounts of the Bourke Street cycleway, for example, show that there are five times as many riders on Bourke Street, near the Phelps intersection, as there were four years ago. Whenever we put it in a new cycle way, it just booms. People really, really want to ride. Give them the option to do that in a comfortable, beautiful, pleasant way, and they’ll be in there." If you’re curious about cycling in the city but still feeling reluctant to take the plunge, check out the free bike maintenance classes and cycling in the city courses happening every single week at both Sydney Park and Joynton Park.
Stay tuned. More info coming soon. Image: Mitch Fong / Lift Performance.
The local craft scene is slowly expanding into the mainstream, as the opening of Beer DeLuxe at King Street Wharf clearly demonstrates. Although, that's not a bad thing; until now, apart from the Red Tape Brewing Co., the area has been wholly devoid of craft beer. This is the fifth Beer DeLuxe to open — there are two in Melbourne and two in regional NSW — but the Darling Harbour outpost is their first Sydney location. With over 150 brews to choose from, not every beer is a win — Carlton Draught, for example — but, impressively, 20 of the taps are dominated by Australian beers. And more than half of which are Sydney locals, including favourites like Wayward Brewing Co., Young Henrys and Akasha Brewing Company. Sure, it's a bit gimmicky. There's a famous beer quotes wall and the beer garden is covered with AstroTurf, but any place we can get Brewmanity on tap gets a big thumbs up from us. If you're keen to check out some international craft, the Beer Bible — a manual which includes the history of beer and a description of styles — has beers from every well-known region across the US, Europe, Australia and NZ. Not a beer drinker? They've got your kind covered too, with a wine list and cocktails. If you're here for more than boozing, we recommend going for the 'beer food'; it's a drink in one hand, food in the other type of affair. The pulled lamb sliders ($14) and chicken wontons ($14.50) are especially tasty, and the Korean twice-cooked chicken wings ($14) are a must-try. Head in on a Monday for $6 schooners and Tuesdays for a $15 burger and beer deal, while live music Thursdays and Sundays will have you covered for the weekend. If you're seriously into your craft, check out the Beer DeLuxe Home Brew Heroes competition — the winner of which gets to have their own beer commercially brewed and available on tap.
A new Japanese spot is touching down at Barangaroo House this May, slinging Japanese snacks, sandwiches and bowls from the ground floor's House Bar. Rekōdo Katsu Kanteen is upstairs restaurant and listening bar Rekōdo's little sister. To commemorate its grand opening on Wednesday, May 15, the casual eatery will be giving out free sandos (sweet potato, prawn or chicken katsu) to the first 100 guests from 1pm. Headed up by Barangaroo House Head Chef Michael Dabbs, the menu spotlights Japanese comfort food. Standouts include the market sashimi with pickled ginger and wasabi, crispy eggplant with pickled chilli, and soft-shell crab baos topped with pickles and hot sauce. For something more substantial, there are options like bang bang chicken salad, wagyu donburi with wagyu tataki, and a wafu salad with your choice of protein. Of course, the main sandos are available in the form of prawn and crab katsu with cabbage and tartar sauce, pork katsu with an omelette and bulldog sauce, two chicken katsu options, and a vego-friendly sweet potato miso katsu. Rekōdo Katsu Kanteen will open to the public on Wednesday, May 15. Head to the website for more details.
