One of the standout establishments of Darlinghurst's colourful cafe scene, Japanese spot Sandoitchi put itself on the city Sydney sandwich map when it opened in 2018 with a standout pork katsu sando on its menu. Succulent pork deep fried in panko served with cheese, nori, pickled carrot and tonkatsu mayo in between two crustless slices of white bread, the katsu sando was an immediate hit — and one of our favourite in the city. You'll now find that same pork katsu atop koshihikari rice on the Oxford Street shop's new dinner menu. Combining fresh seafood and traditional Japanese flavours — such as umami-packed miso, tangy yuzu and spicy szechuan — the dinner offering is available from 5.30–9.30pm, Wednesday–Friday. Seafood-lovers should look to the 'small' dishes, which include jumbo oysters, yellow fin tuna and a unique take on katsu made with Balmain bug. The mains focus on the traditional tonkatsu sets, all coming with house katsu sauce, koshihikari rice, miso soup, cabbage and white ginger dressing. Choose from the aforementioned signature pork sirloin katsu, or ones made with chicken, tofu, fish or prawns. You can complement your meal with fruit sodas and four different Teacraft teas — and follow it up with a green tea panna cotta or yuzu sorbet served with honeycomb, strawberry and fried banana. Plus, everything — apart from the king prawn katsu ($21) — is under $20, too. The cafe is only open for dinner four nights a week for now, but if you do end up swinging by during the day, you'll find another exciting new addition on the menu: truffle. Available for a limited time ('tis the season), the menu features extravagant truffled versions of the egg, prawn katsu and buttermilk fried chicken sandwiches. If you'd like to get a little creative, you can also add truffle to any dish for $15. Sandoitchi is now open for dinner from Wednesday–Saturday from 5.30–9.30pm. It's also open for breakfast and lunch from 7am–3pm Monday–Friday and 8am–3pm Saturday–Sunday.
The salon is back. Not the hair salon (although that is very much back too, thank god), I'm talking Paris in the 18th century. Social gatherings where artists, writers and other enlightened folk could discuss big ideas without needing to stick within the guardrails of polite society. Admittedly, this could describe your last afternoon hit out at the pub. But a couple of Sydney-based curators and culture aficionados are bringing back the concept of the artist salon as it was originally intended — and to be a fly on the wall would be a pretty killer ticket. Susan Armstrong and Michelle Grey are the duo behind Arts-Matter. They curate events that bring together artists from various mediums — from painters to product designers to hip hop artists — and host them in intimate settings to spark conversations around society, creativity and cultural values. It all started in the first of Australia's lengthy lockdowns when restrictions were preventing people from accessing art in the usual means via tangible exhibitions, galleries and shows. So Armstrong and Grey took the unprecedented circumstances as an opportunity to try something a little different. "While there's always been incredible programming offered at our favourite museums, galleries and institutions, their events can sometimes be genre-specific — an artist talk at a gallery, or a music performance at a concert hall," explains Armstrong. "We wanted to provide people with a broader cross-section of the cultural arts." "Creativity thrives when silos collide, and many of us are interested in hearing interdisciplinary discussions with thought-leaders across the cultural gamut, from fine art to music, theatre, fashion, architecture, literature and film. We've also found that by hosting small salon-style events in private homes, guests open up and connect in a way that's not always possible in a public venue. Plus, you were allowed to drink while standing up, which was a big bonus!" Excellent point. In the year since Arts-Matter was conceived, Michelle and Susan have brought together an impressive lineup of Australia's most fascinating creative talent to speak and perform, including Genesis Owusu, Ben Quilty, Ngaiire, Tony Albert, Dinosaur Designs founder Louise Olsen, Ramesh Mario Nithyendran, and Rafael Bonachela. The pandemic has in many ways changed the way we experience art, from the emergence of virtual galleries that can get you a front row look at the great masterpieces to the increasing popularity of NFTs. But is digital the future for artist and art lovers alike? In a word: nah. Says Armstrong and Grey: "We've seen an explosion of promotion on social media — which gives viewers an intimate peek into both the professional and personal lives of the artists we love — and a whole host of digital and virtual shows and art fairs, but nothing beats human connection so we know everyone is excited to get back in touch with the physical world!" "In these troubled times art has the power to heal and unite, and at the same time it's also an important marker of history. Humans need art to express their individual and shared stories. Art and creativity can provide great catharsis for communities, and after almost two years of a global pandemic, we're all in need of a bit of emotional release." You can follow the future projects of Arts-Matter here.
As 2025 races to a close, there's one trend that's well and truly left its mark on the year. The humble run club has proven its longevity — hi, Labubus and Dubai chocolate — with one for just about everything and everyone. But, have you ever joined a run club where the sole purpose is to get you not from A to B, but from A to a free sandwich, iced coffee and a DJ set? Didn't think so. Allow us to introduce The Morning Circuit, a run club event hosted by Abbott's Bakery, Concrete Playground, Rolling Stone AU/NZ, and Refinery29, taking place Saturday, December 6, from 7am until 10am. Then, from 8am–10am at the finish line, the morning afterparty kicks off. Registrations have now closed. The roughly seven-kilometre route will loop through Circular Quay's landmarks for a view of the Opera House and Harbour Bridge bathed in morning light. There will be three groups to suit all levels of pace with five-minute, six-minute, and seven-minute kilometre splits. The run is being delivered in partnership with Sydney Harbour Runners and China Town Run Club. Of course, it all culminates in your arrival at Kosta's Takeaway Circular Quay location for free sandwiches, free iced coffees and a Saturday morning DJ set. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Kosta's Takeaway (@kostastakeaway) If you've visited Kosta's Takeaway before, you'll know its sandwiches are all about simple flavours done to an exceptional standard. Think classic, but not basic. On the totally free menu, you'll find two one-off sandwiches made with Abbott's Bakery's latest bread flavour combinations and the sandwich flavour profiles of the Kosta's Takeaway crew. The Green Machine is the first option. Expect a punch of freshness and colour with avocado, tomato, beetroot, pickled carrots, provolone, rocket, furikake (a Japanese mix of seaweed and sesame seeds), salad cream, and hummus served between two slices of Abbott's Bakery High Protein Loaf. Then we have the aptly named The Shred Sandwich. Perfectly seasoned poached chicken, avocado, crunchy slaw, and lashings of pickled mayo spread over Abbott's Bakery Lower Carb Loaf. Abbott's Bakery's High Protein Soy, Chickpea & Quinoa and Lower Carb White Bread are to thank for the pop-up. So, what better way to sample the new flavours than with an early morning DJ set and free sandwich from one of Sydney's best? Abbott's Bakery High Protein comes with 24 percent of your recommended protein daily intake in two slices — aka, a sandwich — while Abbott's Bakery Lower Carb White has 50 percent fewer carbs per serve*, so you can dig in knowing your macros are well on track. A nice bit of closure after a run like that. Register for your free place on the website, and keep an eye out for more details closer to the event. *Abbott's Bakery® Lower Carb White has 50 percent less carbohydrate (16.6 g per serve) than Abbott's Bakery® Rustic White (36.3 g per serve) Image credit: via Kosta's Takeaway Instagram.
One of my most vivid childhood memories occurred when I was around seven years old. School had just started back from term break and a lot my mates were talking about how great a time they had camping over the holidays. Wondering why I was missing out on all the fun, I asked my mum when she got home from work that evening why we'd never been camping before. Her response? A deadpan, and completely earnest: "But we have been camping, darling – remember that time we stayed at a Best Western?" Not only is this one of my earliest memories — it turned out to be one of my most formative, too. Mine wasn't a particularly outdoorsy family, which is a legacy I have stubbornly (or proudly, depending on the day of the week) kept going. I can't swim — in fact I only started enjoying even getting into a pool just a few years ago. I never managed to master riding a bike. And hiking? I am yet to be convinced that it's anything other than a mind-numbing and utterly pointless endeavour. If I wanted to experience nature, I'd drive through it on paved and well-signed roads in a climate-controlled vehicle, thank you very much. So imagine my surprise when I arrived in Cairns. [caption id="attachment_854603" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Jarrad Shaw[/caption] I felt like David Rose. It's safe to say that a trip to regional Queensland had never been on my radar. But, as a guest of Tourism Tropical North Queensland, I was duty-bound to wholeheartedly embrace the itinerary put together by my incredible colleague and Mission Beach local Courtney Ammenhauser. Yes, it was going to put me well beyond my comfort zone, but that was entirely the point — could this part of the world appeal to someone who can count on one hand the amount of times he's voluntarily been in nature? The short answer is yes, it bloody well can. Over a jam-packed three days, I was shown just some of what the region has to offer by Cairns local Katie Purling. At the risk of being hyperbolic, I was lucky enough to see and do things that I never thought I would see or do. Sure, I didn't have to cosplay as Bear Grylls, but it turns out I didn't have to. There are plenty of ways to explore the spectacularly diverse and truly beautiful tropics that would appeal to even the most discerning of travellers, from luxe, carbon-neutral accomodation set among the rainforest canopy to excellent fine-dining venues that showcase the richness of produce available in Australia's tropical north and First Nations-owned and operated tours offering immersive cultural experiences that offer a fascinating look at Indigenous protected land. [caption id="attachment_854604" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Jarrad Shaw[/caption] While the videos in this feature do a far better job than my words ever could of illustrating the beauty of the tropics, there were some highlights that will stay with me for a while. Swimming (well, wading, really) in the Great Barrier Reef after a very comfortable yacht trip with Sailaway was a once-in-a-lifetime experience that I'll not soon forget. Reef conservation is something that is, understandably, taken quite seriously in the region. Dipping my toes into the Coral Sea's crystal-clear waters dotted with an infinitesimal fraction of its fascinating coral formations was a truly humbling experience that afforded me an almost tangible perspective (beyond my existing but more conceptual one) around just how important it is to keep the Reef thriving. As a regional leader in ecotourism, Sailaway not only gets visitors up close to the Great Barrier Reef in a responsible way with trips that are 100-percent carbon neutral, but is also an active participant in coral planting and monitoring initiatives — trips are also offset with a portion of each ticket price invested back into rainforest reforestation projects. If nature walks aren't your thing, the Skyrail Rainforest Cableway, located just 15 minutes north of Cairns, is an incredible way to experience the world's oldest continually surviving rainforest. It's a strange combination of fear and awe as you enter your cable car and ascend up to 90 metres above ground, the ideal spot from which to enjoy sweeping views of the rainforest canopy below and the beautiful blue ocean beyond. I can confirm, though, that the awe quickly consumes the fear as you take in the incredibly diverse sea of green underneath you, especially when the mighty Barron Falls comes into view. A one-way journey on Skyrail is 7.5-kilometres long, with three legs that are broken up with stops featuring stunning lookout points, complimentary ranger-guided boardwalk tours and informative discovery zones. An EarthCheck-certified operator, Skyrail is part of the Wet Tropics Management Authority, which works to protect and conserve this World Heritage area, while its own Skyrail Rainforest Foundation raises and distributes funds to support research and education projects for the tropical wonder. But the biggest takeaway was something I couldn't quite put my finger on until I was discussing my time up north with Courtney upon my return. There's an almost palpable sense of time slowing right down — the days somehow feel longer but you never get the sense that they're dragging on. Whether it's down to the humidity, the warm hospitality of the laidback locals or really more of a general vibe, that, for me, truly felt like the biggest money-can't-buy luxury of all. And even writing this from the far more familiar surrounds of the big smoke, I can't wait to experience that again soon. Nik Addams travelled to Cairns as a guest of Tourism Tropical North Queensland. Top image: Jarrad Shaw
In the latest effort to do the environment a solid by reducing the amount of waste that ends up in landfill, Western Australia has banned takeaway coffee cups that are lined with plastic and therefore can't be composted. Getting your caffeine fix to go in the state now means either sipping out of paperboard or bringing your own reusable cup, with WA leading the nation in scrapping the single-use item. Rules on plastics such as shopping bags, drink containers and straws vary state to state across Australia, with WA the first to completely ditch plastic-lined takeaway coffee cups. All plastic lids are also now banned, with scrapping both coming into effect on Friday, March 1, 2024. The move in Western Australia isn't sudden. It's part of the phase two of the state's Plan for Plastic, and comes into effect after a 12-month transition period, plus widespread consultation. The aim is to save 154-million-plus cups from landfill each year. And the fines for non-compliance are hefty, at up to $5000 for individuals and $25,000 for businesses. Anyone that supplies takeaway cups for hot beverages — be it coffee, tea, hot chocolate or anything else — is covered by the ban. Plastic trays for takeaway foods have also been phased out in the state at the same time, while lids for takeaway food containers, bowls, plates and trays will be ditched from Sunday, September 1, 2024, as will non-compostable plastic produce bags. Finding alternatives to disposable cups, and ways to recycle them, has been a focus across the country for years — as has encouraging folks to bring their own reusable cup. Cafes have trialled 'more recyclable' versions, given out free coffee if you have your own cup and reduced prices. Complete bans at the cafe level have popped up, too, as have reusable coffee cup sharing networks. WA's statewide ban on non-compostable takeaway coffee cups hasn't been implemented before Down Under, however, and here's hoping that other states take note. South Australia is set to do the same from September, while Queensland has announced previously that it's working to identify alternative cups and intends to ban plastic-lined versions, with no date set. The ban on non-compostable takeaway coffee cups and plastic lids in Western Australia came into effect on Friday, March 1, 2024. For more information, head to the WA state government's website.
Celebrated Wiradjuri artist Karla Dickens is bringing her powerful Embracing Shadows exhibition to Gosford Regional Gallery this winter. This survey exhibition takes in Dickens' distinguished 30-year career and explores themes of female identity and racial injustice. Over her career, Dickens' work has been featured in major exhibitions across Australia and internationally, including at the Adelaide Biennial and the Biennale of Sydney, and her artwork is held in numerous public and private collections worldwide. She was also selected to create a new commission for the Art Gallery of New South Wales' Sydney Modern project. [caption id="attachment_960790" align="aligncenter" width="1920"] 'For Sale' by Karla Dickens — Embracing Shadows[/caption] The profound body of work on display at this new exhibition draws from Dickens' reflections on Australian culture as both a woman and a First Nations person in the post-colonial era. Through diverse mediums, she offers a highly personal and politically charged interrogation of Australian history and culture. Embracing Shadows is coming to Gosford Regional Gallery from Saturday, June 22 to Sunday, August 11. For more information, visit the website. Top image: 'Cuddling Bones' by Karla Dickens — Embracing Shadows
Surry Hills is home to some of Sydney's finest and most beloved restaurants, bars, pubs, hotels and cinemas — from shiny new spots to historic stalwarts. In order to celebrate this bustling suburb, a two-week festival of food, drink, music, art and just about anything else you could imagine is popping up in September. Surry Thrills encourages downtown Surry Hills venues to flex what they've got and put on enticing one-off events throughout the 16-day program. Think long lunches, wine tastings, big-name collaborations, bar takeovers, artist talks, art exhibitions, live music and a whole bunch more. There's a heap of names attached to the festival, both big and small. You can expect pop-ups and events from the likes of the Ace Hotel, Alberto's, Butter, Chin Chin, the China Heights Gallery, D.O.C, Gildas, Golden Age Cinema & Bar, Hollywood Hotel, Harry's, Nomad, Paramount House Hotel, Pellegrino 2000, Poly, The Soda Factory and Tio's Cerveceria — all of which are within walking distance of each other. [caption id="attachment_702832" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Alberto Lounge, Kitti Gould[/caption] "Our vision is to link all of the incredible businesses together, unite the Downtown Surry Hills precinct and to highlight the depth and breadth of creativity in this unique and diverse precinct," Brett Robinson of The Point Group said. "We've enjoyed being a part of this great community for many years, and to lead the way highlighting these sensational people and the experiences they create is super exciting." The festival will be taking over the inner-city suburb from Thursday, September 15–Friday, September 30. Full event details will be released shortly, so keep your eyes out for changes to the Surry Thrills Instagram page for further information. Ed Loveday, the festival's Creative Director said: "Surry Thrills is about celebrating what a great place Downtown Surry Hills is to hang out and have fun from morning to night. It's home to some of Australia's most critically acclaimed restaurants, cocktail bars, cafes, and pubs. You can catch a film, an art exhibition, live bands or dance the night into oblivion, then wake up in the morning at one of Sydney's coolest boutique hotels." Surry Thrills will be taking over downtown Surry Hills from Thursday, September 15–Friday, September 30.
If you've looked at a television lately or headed in search of the golden arches to get a feed, then you've probably already realised that 2021 marks 50 years since McDonald's first started serving burgs in Australia. To celebrate, the fast food chain has been splashing advertisements all around the place, and whipping up specials — including 50-cent cheeseburgers and new McFlurrys so far. Up next: Macca's PJs. Obviously, you'll be lovin' them. Teaming up with Peter Alexander, McDonald's has launched a collection of sleepwear that features burgers, fries, golden arches, the chain's red and yellow colour scheme, and its famous figures such as Ronald, Grimace, Birdie and the Hamburglar. Do people wearing burger-covered pyjamas dream of Big Macs? That's the question you can now put to the test. You can clearly expect a big dose of nostalgia as well and, thanks to Ronald and company's presence, to have a fierce hankering for happy meals. Given that McDonald's opened here in the 70s, there's a huge retro feel to the entire range. If, while wearing them, you wake up and start watching cartoons, that's understandable. Ten different items are available now at Peter Alexander stores and via the sleepwear brand's website until stocks last — including PJ pants and sweaters for men and women, and four different matching sets for the latter. Prices start at $69.95 for kids, and span up to $129.95 for long-sleeved women's flannelette pyjamas covered in Macca's well-known characters. The McDonald's x Peter Alexander sleepwear collection is on sale now via Peter Alexander stores and the sleepwear brand's website.
If you didn't see The Fall Guy, Twisters, Deadpool & Wolverine, Challengers, Inside Out 2, The Substance, Kneecap or It Ends with Us on the big screen already in 2024, here's the perfect way to catch up with them: under the stars, while sprawled out on a picnic blanket or sat on a bean bed, at the latest season of Moonlight Cinema. And if watching Christmas films is one of your festive traditions, here's a scenic way to do that, too, with this annual opportunity to enjoy a movie outside packing its just-dropped first lineup for this year with seasonal flicks. As it does every summer, Moonlight Cinema is returning for another run of films in the open air, including at Sydney's Centennial Parklands from Friday, November 22, 2024–Sunday, March 30, 2025. Among the brand-new titles, Gladiator II and Wicked are also on the bill, as are an advanced screening of the Hugh Grant (Unfrosted)-starring horror film Heretic. When Paddington in Peru gets the same treatment, you'll want marmalade sandwiches in your picnic basket. The OG version of Mean Girls will grace Moonlight Cinema's screens, too, as will 2023's smash-hit Barbie. For a merry time at the movies — a jolly one as well — the roster of Christmas fare spans the new Red One, as well as classics Elf, Love Actually, The Holiday, The Muppet Christmas Carol, Home Alone and Home Alone 2: Lost in New York. Come January, A Complete Unknown has your Timothée Chalamet (Dune: Part Two) fix covered and the OG Freaky Friday will give you a blast from the past before the sequel arrives later in 2025. Plus, We Live in Time, Heretic and Mufasa: The Lion King will also play under the stars. Other highlights include Gladiator II, Moana 2, Paddington in Peru and Sonic the Hedgehog 3, giving franchises plenty of love; Better Man joining the music-fuelled picks; the Jesse Eisenberg (Sasquatch Sunset)-starring, -written and -directed A Real Pain; and Conclave's tension in the Vatican. Among the retro fare, Bridget Jones's Diary, Shrek and The Princess Diaries will get you looking backwards. As always, the films and the setting are just two parts of the cinema's experience. Also on offer: the returning Aperol spritz bar. Nosh-wise, the event will again let you BYO movie snacks and drinks, but the unorganised can enjoy a plethora of bites to eat onsite while reclining on bean beds. There'll also be two VIP sections for an extra-luxe openair movie experience, a platinum package with waiter service and a beauty cart handing out samples. Plus, dogs are welcome — there's even special doggo bean beds. Updated: December 12, 2024.
If you're in the mood for the gritty raucousness of old-school New York City this Friday, look no further than CBD favourite Frankie's Pizza. Smash some cheesy pepperoni slices from the pizza parlour out front before swinging through the saloon doors into the delightfully dingy bar behind to catch a live gig. This is the kind of place where the light comes from pinball machines, drinks are served in plastic cups and gig bills cover a substantial portion of the wall space — settle in for a night of rowdy live entertainment.
Owned by an ex-Coffee Alchemy barista, new neighbourhood café Double Tap is serving up coffees to froth over. Despite its remote Marrickville location, hidden among warehouse lots and residential terraces, the new family-owned coffee shop is already starting to pick up steam, with many considering their brews pretty hard to beat. It's the first venue for owner and manager Daniel Karaconji, who worked as head barista at Coffee Alchemy for almost a decade. While the batch of beans may be different, Karaconji continues to win over hearts and spike blood pressures with his silky milks and caramelised cremas. If you're interested in knowing what you're drinking, Double Tap sources all its coffee from small batch roasters only, with its house blend Silver Bullet by Panorama Coffee Roasters in Sydney's Wetherill Park. Used for white coffees only, the Silver Bullet blend is made from Brazilian and Ethiopian beans and reveals lingering notes of cacao, berries and stone fruits. For black coffees, customers can choose their own single origin beans, with offerings from Sample Coffee, Wood & Co, Grace & Taylor, Small Batch Roasting Co and Market Lane, among others. If you're starting to get the jitters, try hitting up the food menu, with Double Tap serving a homely menu of toasted sarnies, fresh salads and brekkie bowls. Made on toasted Brickfields sourdough, the sandwiches are particularly tasty, even more so, when you consider the price. Options include a free-range poached chicken with chives, blanched almonds and a mustard-seed mayo ($9.50) as well as a mortadella, provolone and fresh mint with sliced green olives ($9.50). Cakes are also a standout with Karaconji's wife and mum hand-baking the selection. Today, Karaconji's mum Yovanka has rustled up a CWA-quality strawberry and cream sponge ($6), while his wife Elizabeth came to the table with a glazed lemon and yoghurt ring ($6). Slices are whooping nana-sized portions and the rustic appearances and homemade taste are equivalent to a big, warm hug. While this may be a family-owned cafe, the interiors are sleek, with warm Australian timbers, native floral decorations and a botanical wall mural, painted by Karaconji's brother, Alex. While Double Tap may not be doing anything "new" or "different" per se, sometimes just doing the simple things well can be pretty revolutionary. Images: Letícia Almeida
Making a winter date with Dark Mofo always feels like crawling into another world — and, based on the Tasmanian festival's programs over the years, that's the active aim. The Apple Isle's moody and brooding music and arts event takes its cues from its host and organisers, the Museum of Old and New Art, of course, which results in a lineup filled with the surreal, strange, sublime and surprising. In a 2022 bill that includes everything from rainbows to the Chernobyl score played live in an immersive industrial setting, that trend is naturally set to continue. After announcing the first highlights for this year's fest back in March — and revealing that it'll run over two weeks as well — Dark Mofo has dropped its full 2022 program. If a trip south between Wednesday, June 8–Wednesday, June 22 wasn't already on your agenda, it should be now. All up, Dark Mofo 2022 will feature more than 100 artists from 30 countries, and span everything from acclaimed local names hitting the stage to a life-sized doll house that attendees can wander through, all to celebrate the theme 'resurrection'. [caption id="attachment_849626" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Lingua Ignota video still, courtesy of the artist and Dark Mofo, Tasmania, Australia.[/caption] First, the tunes. The Kid LAROI, Japanese cult-favourites Boris and English indie muso Baxter Dury will be doing their thing on the fest's first weekend — with the latter intriguingly described as "comedown disco". Then, the following week, Chelsea Wolfe and Emma Ruth Rundle join the bill, as do the return of Hymns to the Dead, Swiss metal band Triptykon doing an Aussie exclusive show, Perfume Genius, and four-day experimental and electronic music microfestival Borderlands. Yes, there's truly something here for everyone. Two big music highlights spring from the realm of film and television: live performances of the scores to 2021's excellent new Candyman and 2019's haunting HBO miniseries Chernobyl. With the first, Robert Aiki Aubrey Lowe will be playing the sounds that helped make the movie so unnerving. At the second, Emmy-winner Hildur Guðnadóttir (also an Oscar-winner for her Joker score) will team up with Chris Watson and Sam Slater, and all proceeds from the show will be donated to Voices of Children to help Ukrainian children and families. All of the above joins the previously announced Kim Gordon, who'll bust out songs from her 2019 solo release No Home Record, plus Berlin-based composer and producer Nils Frahm playing Music For Hobart. And, Spiritualized, Deafheaven and American multi-instrumentalist Lingua Ignota are already on the lineup, too. [caption id="attachment_849627" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Sabio / Dark Mofo. Image courtesy of the artist and Dark Mofo, Tasmania, Australia.[/caption] That's your ears well and truly taken care of — but Dark Mofo's visual lineup is just as impressive. Lovers of engaging art will want to check out Japanese Australian artist Hiromi Tango's Rainbow Dream: Moon Rainbow, which will feature a healing colour palette to put viewers in a joyous mood. Also a must-see is Hobart-based Sabio's Holy Mother of God: Emergency Doll House, which'll use projection mapping, sculpture and animation to turn a three-storey building into a carnival-style trip through the subconscious. Jónsi from Sigur Rós is on the bill as well, thanks to a multi-channel immersive experience inspired by the recent eruption of Iceland's Fagradalsfjall volcano. And, so is Anger, a performance dedicated to Kenneth Anger's life and work in occult cinema. And, as revealed last month, there'll be pieces by new video media artist Bill Viola and multi-channel video artist Doug Aitken — plus exhibitions focusing on Jeremy Shaw, Fiona Hall and AJ King, and Robert Andrew, which'll all launch at a music, fire and art-filled Mona Up Late shindig. [caption id="attachment_849628" align="alignnone" width="1920"] The Blue Rose Ball. Photo Credit: Dark Mofo/Jesse Hunniford, 2018. Image of Société Anonyme Costume Ball Hadley's Orient Hotel. Image courtesy: Dark Mofo, Hobart, Tasmania, Australia.[/caption] Throw in a heap of Dark Mofo's signature festivities — such as the return of The Blue Rose Ball and its costumed debauchery, the Nude Solstice Swim (because it wouldn't be Dark Mofo without it), the City of Hobart Winter Feast on the waterfront, Night Mass: Transcendence in the In The Hanging Garden precinct and the Reclamation Walk — and yes, this is a huge program. Also popping up again is Memorial, too, which sees people provide the ashes of their loved ones to be placed inside a handcrafted firework that then explodes for everyone to watch. Dark Mofo will run from Wednesday, June 8–Wednesday, June 22 in Hobart, Tasmania. For more information or to buy tickets — with subscriber tix on-sale at 10am on Monday, April 11 and general tix at 12pm on Monday, April 11 — head to the festival website. Top images: Winter Feast, Dark Mofo 2021. Dark Mofo/Jesse Hunniford, 2021. // 3.2, 404.zero, Dark Downtown, Dark Mofo 2021. Dark Mofo/Remi Chauvin, 2021 // Courtesy: Dark Mofo, Hobart, Tasmania, Australia.
Situated at the heart of Sydney's historic centre, The Collective is Hunter St. Hospitality's new dining and drinking precinct bringing the ideal blend of sophistication and easygoing atmosphere. Opening in April, three restaurants, four bars and several smaller spots primed for elegant refreshments contrast against the storied neighbourhood's cobblestoned streets and turn-of-the-century architecture. Old meets new in terms of the dining options too, with much-loved establishments like Saké and The Cut Bar & Grill complementing the arrival of The Collective's three headline venues – The Garden, The Dining Room, and Cloakroom. With each offering a distinctive atmosphere and culinary flair, there's no shortage of ways to match your mood whether you're seeking an intimate dinner for two or a group feast with friends. Diving into the new venues, The Garden is an al fresco eatery styled after leafy, Parisian courtyard restaurants. Surrounded by heritage-listed buildings in this central hideaway, the vibe shifts from low-key coffee and sandwiches in the shade during the day to cocktails and dinner beneath a starry sky at night. Drawing from The Dining Room's menu, expect light and bright fare, like king prawn cutlets with gribiche. The Dining Room levels up the sophistication inside with welcoming but refined cuisine and surrounds. Here, a locally focused menu becomes a little more indulgent, with seafood dishes like blacklip abalone with bottarga and black rice alongside yellow tuna with blood plum and celery. After your feast, you're invited to head upstairs to the bar and lounge for cocktails and cosy seating. Building on this identity, Cloakroom is where guests can kick back in style with a top-shelf cocktail. Designed for maximum moodiness, warm timbers, dim lighting and plush seating give this 20-seat venue a swanky ambience. The drinks menu is suitably luxe, with a signature Cloakroom martini flanked by a complex collection of cocktails ready to enliven your evening. "Hospitality precincts are having a moment in Sydney, and I believe their appeal will only grow. With an 1800sqm footprint spread across three levels, we saw an opportunity to create something even more special with the properties we already have," says Hunter St. Hospitality CEO, Frank Tucker. "Each venue offers something unique, from casual dining to premium experiences, making The Collective as appealing to tourists exploring the area as it is for corporate and Sydneysiders." The Collective opens in April 2025 at 18 Argyle Street, The Rocks. Head to the website for more information. Images: Steven Woodburn.
Before SXSW Sydney made its debut in 2023, movie lovers in the Harbour City — and those keen to travel there for a getaway spent in darkened rooms — had one major film festival to look forward to each and every year. Now, there's two. While Sydney Film Festival showcases the latest and greatest in cinema from around the globe each winter, SXSW Sydney's Screen Festival does the same in spring. Last year's The Royal Hotel-opened lineup was impressive. Revealing more program details for 2024, with plenty still to drop before the event's Monday, October 14–Sunday, October 20 dates, 2024's already is as well. SXSW Sydney has been unveiling the films on its roster for a few months, but this is its biggest lineup announcement for 2024 yet, with over 20 new movies added to the bill. Cults, cat-loving animation and Christmas carnage: they're all included. So are a heap of titles that've had festivals around the world buzzing — and an array of homegrown highlights. Azrael sports an Aussie link courtesy of actor Samara Weaving (Scream VI), who stars in a post-apocalyptic tale about a woman's attempt to escape from mute zealots. For feline fanciers and Japanese animation fans alike, Ghost Cat Anzu follows a girl with a phantom mouser for a guardian. And, the Yuletide mayhem comes courtesy of Carnage for Christmas, with a true-crime podcaster in the sights of a psychotic killer. Among the pictures continuing to do the festival rounds, mom-com Babes is led by Ilana Glazer (The Afterparty) and helmed by Pamela Adlon (Better Things); Audrey features Jackie van Beek (Nude Tuesday) as a mother who steals the identity of her teenage daughter, who is in a coma; DiDi unpacks Californian adolescence for the Asian American son of immigrants circa 2008, and won two awards at Sundance; and Grand Theft Hamlet sees out-of-work thespians stage one of Shakespeare's most-famous plays in a video game during lockdown. Or, there's two different stints of incarceration: the maximum-security prison-set Sing Sing boasts Colman Domingo (Drive-Away Dolls) at its centre; and Inside, which stars Guy Pearce (The Clearing), Cosmo Jarvis (Shōgun) and Toby Wallace (The Bikeriders), is directed by Charles Williams, who won the 2018 short film Palme d'Or for All These Creatures. Other standouts span Pavements, which sees filmmaker Alex Ross Perry (Her Smell) focus on the band Pavement via an experimental blend of documentary, narrative, musical and more — and, still on tunes, the 2009-set mockumentary Rap World, about friends trying to make a rap album in one evening. Plus, doco Omar and Cedric: If This Ever Gets Weird spends time with At the Drive-In and The Mars Volta's Omar Rodriguez-Lopez and Cedric Bixler-Zavala, while Teaches of Peaches goes on tour with its namesake. In a roster of flicks that has a little bit of everything, Lucy Lawless (My Life Is Murder) moves behind the camera for the first time to direct documentary Never Look Away about CNN camerawoman Margaret Moth, Peter Dinklage (Unfrosted) and Juliette Lewis (Yellowjackets) lead western-thriller The Thicket, dark Australian comedy A Grand Mockery will make its world premiere, The Gesuidouz brings a slice of Japanese horror, and Witches digs into the connection between maternal mental health and society's depiction of witchcraft. Even sports graces the bill, with Aussie documentary Like My Brother charting the journey of four aspiring AFLW players from the Tiwi Islands, and Queens of Concrete following three skateboarders trying to balance being teens with attempting to score an Olympics berth. The above movies — and more — boost a lineup that already features documentary The Most Australian Band Ever! about the Hard-Ons; S/He Is Still Her/e: The Official Genesis P-Orridge, which is executive produced by Against Me!'s Laura Jane Grace; Alien Weaponry: Kua Tupu Te Ara, about thrash metal in the Māori language; and, after That Sugar Film and 2040, Australian actor-turned-filmmaker Damon Gameau's Future Council, chronicling a cross-Europe trip with eight young minds to explore climate change solutions. There's also Slice of Life: The American Dream. In Former Pizza Huts, the latest documentary from Barbecue and We Don't Deserve Dogs' Matthew Salleh and Rose Tucker, who are no strangers to SXSW in Austin — with the Australian-born, Brooklyn-based duo exploring the US today through former Pizza Hut buildings. SXSW Sydney's Screen Festival includes a hefty lineup of speakers as well, which is where attendees can look forward to hearing from Australian filmmaker Warwick Thornton (The New Boy), Aussie composer Jed Kurzel (Monkey Man), Barbie executive producer Josey McNamara, Brave co-director Mark Andrews and Academy Award-winning Slumdog Millionaire composer AR Rahman — and Lawless, too. [caption id="attachment_971937" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Courtesy of Focus Features / Talking Fish Pictures, LLC. © 2024 All Rights Reserved.[/caption] SXSW Sydney 2024 runs from Monday, October 14–Sunday, October 20 at various Sydney venues. Head to the SXSW Sydney website for further details.
Sydney-based artist Khadim Ali is having his first solo showing at the Art Gallery of NSW. Entitled The Haunted Lotus, the free exhibition opening in March explores themes of heritage, family, morality and the consequences of fanaticism. Combining traditional with contemporary processes, he serves up everything from video to handmade rugs to delicate gouache and ink paintings inspired by the writings of Persian poet Ferdowsi. An Afghan Hazara born in Pakistan (his grandparents fled Afghanistan to Pakistan in the 1920s after a massacre of Hazaras), Ali now lives in Sydney. His work is personal in that he explores his own demons, but it also sounds pretty epic in that he looks at displacement in general and the dehumanisation — or what he calls “cultural vandalism” — that results from the persecution of a people. "My demons are the story of my historical self and a people who are displaced and shelterless around the world," Ali says. Image: Khadim Ali, Untitled 1 (2013)
Maybe your local park is your exercise zone, maybe it’s part of your dog-walking routine, maybe it’s your favourite spot for a beery picnic... or maybe you walk past it every night after work without giving it a second thought. Whatever the case, this week is Parks Week, a national celebration of all the fun our green spaces bring us. It's the perfect time to commune with nature a li'l bit and get involved in some of the free activities on offer. For the fitness freaks there's free personal training sessions, swim assessments and a biathlon. Those who more inclined to gentler exercise can take a guided tour of Hyde Park or Glebe foreshore, with City Parks staff at hand to point out some cool stuff. To check out the full list of activities head to the official site. For most things you can just rock up on the day, but a few require you to register in advance.
In his first major public appearance since the Abbott government's abolition of the Climate Commission, scientist, writer and environmentalist Tim Flannery will be chewing the fat with journalist and publisher Anne Summers in the second chapter of her popular conversation series. Summers will be talking to Flannery, whose 2005 book The Weather Makers profoundly impacted the public conversation around climate change, about a range of environmental issues including the recent heatwaves in Southern Australia. The professor will also be taking unscripted questions from the audience for 30 minutes following the conversation. This should be an interesting night for anyone interested in the future of the newly formed, publicly funded Climate Council, or for those who enjoyed last year's conversations between Summers and former Prime Minister Julia Gillard.
If the words 'escape room' don't have you looking for the nearest exit then Breakout Bar may just be for you. Actually, given the calibre of the drinks at this time machine-slash-cocktail bar, it may be for you regardless. Each escape room has a different theme, say medieval or the future, with different levels of difficulty. Groups have an hour to find their way out by solving a series of puzzles. It's the brainchild of two former coal miners, Brett Baker and Colin Bloomfield, and is designed to be an adventure rather than a scare-your-pants-off sort of fun. Before embarking on their quest, each group gets some time in the cocktail lounge to limber up. If cocktails without the escape route are more your thing, the steampunk-themed bar serves up top-notch drinks and also hosts weekly whisky and cocktail masterclasses.
Patricia Piccinini's otherworldly pieces have popped up all across Australia, and now it's the TarraWarra Museum of Art's turn to host. The not-for-profit public art gallery has announced an almost four-month-long showcase of the artist's efforts from November this year — including the return of her unmissable installation work The Skywhale. The 34-metre-long, animal-shaped hot air balloon will float through the sky in the lead up to the exhibition's opening, so keep an eye out. Called Patricia Piccinini and Joy Hester: Through love…, the exhibition will display from November 24, 2018 to March 11, 2019. It'll not only focus on the woman with an incredibly distinctive view on all things weird and wonderful — and on the thin line between humanity and animal kind that's engrained in her creative portfolio — but on fellow Australian artist Joy Hester. If the latter's name doesn't sound familiar, she was a Melbourne artist who passed away in 1960, favoured brushwork and ink on paper, and is considered one of Piccinini's key influences. This'll be the first time anywhere in the world that a gallery has explored the connection between the pair, with more than 50 pieces on display. With the showcase broadly focused around the theme of love and intimacy as well, visitors will get to see the evolution of Aussie art through the output of the two inimitable figures, with Hester's ink and paper works considered touchstones for Piccinini's sculptures, photographs, videos and drawings. In both camps, attendees will be treated to something either rare or brand new. Much of Hester's work is rarely seen, though her famous couple-focused series Love 1949 and Lovers 1955–56 will be on display. As for Piccinini, she'll be represented by both new and existing large-scale pieces. Piccinini will also unveil a major new work, Sanctuary, at this exhibition. The work is comprised of a wall print, a graphite on paper drawing and, the focal point, a sculpture of two figures embracing. The elderly couple depict characteristics of both humans and bonobos — an endangered ape species known for its intimate relationships. Through this work, Piccinini is exploring human relationships with animals, environment and technology. Images: Rick Liston, Installation view of Patricia Piccinini, Kindred, 2018; Rick Liston, Installation view of Patricia Piccinini, The Lovers, 2011; Rick Liston, Installation view of Patricia Piccinini, The Young Family, 2002; Rick Liston, Installation view of Patricia Piccinini, Sanctuary, 2018; Rick Liston, View of artwork flying in Yarra Valley on November 24, 2018, Patricia Piccinini, Skywhale, 2013; Rick Liston, Installation view of Patricia Piccinini, The Young Family, 2002. All images courtesy of the artist, Tolarno Galleries, Melbourne and Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, Sydney For more spring places, spaces and events to discover in regional Victoria visit Your Happy Space.
Bendigo Art Gallery will honour one of the most influential fashion icons of all time when the Balenciaga: Shaping Fashion exhibition opens on August 17. A pioneering 20th century designer hailing from Spain, Cristóbal Balenciaga was considered one of the leaders of haute couture — and hundreds of his designs are making their way to Australia this winter. For this exclusive exhibition, Bendigo Art Gallery has collaborated with the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. Expect over 100 garments and hats designed not only by Balenciaga, but also by his 30 contemporaries and apprentices at the design house — who include the likes of Oscar de la Renta and Hubert de Givenchy. Along with the designer pieces — including pieces worn by actress Ava Gardner, mononymous 50s model Dovima and 60s fashion icon Gloria Guinness — visitors will gain access to Balenciaga's house through archival sketches, fabric samples, photographs and fashion show footage. This is the gallery's latest fashion-focused installation, with past exhibitions including Melbourne's own Toni Maticevski in 2016, golden era Hollywood designer Edith Head in 2017 and, most recently, an exhibition on Finnish textile icon Marimekkoin June 2018. The art gallery is located about two hours' drive northwest of Melbourne. Instead of flying into Melbourne, out-of-towners can opt to take a newly operating Qantas direct flight from Sydney to Bendigo — and August would certainly be the time to do it.
If you want to awaken all of your senses at once, you need to pay a visit to Sydney's Masala Theory. Expect to be treated to a plethora of neo-Indian snacks and dishes, putting a fun spin on authentic Indian food while embracing the best Indian cuisine has to offer. The concept of the joint was conceived by Owner Yashpal Erda after he was inspired to make his mark on the representation of Indian cuisine in Australia. Ever since, Masala Theory's semi-traditional offerings have aimed to challenge those preconceptions. You'll find this inventive eatery tucked away into a crevice of Crown Street, just past Giuls and Kürtosh. Seating 60, the eclectic venue is adorned with bright interiors, sprays of colour, hand-painted imagery artworks and our personal favourite, a motorbike with neon lights mounted along one of the walls. Start your meal with a bang and dig straight into the renowned curry bombs — thin crispy balls of pastry with the filling of your choice, to which you'll add the curry sauce. These bit-esized morsels are the restaurant's signature dish and a must-try. You can also kick off your night with the theca paneer tikka for a delicious textural journey, the chicken lukhmi for a flavour hit or the Three Sisters chaat for a challenge — and a snap for IG. For something different, try the cheesy masala pavs — masala-buttered sliders with curried chickpea and cheddar cheese. But if snacking on miniature burgers at an Indian restaurant goes against your rules (fair), then opt for the dhungar chicken tikka masala — smoked chicken coated in a creamy masala sauce. The gol hatti chole and tikki — a potato patty accompanied by green curried chickpeas, chiffonade poppadum and pickled mango — is a must-try and completely meat-free. Plus, the dessert selection does not disappoint. Opt for the deconstructed motichoor ladoo for a semi-traditional dessert, or try the gulabi panna cotta for an inventive treat. This experimental menu item boasts Indian rose cream, vanilla pollen and strawberry jelly. Strawberry milk fans, this one is for you in particular. Want to make your meal extra special? Try out Masala Theory's Ride & Dine taxi offering. Here you'll experience a one-hour ride around the city in a decorated Delhi-style taxi before enjoying the restaurant's culinary offerings. It's a real joy for tourists and Sydneysiders alike. Images: Cassandra Hannagan
When the Goodwill Bridge, then the Neville Bonner Bridge, then the Kangaroo Point Bridge each opened in Brisbane, helping pedestrians get around the River City on foot was high among each structure's aims. Brisbane Festival 2025 clearly applauds that idea. The Queensland capital's major annual arts fest is not only embracing the concept, but is also building upon it. How does an event in a city that adores constructing more and more bridges work that reality into its program? By turning those three aforementioned river crossings into art installations — and featuring them in an art trail. Walk This Way is one of Brisbane Festival's big 2025 highlights, in what marks the last year of six at the helm for Artistic Director Louise Bezzina. Brisbane art and design duo Craig Redman and Karl Maier, who are globally known as Craig & Karl, have been given the task of transforming the Goodwill, Neville Bonner and Kangaroo Point bridges with large-scale art. With this free part of the fest's program, you'll not only see these structures as you've never seen them before and, of course, mosey along them; you'll also follow the path around the city to other iconic sites. Craig & Karl have an exhibition at Griffith University's Art Museum, celebrating where they first met, on the Brisbane Festival 2025 as well. [caption id="attachment_1008628" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Craig & Karl[/caption] Across Friday, September 5–Saturday, September 27, Bezzina has plenty more in store for the city — 106 productions and 1069 performances, in fact, featuring contributions from 2260 artists. A huge 21 events in the program are world premieres, while more than 39 percent of the lineup is free. How does Bezzina describe it? "This year's program is a love letter to Brisbane — bold, joyful, and created with and for the city," she advises. "My final festival is a celebration of everything Brisbane Festival has become: a world-class event with a fiercely local heart. From world premieres to deeply resonant community works, this year's program is ambitious in scale and grounded in storytelling, deeply connected to the people and places that make this city so special. As the city comes alive this September, I welcome everyone to take their place in the story." [caption id="attachment_1008620" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Laurent Philippe[/caption] Here's some of the other ways that Brisbane Festival 2025 is showing its affection for its hometown: with after-dark experience Afterglow among those global debuts, filling the Brisbane City Botanic Gardens with fire sculptures and candlelit installations — and also with The Great Gatsby-themed show and pop-up club GATSBY at The Green Light, which is heading to Twelfth Night Theatre to celebrate 100 years since F Scott Fitzgerald's book first hit shelves. Two of the fest's other huge drawcards stem from the world of dance. Thanks to Gems, which was commissioned by French luxury house Van Cleef & Arpels, Brisbane will witness three specific pieces by acclaimed choreographer Benjamin Millepied and LA Dance Project staged together for the first time ever. And courtesy of Baleen Moondjan, First Nations artist and Bangarra Dance Theatre founder Stephen Page is back home in Brisbane with a production that explores the link between baleen whales and Country — and, fittingly, will be performed in a barge featuring whale bone sculptural elements on the Brisbane River. Another must-attend Brisbane Festival show pays tribute to one of the city's beloved Indian restaurants, with A Place in the Sultan's Kitchen not only featuring Joshua Hinton chatting about his family's eatery, but cooking his grandmother's chicken curry live. [caption id="attachment_1008619" align="alignnone" width="1920"] UAVS[/caption] Fellow standouts include yet another dance must-see in Bad Nature, with Australasian Dance Collective and the Netherlands' Club Guy & Roni teaming up; TINA — A Tropical Love Story's tribute to Tina Turner; the solo debut of Josh Taliani, who is behind House of Alexander; Shake & Stir giving A Midsummer Night's Dream a pop makeover as The Lovers; and Back to Bilo bringing Priya and Nades Nadesalingam and their family's tale to the stage for the first time. Plus, AMPLIFIED: The Exquisite Rock and Rage of Chrissy Amphlett is an ode to its namesake, Milestone is William Yang's latest presentation, 100 Guitars gives 2025's festival its mass-participation performance and Community Choir: The Musical does indeed show the love for everyday voices. [caption id="attachment_1008618" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Stephanie Coombes[/caption] Roma Street concert series Night at The Parkland has a heap of Aussie talent on its bill, such as ICEHOUSE, Lime Cordiale, Jack River, Xavier Rudd, Amy Shark, Grinspoon and Cut Copy. To catch Odd Mob, CW Stoneking, Wolters, Phantastic Ferniture and more, head to Tivoli in the Round, which is shaking up its stage setup. And, Wunderhorse, Winston Surfshirt and Sarah Blasko are also on Brisbane Festival's program, as are Brisbane Serenades' outdoor concerts at Brisbane Powerhouse, Manly, Moorooka at St Lucia. It wouldn't be a Brisbane Festival without Riverfire, which will light up Brisbane's night sky with fireworks on the event's opening weekend. Also getting everyone looking up, Skylore will be back with another First Nations traditional story taking to the air via 400 drones. [caption id="attachment_1008616" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Children of the Revolution[/caption] [caption id="attachment_1008625" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Lachlan Douglas[/caption] [caption id="attachment_1008564" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Mellumae and Sean Dowling[/caption] [caption id="attachment_1008461" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Daniel Boud[/caption] [caption id="attachment_1008622" align="alignnone" width="1920"] JD Lin[/caption] [caption id="attachment_1008621" align="alignnone" width="1920"] George Gittoes[/caption] [caption id="attachment_1008624" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Joseph Mayers[/caption] [caption id="attachment_1008617" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Laura Du Ve[/caption] Brisbane Festival 2025 runs from Friday, September 5–Saturday, September 27 at various venues around Brisbane. Head to the festival's website for tickets and further details. Top image: Craig & Karl, Dirty Puppet and Jared Hinz.
Last year, in bitter news for the Sydney restaurant scene, three-hat fine diner Sepia (recipient of a crazy amount of awards) announced it would be closing down at some point in the next two years. Now, co-founders Martin Benn and Vicki Wild (the head chef and front of house, respectively) have given the restaurant closure a date: December 31, 2017. Yep, at the end of the year, the restaurant — which has been open for eight years and is widely acknowledged as one of the best restaurants in Sydney, and the country — will take its leave. But that doesn't mean its owners will. While giving punters a closing date, Benn and Wild have also announced their post-Sepia project: they'll make the move to Melbourne to open a new venue in collaboration with restaurateur Chris Lucasin 2018. Yowsa. The partnership is great news for Melbourne, who is already anticipating a new Chris Lucas opening later this year. Lucas is the Lucas from hospitality group The Lucas Group, the brain behind Chin Chin, Baby, Kong, et al. The trio haven't given any hints as to what the restaurant will be like, but — considering they have decades of experience between them — it's gonna be a guaranteed good time for all our taste buds. The restaurant's Sydney departure also sadly signals the retirement of George Costi, a founding partner of Sepia and renowned seafood wholesaler, who will not renew the Sussex Street lease. But all good things must come to an end — and we give props to Sepia for pulling the plug in its prime and leaving behind a beautiful corpse. The team have promised finale of epic proportions though, so start saving your pocket money if you want to make a reservation before the year is out. We can't wait to see what comes next. Image: Lucas Allen.
The mind behind one of Melbourne's most celebrated restaurants Farmer's Daughters — as well as its sibling venue Victoria — is finally setting up shop in Sydney with an expansive new 220-seat venue. Alejandro Saravia is set to open his new Harbour City venture Morena in Martin Place's historic GPO building this November. Saravia has been a trailblazer in South American cuisine in this country for the good part of two decades, challenging Australian conceptions of Peruvian food across various restaurants since 2006. He launched Farmer's Daughters down in Victoria back in 2021, taking out the Hospitality Award at the annual Melbourne Awards later that year. [caption id="attachment_914963" align="alignnone" width="1920"] GPO Building, Poidabro[/caption] Ambitious new Sydney eatery Morena will be a vibrant celebration of South American food, with Saravia pulling inspiration from his homeland of Peru, alongside Cuba, Venezuela, Argentina, Brazil and Mexico in crafting the menu. "For me, opening Morena represents the culmination of over 15 years of working to shine a light on the unique flavours and hospitality of Latin America," says Saravia. "We aim to transform Australians' perspective of Latin American cuisines, showcasing the diverse culinary heritage beyond just street food, all while preserving the rich cultural roots and authentic flavours that define it." [caption id="attachment_860957" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Farmer's Daughters[/caption] As with Farmer's Daughters, Morena will place heavy importance on the produce used in the kitchen. The accomplished chef and restaurateur works closely with local Australian farmers and producers to guarantee he's utilising the best the country has to offer, while also maintaining strong ties to Latin American suppliers to ensure his dishes are built around authentic ingredients. Paired with the eats will be a strong wine list featuring a hefty showing from Spanish and South American drops, plus a range of signature cocktails starring Latin American spirits. "I am so excited to open Morena in the heart of Sydney," says Saravia. "With this new venue, we will be elevating the way Sydneysiders engage with the diverse cuisines from across Latin American cultures." [caption id="attachment_833157" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Farmer's Daughters[/caption] Morena will open in November 2023 at 1 Martin Place, Sydney — keep an eye on the restaurant's website for further details in the interim.
Whether your running shoes have been pounded to dust or you could just use a high-performance pair, ASICS is hosting a standout giveaway ready to help you leap into a brand-new exercise regimen. Held at Centennial Park on Saturday. January 17, Comfort Swap is offering runners the chance to trade in their old, smelly, blister-inducing shoes for a brand-new pair of ASICS GEL-NIMBUS 28. What's more, making the trade couldn't be simpler. Ballot winners just need to turn up with their old runners, no matter the brand or condition, and swap them for one of 250 free pairs up for grabs. Meanwhile, all swapped shoes will be recycled through ASICS' partner Tread Lightly — an Australian footwear initiative that transforms unwanted sports shoes into running tracks, playground surfaces and more. On the day, a host of ASICS athletes will be in attendance to inspire everyone to add a little more movement to their lives. You'll find Australian men's marathon record holder and Olympian Andy Buchanan, Olympic 400-metre hurdler Sarah Carli, Olympic high jumper Brandon Stark, Olympic springer Kristie Edwards and South Sydney Rabbitohs star Cameron Murray. To help you get acquainted with the new shoes, this crew will lead a quick 3.5-kilometre run around Centennial Park's iconic loop. Ready to enter? The ballot is now open until 7am on Wednesday, January 14, with 250 winners randomly drawn from all valid entries. "Physical discomfort shouldn't be what stops someone from experiencing the mental benefits of running," says Mark Brunton, Managing Director at ASICS Oceania. "This event proves that when comfort comes first, everything changes. This is our Sound Mind, Sound Body philosophy in action: remove the physical barriers, unlock the mental uplift."
NOTE: Penrith Whitewater Stadium will be closed for activities until September, 2023 due to maintenance work. Get the experience of riding wild river rapids, without the whole 'wilderness' bit at Penrith Whitewater Stadium. You're sure to have a unique experience in and around the man-made river (which was the site of the 2000 Sydney Olympics' canoe and kayak events). These days, it's open from September to June for all the rapids-loving thrill-seekers. Atop the water, you can choose to go rafting, kayaking or canoeing. Never rafted in your life? Never fear: the team offers both guided and self-guided sessions, so you'll be in safe hands. Guided rafts are manned by an experienced team member, and all equipment is provided. If you opt to kayak, you're tackling grade-three rapids over 320 metres of pure river adventure. Then when you've paddled to the end, just hop aboard the conveyor back upstream to do it all again. When you're done rolling along that churning white water, stop in at Cafe Whitewater for refreshments and a view towards the glorious Blue Mountains. Oh, and it goes without saying: you will get wet.
This unassuming Japanese-leaning small bar located near Kensington Street's Spice Alley is well versed in the art of making a great highball. It also has an extensive menu of shochu, sake and Japanese whisky. Blossom Bar has just six indoor seats, much like Tokyo's hidden high-rise cocktail bars, so it's not easy to nab a spot here. But, it's well worth it once you do (there are also more tables outdoors). Drinks-wise, the Kinobi Highball showcases Japanese dry gin, zesty yuzu tonic and cherry and peach bitters. Snack on seared salmon nigiri in between sips — it's the perfect combination to appreciate the technical skills and well-executed simplicity required to make both Japanese cocktails and sushi.
The best freebies are those that come with a side of social good. With that in mind, put a note in your calendar to get down to Divide 8 St Leonards from 12–3pm on Saturday, June 14. After making a donation of your choice to Canteen Australia — a charity that's supported young people impacted by cancer for nearly 40 years — the team will hand over a free pizza. This isn't the first time Divide 8 has hosted a donation drive. In previous years, the crew has helped raise over $5000 for charities like MS Australia and Angel Flight. Who says feasting on your fair share of slices can't do any good? For those getting down on the day, claiming your free pizza is simple. Just sign up for Divide 8's newsletter, make a donation to Canteen Australia and follow Divide 8 on Instagram. Then, all that's left to do is choose from a trio of classic pizzas that reward your good deed for the day. Order up a Pepperoni², featuring double pepperoni, roasted capsicum and mushrooms on a tomato base, topped with fried capers; or the Miss Marg, adorned with fresh tomato, buffalo mozzarella and 16-month aged Grana Padano, topped with fresh basil. There's also the Gr8 Deb8, layered with Lucas Meats leg ham, maple bacon, fresh-cut pineapple and 16-month-aged Grana Padano. During your visit, check out Divide 8 St Leonard's other commitment to the community. Teaming up with the duo behind tiny local bakery Fiore Bread, the pizzeria uses their freshly baked sourdough as the base for its house-made garlic bread. Just know, this free pizza giveaway comes with a couple of conditions. There's a one-pizza limit per couple or two per group, with no alterations allowed and available in-store only. Divide 8 St Leonards' free pizza day is happening from 12–3pm on Saturday, June 14. Head to the website for more information.
The Harbour City's waterside splendour is set to get even more beautiful this month thanks to a heap of impressive creative pieces. Slated to run between Thursday, August 11–Saturday, September 24, Waterfront Whale Tales is a new addition to the New South Wales capital's arts calendar. Yes, that name is a big clue — the free outdoor exhibition will feature 30 two-metre-tall painted whale tail sculptures. Each piece is inspired by its location and the land, uniquely painted by an Australian artist, including Indigenous artists, street artists, illustrators and muralists. The full range of sculptures will span a six-kilometre trail along Sydney's Western Harbour waterfront, reaching from Sydney Fish Market past The Star, Australian National Maritime Museum, Darling Harbour, ICC Sydney, Chinese Garden of Friendship, Darling Quarter, Cockle Bay, SEA LIFE Sydney Aquarium, King Street Wharf and past Crown Sydney to Barangaroo. While visitors will be able to walk the full trail in a single stroll, there'll also be mini trails for shorter walks. And, there'll be an app that'll provide details of each, plus stories about the waterfront's past, present and future. Also available via your phone: freebies, discounts and prizes from local businesses along the trail, as well as a major prize for checking out all 30 tails. After the event's six-week run, the sculptures will be auctioned, with net proceeds donated to The Kids' Cancer Project. Sydney's Waterfront Whale Tales will run between Thursday, August 11–Saturday, September 24 along the city's Western Harbour waterfront from Barangaroo to Sydney Fish Market. For more information, head to the exhibition's website.
As a food writer and critic based in Western Australia, Max Brearley lives a life of truffle hunting, native-food foraging and long, wine-led lunches across Margaret River's rolling estates. The southwest lifestyle is what lured him over from the UK, and his work is now regularly published in The Australian, delicious., The Guardian and Halliday. In partnership with Pullman Hotels and Resorts, we're helping you explore more on your next holiday and make sure you get those experiences that the area's most switched-on residents wouldn't want their visitors to miss. In Margaret River, we've called in Max, whose favourite spots range from the region's best winery restaurant to a burger truck run by a street-food doyen he's followed around the world. A stay at Pullman Bunker Bay in the Margaret River region will not only put you in the thick of all this action, it will let you rest and digest in five-star luxury at the end of the day. Read on for Max's top food hot spots in his own words, and check out the rest of our Explore More content series to hone your itinerary for some of Australia's best holiday destinations. CULLEN WINES A founding winery of the region, Cullen has an international reputation for their wines and the manner in which they're produced. Chief winemaker Vanya Cullen has a commitment to the land, seeing herself and her team as custodians. It shows in the wine, which is certified both organic and biodynamic, and it's always a stop when I'm introducing people to the region. A taste of the Kevin John (Chardonnay) and the Diana Madeline (predominantly Cabernet) — both named after Vanya's parents, the winery's founders — is non-negotiable at cellar door. Also high on the must-taste list is the Amber, a Semillon Sauvignon Blanc that is an expression of low-intervention technique. The grapes are fermented in different vessels, including amphora and open fermenters, with extended skin contact. Some describe it as a white, made like a red. MIKI'S OPEN KITCHEN Mikihito Nagai's handle on tempura is masterful. While it may not seem like an obvious dining destination to showcase the region, Miki's Open Kitchen is the essence of what makes the Margaret River region so dynamic; it is a place where winemakers, chefs, artists, photographers, writers and other creative souls are drawn by the ocean, the land, the wine, food and lifestyle. Miki is no exception, and in a matter of years has built a fervent local following for his skill, use of the region's best produce and, well, just being Miki. A seat at the counter for the second sitting ensures plenty of time to watch the master at work. It's fully licensed, though you can also BYO wine, and they serve two sittings an evening. BURGER BONES I first met cook come raconteur Cooper in a south London pub. Then, he was at the forefront of the street food movement and known for making the city's best loaded dogs, with an eye on raising the quality of his ingredients. I didn't think that conversation would lead to a friendship on the other side of the world. Returning home to the southwest after twenty years, he flipped to burgers but is no less fastidious about the meat, the grind, the bread and his technique. Made to order in his customised food truck, Burger Bones isn't fast food, so expect a short wait as he shapes the patty and steams each bun. I favour the Filthy Dirty Burger — a double patty with black cherry barbecue sauce, onions and cheese — but I'm always open to off-menu suggestions. EAGLE BAY BREWING CO The beer community is strong between the capes, and for those with an interest in grain as well as grape, Eagle Bay Brewing Co is a must-try. It's available at bars and bottle shops throughout the region, but there's no better place to drink it than at the source. The d'Espeissis family have been on their Eagle Bay property since 1950, and while the previous generations were more concerned with farming than brewing, it was the younger d'Espeissises who built the brewery and restaurant back in 2010. I'm a fan of their robust Pale Ale, but look out for the Brewer's or Single Series drops. A solid food offering makes it a popular lunch spot, with an atmosphere that is pure southwest; you could be sat next to a mining magnate, a pro-surfer or a jobbing food writer. VASSE FELIX It's a difficult call to name just one winery restaurant, but Vasse Felix never disappoints. It's the perfect spot to enjoy the wares of chief winemaker Virginia Willcock and her team, with an elevated view over some of the estate's original vines. Chef Brendan Pratt took the reins in September 2017 from local legend Aaron Carr (to be found at Yarri, in Dunsborough from early 2018) and he's immediately proven his talent. Asian and European techniques meet, with Pratt celebrating the best of each season. If you've time in the region, Will's Domain in Yallingup) and Knee Deep in Wilyabrup are also home to two of the regions youngest, and most accomplished chefs. YALLINGUP WOODFIRED BREAD Gotthard Bauer, the German baker behind the region's best bread, is modest in a world of hyperbole. He takes an all together slower approach to his craft, using certified biodynamic flour, proper fermentation and resting, and woodfired ovens — a process that is the antithesis of the factory-scale bakeries many have become used to. As well as baking your daily bread, the Bauers also have the Gugelhupf, a candy-striped shack at 18 Yallingup Beach Road, selling the sweet and savoury cake of the same name. I've bought many of these savarin baked treats as intended presents over the years, but strangely they never quite make it to their intended recipient. There is now a Woodfired Bread outpost in Margaret River (Unit 2/2 Boodjidup Road) and at the weekly Margaret River Farmers Market. WHITE ELEPHANT CAFE This is the place to come to understand what Margaret River life is all about, with an Indian Ocean view over Gnarabup Beach. Take a coffee from the kiosk and have a walk on the boardwalk or down on the sand, or sit up on the deck and take breakfast or lunch. White Elephant is a year-round haunt for locals. Beyond just a standard beach cafe, it has great hospitality pedigree, alongside sister venues Morries (Margaret River) and The Common (minutes away, at Gnarabup). While it seems blasé to ignore the view, I'm partial to a spot by the fire in cooler months with a newspaper and the pick of the menu. I've been known to file copy from here. THE COLOURPATCH CAFE At the southern end of the capes, Augusta has no shortage of spectacular views and places to find fish and chips (at least five at last count). The Colourpatch Cafe has in recent years been slowly refurbished, retaining its coastal town charm, with river views from the cafe and terrace. Local fish is chalked up, with Augusta whiting from the Blackwood River a sustainable favourite. While eating in is always an option, my ritual is finding a spot down towards Cape Leeuwin Lighthouse with a view over the Southern Ocean and the possibility, in season, of a whale sighting. SETTLERS TAVERN A Margaret River institution, Settlers Tavern has one of the best wine cellars in Australia. While on the surface it is a traditional pub, owners Karen and Rob Gough have a passion for wine built through years in the industry; Rob was a one-time San Francisco sommelier and Karen worked to import Australian wines to the States. With many labels not having a cellar door presence, this is the perfect place to discover the region's smaller and often most interesting producers. Added to this, the Goughs aren't parochial in their outlook, and you'll find a good representation of premium Aussie wine from across the country. That's why this is a hub for winemakers, both resident and visiting. RIVERSMITH One-time winemaker Lachlan MacDonald is a familiar face at Riversmith, his cafe and retail space. The whitewashed walls, art deco frontage and sleek design give little hint to its former life as a garage and petrol station. At one time I'd fill the tank here, but I'm much happier filling up on coffee and diving into their menu, which has a focus on good local produce. Licensed, they've got a small selection of local wine and beer available. Homewares, books and design items are available in the rear retail area — a lifesaver on a number of occasions for forgotten birthdays and the odd Christmas present. Explore more with Pullman. Book your next hotel stay with Pullman and enjoy a great breakfast for just $1.
Darlinghurst is already famously home to a rainbow crossing. In Surry Hills, the City of Sydney is planning to implement a lengthy path in Prince Alfred Park decked out in the same multicoloured stripes, too. And now, Coogee is joining the brightly hued celebration of Sydney's LGBTIQA+ community, announcing that it'll turn part of the suburb's beachfront into a rainbow walkway. Come February 2021, timed to support the Sydney Gay & Lesbian Mardi Gras, a 200-square-metre patch of the promenade will get a lively makeover — right by the sand, at the bottom of the existing steps. It's a great spot for it, given that the area already bends around in a circular fashion. Now, it'll be a rainbow-shaped curve, measuring approximately 4.2 metres wide and 47 metres long. The move was approved by the Randwick City Council at its last meeting on Tuesday, December 8, with Randwick Mayor Danny Said noting that "this proposal enhances that tradition and makes a strong public statement of support for our wonderfully diverse local community". The pathway is a temporary addition to Coogee, however, although it will stay in place for a number of months. Exact dates from February onwards haven't yet been revealed. In terms of logistics, the Council is presently assessing two choices: using temporary pavement paint, or opting for outdoor-appropriate non-slip vinyl that has been rendered in the appropriate tones. Either way, you'll be spying a rainbow by the beach very soon. For more information about Coogee Beach's rainbow walkway, which is due to launch at a yet-to-be-revealed date in February 2021, visit the Randwick City Council website. Images: artist impressions of Coogee Beach's rainbow walkway.
If you've always been curious to peek behind the curtain in artist's studios, now is your chance to explore creative spaces at the EDGE Creative Trails Midjuburi. This free two-day festival hosted by the Inner West Council, takes place across 28 artist studios, independent galleries and artist-run initiatives on Saturday, August 12 and Sunday, August 13, from 11am until 4pm. Meet local artists and makers, see works in progress, watch art demonstrations, participate in workshops and join artist talks. You can even buy art created by talented local artists at studio prices at locations in Sydenham, Tempe, St Peters, Marrickville and Dulwich Hill. Some highlights include the 'August Artist Talks' at Airspace Studio where artists will candidly share their creative processes, a ceramic tableware hand-building demonstration at Smith Street Studios and upcycling fabrics with Shibori dyeing at Monster Mouse Studios. For a full list of all the happenings check out the website. Attendees can follow the self-guided map — available on the Inner West Council's website — or book a tour. These tours will guide you along the artist's trail. You can walk, cycle, or bus between spaces or capture your time with a photographic tour. Spaces on these tours are limited, but if you miss out you can guide yourself to the next destination via QR codes hidden at the locations taking part in Creative Trails. EDGE Creative Trails Midjuburi is taking place across the Inner West at select studios, independent galleries and artist-run initiatives from 12–13 August from 11am until 4pm. Find out more information — including a map of the locations — about this free event on the website. Images: Shane Rozario
Wollongong will be rocking its smaller-than-Sydney vibes in a big way when the Yours & Owls music festival takes over Stuart Park for another year on October 5 and 6. This intimate two-day festival is known for its impressive lineup combining local Aussie talent and handpicked international bands in a weekend that rivals any capital city shindig. Though the festival is still in its infancy, Yours & Owls continues to pull some big names — the 2019 festival will be headlined by Amy Shark, Golden Features and Courtney Barnett. The rest of the lineup reads like a roll-call of Triple J up-and-comers, with Meg Mac, Skeggs, Angie McMahon and Baker Boy all on there. Tickets have already gone on sale, so get in quick to snag your ticket — camping is available too if you're wanting to get the best out of the beach and the festival, three-day passes are available on the Yours and Owls website. YOURS AND OWLS 2019 LINEUP Amy Shark Courtney Barnett Golden Features Hot Dub Time Machine Angie McMahon Love Fame Tragedy Meg Mac Odette Ruel Skegss Slumberjack Sneaky Sound System Thudamentals Vera Blue Bad//Dreams Baker Boy Bass Drums Of Death Eves Karydas Frenzal Rhomb Fucked Up Kira Puru Kwame No Mono Waax Yumi Zouma The Beths Blank Realm Ceres The Delta Riggs DIE! DIE! DIE! Genesis Owusu Gooch Palms Hatchie Ocean Grove Totally Unicorn West Thebarton A. Swayze & The Ghosts Bugs Crocodylus Eliza And The Delusionals Georgia June The Lazy Susans Low Life Murmurmur The Nights Pacific Avenue San Mei Burn In Hell Dribs Ducey Muncs Fait Accompli Fika Friday Park Hope Town Husband Wants A Wife Ivori Legal Aliens Lemon Row Orange Passiona Rukus Sam Allen Tapestry Tex The Bungalows The Fangin' Felines The Hints Tuff Mustard Underlay 99 Scapegoats
It's been one year since Loulou opened in Milsons Point, bringing a three-in-one all-day French restaurant, cafe and deli to the North Shore. To celebrate the first 12 months of coffee, champagne, crab souffle, steak tartare and caviar service at the restaurant, the Loulou team is slashing the prices on its croissants down to $1 on Thursday, December 22. Each croissant at Loulou is a three-day process, beginning with Head Baker Brendon Woodward's personal starter dough. Once it's been removed from the oven it's then finished with the restaurant's creamy French butter. There are only 500 of these buttery pastries available on the day so you better get down early if you want to start your Thursday with one. Loulou's boulangerie is open from 7am, but the croissants will be on offer from 7.30am until they are sold out. If you do miss out, you can always head in later to celebrate with the Loulou team over a French lunch or dinner. [caption id="attachment_841014" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Steve Woodburn[/caption]
If you've been battling with the idea of deactivating your Facebook account but decided against it because it would 'disconnect' you from a considerable amount of social happenings, then news of Facebook Messenger, a standalone SMS app that was launched yesterday, might just clench this reality. Competing against Google+ and its accompanying mobile app, Facebook Messenger allows you to communicate with other Facebook users (not necessarily your Facebook friends) via SMS. According to Wired, the app "wrangles all private communication" between Facebook users into one thread. The app also features group chats, picture distribution and location services so you can continue to keep in touch even if you aren't logged onto Facebook - all communication is delivered by either notifications or texts. The app is available through iTunes and the Android Store for free, and if this is Facebook's attempt to do away with SMS by providing the same service at no cost, then deactivating your account might be just a tad bit harder to do. https://youtube.com/watch?v=wcRipEHsA64 Image: cydiaiphoneblog.com
Some events are worth locking into your diary regardless of who's playing and what's brightening up the place, and Parrtjima — A Festival In Light is one of them. An annual favourite in Alice Springs, the Indigenous arts, culture and storytelling festival just might be Australia's most luminous event, as attendees will learn when it returns from Friday, April 7–Sunday, April 16. Parrtjima announced its 2023 dates last year, and also outlined its theme — 'Listening with Heart' — plus some of the light-heavy artworks that folks can look forward to. Now, it has dropped two further details: the list of musicians taking to its stages, as well as a sneak peek at what this year's installations will look like. The music bill overflows with First Nations talent, including Docker River Band, Eastern Reggae Band, Emily Wurramara, JK-47, KAIIT, Karnage and Paul Ah Chee. They'll be joined by Radical Son, Richard J Frankland, Discovering Leerpeen Mara, Rowdy Birds, The Andrew Gurruwiwi Band and The Merindas across the ten days — and with a range of dazzling backdrops. "Parrtjima is a unique experience of large-scale light installations combined with a fascinating program of not just music but also talks, workshops and film," said Northern Territory Major Events Company CEO Suzana Bishop, with the organisation delivering the event on behalf of the Northern Territory Government. "As well as being visually stunning, Parrtjima offers so many other experiences, and the chance to see some of Australia's leading Indigenous artists perform. Combined with the unique tourism offerings available in the Red Centre, Parrtjima is not to be missed." Parrtjima's 2023 theme is inspired by the artwork surrounding the Statement from the Heart. That piece depicts Uluru-Ku Tjukurrpa, the Uluru story of connection, and was created by a group of artists from Multijulu as led by Maruku artist Rene Kulitja. So, Kulitja will work with other of artists for Parrtjima to turn the Statement from the Heart artwork into a large-scale immersive light and sound installation. That means that Parrtjima attendees will find themselves plunged in the world of the Aṉangu people of the Aṉangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara (APY) Lands surrounding Uluru. The idea is to feature ancient songlines, plus Indigenous viewpoints on Country, as well as connecting to First Peoples' strong links with the land, water and sky. Two things that'll also be on the bill: two of the festival's regular annual attraction, aka a huge artwork that transforms a 2.5-kilometre stretch of the majestic, 300-million-year-old MacDonnell Ranges, showering it with light each night of the festival; and Grounded, the installation projected over the red dirt at tourism and conservation facility Alice Springs Desert Park. Free to attend, Parrtjima is just one of Northern Territory's two glowing attractions in 2023, with Australia's Red Centre lighting up in multiple ways. The festival is a nice supplement to Bruce Munro's Field of Light installation, which — after multiple extensions — is now on display indefinitely. PARRTJIMA — A FESTIVAL IN LIGHT 2023 MUSIC LINEUP: Docker River Band Eastern Reggae Band, Emily Wurramara JK-47 KAIIT Karnage (DJ) Karnage n Darknis Paul Ah Chee Radical Son Richard J Frankland Discovering Leerpeen Mara Rowdy Birds (DJ) The Andrew Gurruwiwi Band The Merindas Parrtjima – A Festival in Light will run from Friday, April 7–Sunday, April 16, 2023 around Alice Springs in the Northern Territory. For more information, visit the festival website. Feeling inspired to book a getaway? You can now book your next dream holiday through Concrete Playground Trips with deals on flights, stays and experiences at destinations all around the world.
The classic Italian tradition of aperitivo is more than just a pre-meal drink to warm up the appetite — it's a whole vibe. And that laidback energy is evident all day at L'uva Pasta & Wine Bar, one of a suite of new food and beverage outlets that's adding new life to 25 Martin Place (formerly known as the MLC Centre). This Roman-inspired spot is a prime location for a relaxed catch-up in the heart of the CBD, featuring cosy leather banquettes and an understated colour palette throughout. Take it all in with a selection from the excellent wine list which showcases boutique vineyards from Australia, Italy, as well as a handful from France — there's a more than handy selection available by the glass and carafe, too. Also on offer is a tight list of classic and signature cocktails designed with aperitivo hour in mind. The one-page food menu at L'uva features a considered range of share plates that'll tempt you to hang around for a bit. Highlights include a pillowy nduja gnocchi with cime di rapa, housemade focaccia with a zingy caponata dip and a signature Sardinian fregola with slow-braised octopus.
Our favourite new Sydney bars of 2020 brought us inventive cocktails, natural wines and retrofuturistic interiors. The city's latest wine stop, however, is stripping things back with a sleek look, an extensive wine list and simple, Mediterranean-focused menu. Vini Divini, Italian for 'divine wines', is situated on Carrington Street, just behind Wynyard Station. Out front, you'll find a relaxed alfresco dining area, while inside you'll be greeted by a 1000-bottle strong wine wall, curated by Rockpool Dining Group's former head sommelier Raphael Mulligan. The inner city bar contains one of the city's largest by-the-glass wine lists, with selections from ten wine regions including France, Spain, Greece, Armenia and, of course, Italy. By the glass, the wine ranges from $12–45, while bottles can set you back anywhere from $47–480. Mulligan's continually updated wine list comes courtesy of his relationship with independent winemakers and distributors. Accompanying the wine is the bar's array of Mediterranean nibbles, share plates and heartier meals, from a kitchen overseen by Anason alum Seda Güç. You can ease into the night with the likes of whipped ricotta with black olives and lemon thyme ($9), Pioik rosemary focaccia with olive oil ($9), or Güç's signature baba ganoush ($9). More filling dishes include beef carpaccio ($25), kingfish crudo ($26) and beetroot-marinated artichokes with toasted almonds ($18). There's also a selection of salumi and cheese available to complement your wine, including wagyu bresaola ($13) and gorgonzola picante with fresh honeycomb ($13), while desserts like Ciccione & Sons lime sorbet served with Ketel One vodka ($13), are on offer to provide the perfect nightcap — although a glass of red would serve just as well.
28 Degrees is one of Byron Bay's true luxury accommodations that balances an ultra-convenient location in the heart of town centre with the sanctuary-like feeling and privacy of a true retreat. Some of the major selling points of this beautiful guesthouse include the fact the property is an adults-only stay for guests 21 years and above, eco-conscious elements in the lighting and water operations, the absence of television screens throughout ensuring that you can quite literally switch off from distractions, and all the thoughtful details — from the organic bed linen to Hunter Lab skincare products and provided beach towels, umbrellas and bikes to get you from one side of Byron to the next. The devil in the details are courtesy of 28 Degrees owner Deb Garske, an interior designer whose professional experience comes through in the level of curation you'll encounter during a stay here. No two rooms are quite the same but all have the same level of care and consideration including a complimentary minibar stocked with local produce. There are four different types of room: the Classic Rooms which include access to common areas like the lap pool and a reading room. The Luxury Master Room includes views of the Cape Byron Lighthouse and a large private balcony. The Lighthouse Room which does not offer pool access but includes lighthouse views and and a claw-foot bath for post beach soaks. And finally there's the Plunge Pool Rooms which include a private plunge pool, outdoor shower and private deck. And in the not-too-distant future, 28 Degrees will get the addition of a new wing, which will include the 'Luxury Villa Residence' — a two-story villa boasting a designer kitchen, private entrance, large private plunge pool and walk-in wardrobe. Serious honeymoon material. The Marvell Street location puts you just minutes away from the best of Byron, from Main Beach to the town's ever impressive lineup of great food and drink options (the excellent natural wine bar Bar Heather is a leisurely 10 minute stroll). But the best thing about 28 Degrees is the absolute privacy and ability to properly switch off in a genuinely lovely environment.
With a swag of popular ACT cafes under its belt, and a long, award-filled history to boot, Canberra's largest specialty coffee roaster has taken on Sydney, with Ona Coffee's Marrickville store opening late last month. The acclaimed coffee brand's baristas and brews are often recognised as some of the best at the annual Melbourne International Coffee Expo. It also has a passion for top-quality, sustainably sourced coffee and it's eager to share the love. Step inside the new Sydney cafe and you'll notice a huge central coffee bar, where you can engage with the baristas and letting you watch your cuppa being made. The bright, minimalist cafe space is a coffee-lover's heaven, offering espresso, filter and milk-based options, with a rotation of blends and single origins to choose from. As with all One Coffee venues, milk-based coffees here are served only as a traditional cappuccino (without chocolate), the consistency allowing the beans to play the starring role. But true coffee nerds will be all about the Marrickville store's special reserve coffee menu, offering dosed coffee beans that have been frozen and vacuum sealed at their optimum freshness, effectively hitting pause on the ageing process. Those in the mood for food will find a simple, approachable lineup of cafe-style fare, including creations like the tomato stracciatella with grapes, olive, basil oil and rye, and a kingfish smørrebrød topped with lemon aioli, capers and pickles. Find Ona Coffee at 140 Marrickville Road, Marrickville
This Bondi Beach drinking and dining den has stood the test of time, hence its inclusion on our list of the best pubs in Sydney. The North Bondi RSL has held on to its loyal patrons with decent prices, classic meat raffles and honest community engagement while gathering plenty of other locals and tourists through free live music nights and the recently refurbished bistro. Plus, everyone loves those uninterrupted beach views. They'll never get old. Either spend a long sunny day out on the terrace or head inside to eat, drink and watch the footy with a bunch of rowdy sports lovers. And if you happen to be here for the marvellous sunset, be sure to pay some respect to the veterans by standing up and facing westwards with the rest of the staff and patrons. Appears in: The Best Pubs in Sydney The Best Rooftop Bars in Sydney
Call it the circle of cinema. Call it the movie that was always bound to happen once technology was rolled out to bring The Lion King franchise back to the screen with photorealistic visuals, too. After remaking its 90s animated hit with imagery that helps its animals to appear as if they've walked out of a documentary — well, almost — with 2019's The Lion King, Mufasa: The Lion King is hitting cinemas in 2024 to tell the story before the saga's beloved story. If you just can't wait to spend more time in the lifelike iteration of The Lion King's world, here comes a film about the lion that's king of the Pride Lands before Simba gets the job. As both the initial teaser trailer and just-dropped full sneak peek show, Mufasa: The Lion King is again styled to look like reality, not animation. It also shares Donald Glover (Mr & Mrs Smith), Beyoncé, Seth Rogen (Dumb Money), Billy Eichner (Bros) and John Kani (Murder Mystery 2) with its predecessor, reprising their roles as Simba, Nala, Pumbaa, Timon and Rafiki. As the feature's moniker makes plain, however, Mufasa: The Lion King isn't focusing on any of those characters' tales. Mufasa, aka Simba's father, sits at the centre of a picture directed by Moonlight Oscar-winner Barry Jenkins. The movie is presented as a story told by Rafiki, Timon and Pumbaa to Kiara, the daughter of Simba and Nala, who is voiced by Blue Ivy Carter. So goes a narrative about an orphaned cub who is taken in by a lion with royal blood, then set on a path that leads to the events of The Lion King. Among the voice cast, Aaron Pierre (Foe) does the honours as Mufasa. Kelvin Harrison Jr is Taka (Chevalier), the lion prince who takes Mufasa in like a brother. Tiffany Boone (Hunters), Mads Mikkelsen (The Promised Land), Thandiwe Newton (Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget), Lennie James (Genius), Anika Noni Rose (Pantheon), Keith David (Rick and Morty), Kagiso Lediga (The Umbrella Men) and Preston Nyman (A Small Light) also lend their vocals to the flick. As well as Jenkins, Mufasa: The Lion King boasts another huge off-screen name, with Hamilton great Lin-Manuel Miranda writing the movie's tunes. "Elton John. Tim Rice. Hans Zimmer. Lebo M. Mark Mancina. Beyoncé, Labrinth, Ilya Salmanzadeh. Beau Black, Ford Riley, the incredible music team on The Lion Guard, and so many musical contributors over the years. The Lion King has an incredible musical legacy with music from some of the greatest songwriters around, and I'm humbled and proud to be a part of it," said Miranda. "It's been a joy working alongside Barry Jenkins to bring Mufasa's story to life, and we can't wait for audiences to experience this film in theatres." Check out the full trailer for Mufasa: The Lion King below: Mufasa: The Lion King releases in cinemas Down Under on Thursday, December 19, 2024. Images: courtesy of Disney. © 2024 Disney Enterprises Inc. All Rights Reserved.
All star bands may evoke images of bad-eighties-hair Bono, MJ and Sting getting together to heal the world and feed people at Christmas and all that, but sometimes it just ends up being a spectacular mix of talented musicians, all coming together to make beautiful music.You can soon hear the beautiful music of the Menahan Street band, comprising members of Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings, El Michels Affair, Antibalos and the Budos Band, who were brought together by musician/ producer Thomas Brennick to record in his Menahan Street apartment in Brooklyn.Joined by Charles Bradley and the Dojo-Cuts, these guys produce outrageously groovy soul tunes. You might not be putting your best dancing feet forward but you will certainly have your head bopping and your body slowly rocking to the mellow sounds from the streets of Brooklyn.
What do Euphoria, Yellowjackets, Wednesday, Atlanta, Mr & Mrs Smith, Dark Matter, The Umbrella Academy, The Penguin, Overcompensating and Sirens all have in common, other than being TV shows? Next, what do they also share with Beyoncé's online footprint? Music supervisor Jen Malone is the connection between all of the aforementioned television series, with the four-time Emmy-nominee working on each of them. Then, SXSW Sydney 2025 links Malone with Dr Marcus Collins, Beyoncé's former Digital Strategy Director — because the two have just been announced on the event's Music Festival speaker lineup. When April was coming to a close, SXSW Sydney started dropping its first music acts for this year's fest. A month later as May winds down, it has now revealed the initial list of folks who'll be getting chatting as part of the conference side of SXSW Sydney 2025's Music Festival. How do you stack TV and streaming hits — and movies, too — with the exact-right songs? Malone will take to the stage to spill the details. How should you approach marketing strategy in the music business, and what can you learn from doing just that for megastars ? That's where marketing professor, For the Culture: The Power Behind What We Buy, What We Do, and Who We Want to Be author and ex-Beyoncé team member Collins will come in. Both Malone and Collins are on the bill when SXSW Sydney returns for its third year between Monday, October 13–Sunday, October 19, 2025. As it tends to each year, the festival has been unveiling its latest lineup in bits and pieces, after also revealing that there'll be more free programming and an initial look at the overall speaker lineup in recent months. "SXSW Sydney is about big ideas, bold conversations and unexpected connections. It's a chance to hear directly from the people who open doors — the buyers, curators and deal-makers — and to better understand how to cut through, stay independent or scale globally. Whether you're building a team, exploring how AI can support your creative and business goals, or just looking for inspiration from other creative industries, this is where the conversations start," said SXSW Sydney's Head of Music Claire Collins about the first round of Music Festival speakers. "We're proud to bring this talent to Sydney, and to connect them with the broader SXSW Sydney community. It's a week packed with fun, discovery, and opportunities to connect, collaborate and imagine what's next for music in our region and around the world." Malone and Collins will have company from a wide array of other SXSW Sydney Music Festival guests, such as Brian Hobbs, SXSW in Austin's Director of Music Festival Programming; Patrick Daniel from Reeperbahn Festival in Germany; Airing Your Dirty Laundry podcast host Daphne Berry; Alex Berenson, the All Flowers international label group's Senior Director of A&R; and Justin Sweeting, the founder of Hong Kong's Clockenflap Festival. Also among the names on the program so far: Hallie Anderson, who co-founded Rareform marketing team, Ode strategic agency's Jashima Wadehra, Mardi Caught from marketing and artist services outfit The Annex, music networking platform GigLifePro's Priya Dewan and Pal Norte Festival's Macarena González. If you missed it, the roster to date of musicians that'll be showing off their talents spans both international and local acts. In the first camp: Jasmine 4.t, Freak Slug and Ristband + Pivots from the UK; Slowwves from Thailand; Japan's Suichu Spica 水中スピカ; New Zealand's Serebii and Tusekah; and Cardinals from Ireland. Flying the flag for Aussie acts to begin with: Jamaica Moana, JJ4K, RICEWINE, Sacred Hearts, Swapmeet and BADASSMUTHA. In total, this year's fest is due to feature more than 300 music performances. And, that's just the live tunes side of the event. Across its 1600-plus sessions, SXSW Sydney 2025 will also boast over 550 conference and professional development sessions, 90-plus movie screenings and over 150 games. [caption id="attachment_984093" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Nina Franova/Getty Images for SXSW Sydney[/caption] [caption id="attachment_965208" align="alignnone" width="1917"] Jaimi Joy[/caption] [caption id="attachment_953711" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Jaimi Joy[/caption] SXSW Sydney 2025 runs from Monday, October 13–Sunday, October 19 at various Sydney venues. Head to the SXSW Sydney website for further details. Top image: Brendon Thorne/Getty Images for SXSW.
Circular Quay go-to Bar Mammoni has been transformed into a neat Italian joint that now centres on made-to-order takeaway. This 30-seat cafe and bar has heeded the demands for high-quality takeaway from Grana, its neighbouring sister venue inside the huge Hinchcliff House precinct, and has now turned its attention to dishing up just that. Now operating as a two-in-one pasta bar and deli, the reimagined Bar Mammoni features made-to-order pasta bowls for lunch and dinner, as well as an array of focaccia sambos, pastries and deli goods — like freshly made pasta — to take home. This pivot to takeaway came as a solution to increased demand for on-the-go meals, providing Grana's coveted dishes in a more accessible form for CBD-goers to enjoy from their office, at home or while dining in. "Grana is busy seven days a week but we don't offer takeaway, so the pasta bowls at Bar Mammoni allow us to provide a quick, quality pasta lunch for those who prefer to eat at their desks, or grab one of our laneway seats to take in some sunshine," said Scott Brown, House Made Hospitality Director. If you swing by of a morning, you'll be met with the familiar coffee-slinging sunrise crew alongside the popular B&Es and additions to its pastry selection, including a zesty passionfruit and cheesecake cruffin and a raspberry, rose and salted white chocolate danish, all of which are on offer until lunch. Once lunchtime — or dinnertime — rolls around, you'll be able to order affordable Italian dishes spanning from $18–22 a pop. Expect the likes of cacio e pepe, beef ragu trottole and wagyu lasagne among the selection. As for sambos, you can opt for a mortadella-, salami- and cheddar-starring sandwich paired with green sauce, a falafel, pickled cabbage and labne option or even a classic ranch-dressed roast chicken. You can pair your meal with a tomato, basil and burrata salad, arancini or garlic bread, and round out your feast with a citrus-forward limoncello sorbet or an indulgent tiramisu slice. As for the deli offerings, you'll be able to grab an array of top-quality ingredients, or ready-made pastas, to impress dinner guests or for a hassle-free meal. Take your pick from fresh hand-rolled pastas like gigli, rigatoni, mafaldine and spaghetti, baked lasagne in 500 gram or one-kilogram serves, organic olive oil, and top-shelf Australian provisions and antipasti. In the coming months, you'll also be able to purchase pasta sauces made in-house, so keep an eye out for those. Bar Mammoni is open from 7am–7pm Monday–Friday, and 8am–7pm on Saturday, at 3 Loftus Lane at Quay Quarter. Image credit: Yusuke Obe and Steve Woodburn.
Are you the kind of person who just has to read the book before watching a TV show or movie? Perhaps you prefer the opposite, soaking in every minute of the series or film afresh with no knowledge of what's to come, then devouring the source material to spending more time in its world and fill in the details. Whichever best describes your style of page-to-screen fandom, you're welcome at a new Australian event that's all about streaming hits adapted from novels: Prime Book Club LIVE. You might've noticed that plenty of the streaming platform's recent fare began on the page. It's true of The Summer I Turned Pretty, and also of the Culpable trilogy and also We Were Liars, for instance. So, the service is celebrating that fact in Sydney, putting on Prime Book Club LIVE with a number of authors and actors connected to its lineup as guests. The third and final season of The Summer I Turned Pretty, the platform's most-successful original series, is streaming from Wednesday, July 16 and releasing episodes through until Wednesday, September 17. Accordingly, author Jenny Han — who not only penned the books The Summer I Turned Pretty, It's Not Summer Without You and We'll Always Have Summer that the show is based on and is the series' showrunner, but also wrote the To All The Boys I've Loved Before trilogy — is on Prime Book Club LIVE's lineup. So are Lola Tung and Rain Spencer (Test Screening). Ahead of Culpa Nuestra (Our Fault), the third and final Culpable trilogy flick after films Culpa Mia (My Fault) and Culpa Tuya (Your Fault), reaching Prime Video in October, author Mercedes Ron is also getting chatting in the Harbour City. Taking place from 5pm on Thursday, July 31, 2025 at Machine Hall in Sydney, Prime Book Club LIVE boasts Lucinda 'Froomes' Price as its host, features a #BookTok panel, and sports an immersive setup spanning interactive experiences, giveaways and more. The event is also set to cover We Were Liars — which has an Australian connection thanks to Invisible Boys talent and future The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping star Joseph Zada — and others that fit the page-to-screen mould, including upcoming book-to-screen titles. Attendance is free, but you'll either need to register for a ticket in advance from 12pm AEST on Monday, July 14 or try your luck for one of the limited seats that'll be available on the day. The Summer I Turned Pretty images: Erika Doss © AMAZON CONTENT SERVICES LLC / Craig Barritt/Getty Images for Prime Video.
Spoilt as we are by a city of surf and sun, it's no secret we Sydneysiders are prone to a bit of a whinge when the weather starts to turn. Now, don't get us wrong: we love binge-watching Netflix in our snuggies as much as the next guy. But we're here to bust all your best excuses to stay home when it pours with our picks of the ten best things to do on a rainy day (or even a crisp, less-than-outdoorsy one) in Sydney. GET SWEATY AT SKY ZONE There is nothing more gleeful than jumping around with reckless abandon like a child. And by opening its trampoline-lined doors until 10pm on weeknights and midnight on weekends, Sky Zone (75 O'Riordan Street, Alexandria) lets you do just that without jumping on a child. Sydney's first indoor trampoline park sits in Alexandria and brings you foam pits into which to fling yourself, basketball hoops to dunk like Shaq and dodgeball games to join, as well as some pretty intense 'skyfit' classes that channel all that bouncy fun into strategic cardio and muscular workouts. Other places to get sweaty this winter: Enjoy an 80s aerobics workout at Retrosweat, shake what your mama gave you at No Lights No Lycra, or get high and mighty at ClimbFit. GET FULL AT THE FOUR IN HAND No amount of rain can bring you down when you've got a craft beer in one hand and some warming comfort food in the other, so make your way into the back streets of Paddington for award-winning pub grub at the Four in Hand (105 Sutherland Street, Paddington). You don't even need to book into the fancy dining room to enjoy the renowned nose-to-tail experience; the bar offers creative (and surprisingly delicious) dishes like pan-fried duck egg with a rich slab of black pudding and crispy bits of pig's ear ($18), or you can keep things simple with a burger and crunchy chips ($19). If you're celebrating, 48 hours' notice and $35 per head will score you a whole roast pork belly plus trimmings for ten people. Other places to get full on a rainy day: Smash a brilliant burger at the Duck Inn, or go for the razzed-up pub grub at Hart's Pub. GET WATCHING AT THE GOLDEN AGE CINEMA AND BAR Watching Marilyn make Manhattans while sipping on our own is our idea of heaven. The Golden Age Cinema and Bar (80 Commonwealth Street, Surry Hills) has gifted us this fabulous reality by restoring the old screening room of the heritage-listed Paramount Pictures building in Surry Hills and running two screenings a day (tickets $20, Tuesday-Sunday) of old favourites like Some Like It Hot and Casablanca all the way through to critically acclaimed newbies. The teensy art deco cinema is made even cosier by clever cinema snacks such as cinnamon doughnut popcorn and a 'Spielberger' pastrami toastie, which you'll want to wash down with a wintery classic like a Maple Pecan Old Fashioned or a Golden Negroni. Other places to get watching this winter: Catch an arthouse film and a vegetarian feed at Govinda's or enjoy a free cult classic at Smash Cut Cinema. GET SKILLED AT THE ESSENTIAL INGREDIENT Homeware emporium The Essential Ingredient (731-735 Darling Street, Rozelle) boasts an industrial kitchen in which you can learn to create all sorts of deliciousness this winter. From Mexican street food to Moroccan stews to gluten-, dairy- or sugar-free treats, the chef-run cooking school schedule has something for everyone and covers both the total beginner and the Masterchef in making. The classes are relaxed and communal, with everybody pitching in to create the day's feast and then sitting down to devour the tastiness created together. You'll go home with a recipe pack and, no doubt, a basketful of artisanal goodies from the adjoining store. Other places to get skilled this winter: Get pickled with Cornersmith, step outside your comfort zone at Work-Shop; or get trigger happy with Sydney Photographic Workshops. GET LISTENING AT THE OLD 505 The sexy, brooding jazz den that unfolds at 5 Eliza Street, Newtown only gets cosier as the rain outside gets heavier. This intimate artist-run space has transformed (not to mention physically moved) in recent years from an underground secret into a stalwart of the music scene, now operating not only as a fantastic venue but also a centrepoint for local music and theatre communities. You can snuggle up in one of the comfy couches and catch some serious local or international talent, Pinot and tapas in hand. There's no wonder we're drawn here when the skies start to fill: in the words of Duke Ellington, the rain drumming on the roof and the storm raging in the sky are music. Other places to get listening this winter: Get noisy among the vinyl at Black Wire Records. GET BUZZED AT THE LOBO PLANTATION What's more warming than rum? Rum that's been delicately spiced, generously buttered and served piping-hot for you to sip in your comfy lounge chair by candlelight, that's what. Yours awaits in the underground Cuban den that is the Lobo Plantation (209 Clarence Street, Sydney), together with an epic collection of the sugarcane liquor ready to be devoured neat or in cocktail form. Add to that some fiery empanadas prepared by the team at Food Society and spontaneous bursts of flame when the delightfully pyromaniacal bartenders torch their cocktail garnishes and you're all set for a seriously snug evening in from the rain. Other places to get buzzed this winter: Sip on 'Gunther's Gluhwein' at Arcadia Liquors, hug a steaming mug of mulled cider at Mr Falcon's or get technical with a titrated hot toddy at the Eau de Vie Apothecary. GET WIRED AT GOWINGS BAR AND GRILL It's no secret that inclement weather operates as an energy-sucking black hole, so perk yourself back up with the double-coffee double-chocolate caffeine-fest that is Gowings' (49 Market Street, Sydney) renowned affogato ($16 or $24 with a shot of Patron). Creamy dark chocolate ice-cream is sprinkled with crispy Valrhona chocolate pearls and organic prunes, all ready to be drenched in a double shot of Allpress ristretto and, at your choosing, a liberal serve of Patron XO Coffee Tequila. You'll be singing in the rain like Gene Kelly by the time you're through with this little number. Other places to get wired this winter: Check out the brew bar at the Paramount Coffee Project, indulge in High Coffee at the Intercontinental or learn to distinguish origins at the Campos Coffee Cupping Room. GET PAMPERED AT CHI SPA Head in from the cold and spoil yourself with a hot stone treatment at CHI at the Sydney Shangri-La (Level 2, 176 Cumberland Street, Sydney). CHI massages and treatments are based on authentic natural healing methods drawn from traditional Asian cultures and feature local botanical ingredients like lemon myrtle and eucalyptus. The signature hot stone massage ($175) involves the placement of heated basalt stones on key points in the body to relieve tension, improve circulation and rebalance the body and mind. The indulgent treatment ends with a light oil massage, a refreshing facial spray and a warming cup of T2 tea. Other places to get pampered this winter: Snuggle into a natural clay and hot oil massage at the Park Hyatt, indulge with a honey exfoliation and yoghurt cocoon at Endota Day Spa or experience a Moroccan hammam-inspired ritual at the Darling Hotel. GET CULTURED AT WHITE RABBIT GALLERY Step inside White Rabbit Gallery (30 Balfour Street, Chippendale) for some warm, dry kulcha. Check out their bold, rotating major exhibitions, alongside the gallery's super eclectic permanent collection — the upper floors are crammed with more colourful art communicating the stories of 21st-century China. Plus, there's a tea room calling you to rest your weary, art-appreciating legs. Other places to get cultured this winter: Experience some of Australia's best theatre talent at Belvoir St Theatre, absorb yourself in grassroots urban arts at the Red Rattler or get some laughs at the Giant Dwarf. GET SMART AT DARLO BAR Every Wednesday from 8pm, keep your head with 'Texas Chainsaw Trivia' at Darlo Bar (306 Liverpool Street, Darlinghurst). Hosted by rambunctious Darlinghurst locals Coffin Ed and Jay Katz of FBi Naked City fame, trivia here involves three rounds of eccentric questions, spot quizzes and novelty segments. The winning team at the end of each round scores drinks for the table, with the ultimate champion going home at the end of the night with a hamper of animal-themed DVDs such as The World's Scariest Bears (don't ask us) and a couple of bottles of wine. Good fun to be had by all. Other places to get smart this winter: Win the heads or tails pot at the Four in Hand or snuggle into the Dove and Olive for their Tuesday triv.
When your inner child is begging to be let out, you've got to turn the city into your giant playground. Whether you want thrills and spills or sugar rushes and showbags, there are many ways to embrace your childlike sensibilities in Sydney. You can marvel at sea creatures, get set with go karts or give your adrenal gland a workout on wet and wild waterslides in the west. Get ready to spoil your dinner and stay up way past bedtime — you'll soon find being a kid is a whole lot more fun now that you make the rules. BREAK YOUR FAST AT PANCAKES ON THE ROCKS Rise and shine and head to Pancakes on the Rocks for its beloved all-day brekkie menu and a nostalgia-filled start to your day. Settle in for one of its famous pancake stacks like the decadent chocolate peanut butter, sweet and sour lemon meringue or the nutty macadamia stack. Or, if you're after something simple yet satisfying, opt for a classic serve with ice cream and maple syrup. If variety is your thing, order an Aussie Sunrise which includes pancakes, bacon, eggs, fried banana and pineapple rings. There are also savoury options available if you're not in the mood for a sugar rush. [caption id="attachment_844751" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Felipe Bustillo via Unsplash[/caption] CATCH A MORNING MOVIE SESSION Nothing screams 'I'm on school holidays' like seeing a movie before midday. And HOYTS at the Entertainment Quarter is the ideal spot to have a morning cinematic experience. Catch the hottest new releases at the Xtremescreen or book in for a blockbuster on the LED Samsung Onyx screen to get lost in a deeply immersive viewing experience — it's the first LED cinema screen in NSW. Not sure what to watch? This'll help. [caption id="attachment_762120" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Sea Life Sydney[/caption] DIVE DEEP INTO SEA LIFE Been a while since you hit up SEA LIFE aquarium in Darling Harbour? Even when you're all grown up, an up-close view of the wonders of the ocean never gets old. Stop in and meet nature's marvellous sea cow, Pig the Dugong, take a boat ride to slide up next to penguins, or explore the famous underwater tunnels where you can watch sharks and wobbegongs float on by. You can also learn about the conservation projects underway, get up close in the rockpool touch tank or just marvel at your favourite undersea pals like serene turtles, gliding rays and bright tropical fish. SPEND THE AFTERNOON GETTING TOPSY TURVY The House Down Under describes itself as "Australia's first inverted house photo experience", which is, well, exactly what it sounds like. Yep, just a perfectly normal house that's completely upside down. Each room is flipped on its head (with all furniture secured, of course), chairs above you, roof below. The whole house is a surreal, Alice in Wonderland-type topsy-turvy experience. Experience it for yourself and snap the most disorienting selfie of your life as you stand on the ceiling and reach up to the living room floor. GET YOUR HEART RACING Speed around Australia's largest indoor go-kart circuit at Hyper Karting at the Entertainment Quarter. Here you'll find a heart-pumping 410-metre track with an environmentally friendly difference. These German-made electric karts not only offer great handling and a smooth ride, they also have higher acceleration than your standard kart meaning you can go faster with a quieter and cleaner vehicle. You can book in for as many 15-minute racing slots as you like, but it's recommended you take a little break in between laps so you can hit the track again in top form. Got a whole swag of mates who want to lean into their childhood? You can book the whole 16-place race for your crew and see who really has the need for speed. GET WET AND WILD AT RAGING WATERS Grab a pass for the day — or the full season — and make a splash at this 25-hectare water park in Western Sydney. Battle white water as you spin and whirl through rushing channels on a whole bunch of thrilling slides. Cool off with high-speed plunges and twists and turns in the enclosed Aqua Tube, hurtle at 60 kilometres per hour on the 260Rush, swing back and forth through tidal waves on T5 or race your mates on the H2Go Racers. When you need to refuel, pick up pizza or grab a salad for lunch to enjoy on the man-made beach before hitting the slides one more time before heading home. STRIKE THE NIGHT Strike at the Entertainment Quarter is a cut above the bowling alleys of your childhood. Seven days a week, this joint buzzes with eight neon-lit lanes, killer tunes and a full bar — one of the perks of going bowling as an adult. Kick back between bowls with a beer or cocktail — there's everything from margs to espresso martinis on offer — or tuck into the tasty food like the smoked beetroot rueben or the beef brisket sando. If bowling isn't enough, enjoy the thrill of the chase in the on-site 30-person laser tag arena or retreat to a private karaoke room to unleash your secret stage persona. TRY YOUR LUCK AT B LUCKY AND SONS B Lucky and Sons is the throwback arcade of your dreams. Your game card is your ticket to fun, so load it up with credits and get ready to be drenched in nostalgia in no time. The arcade has everything from Mario Kart and Space Invaders to basketball hoops and electronic dance games to keep you entertained. Whether you want to hustle to win or simply play for fun, you can test your fortune and, if you're lucky, maybe walk away with a winning prize. Whatever your approach, you can head to the bar to celebrate your wins (or losses) with your mates afterwards. LOSE YOURSELF AT LUNA PARK Remember how it felt visiting a carnival as a kid? The excitement of the rides, the roving entertainers and the intoxicating scent of sugar and fried food wafting throughout the grounds. You can relive all that — and also enjoy the on-site wine bar — at Luna Park. If the last time you visited you were a kid, there's a good chance you're now tall enough to go on the rides you missed out on last time like the Big Dipper, Sledgehammer and the 50-metre drop on the Hair Raiser. Challenge your G-force limits in the Rotor or seek some classic thrills in the wooden Wild Mouse coaster. Check out the mirror maze, fun house and slides at Coney Island, test your skills at the sideshow games and grab a showbag for a token of your trip down memory lane. Ready to relive your childhood? For more information on the Entertainment Quarter and its incredible offering of activities, visit the website.
In April, we farewelled Merivale's American-themed Manly eatery Papi Chulo — and now the hospitality group's second Queen Chow has taken its place. Papi Chulo shut up shop back in April, and the East Esplanade space has since undergone a small refurbishment. Group tables are now topped with lazy susans, tanks filled with live seafood greet guests at the door, and deep greens and dark timbers echo the hues of Queen Chow's sister restaurant in Newtown. With the restaurant also bringing over its signature barbecue roast duck and honey-glazed char siu pork platters, what has remained from the site's former guise is the stunning view out across the sparkling Sydney Harbour. In the kitchen, executive chef Patrick Friesen and dumpling master Eric Koh use Australian ingredients to recreate dishes served up at neighbourhood Chinese restaurants. Oysters — served from an impressive zinc-clad oyster bar — come topped with finger lime, Australian pipis are wok-fried with XO, and Moreton Bay bugs are doused in butter and black pepper. You'll also find Chinese-Australian staples such as sticky honey prawns, Mongolian lamb and deep-fried ice cream. Koh's famed dumplings are expectedly a highlight of the menu, with a lineup of steamed or fried scallop and prawn siu mai, pork xiao long bao, prawn har gau and more. Alongside the food menu, Merivale's group sommelier Frank Moreau has pulled together another impressive wine list, with over 200 wines from across Australia and the world. Queen Chow's reopening is part of Manly Wharf's $9 million dollar makeover, and the restaurant will soon by joined by Rockpool Dining Group's Fratelli Fresh and Sake Restaurants — which are set to open later this year on the Wharf's second storey.
