Local - 15 January 2010

CAFE VUE AT HEIDE

Café Vue At Heide: 7 Templestowe Road, Bulleen VIC (03) 9852 2346 or www.heide.com.au/heide_cafe At the opening of Café Vue at the Heide Modern Museum of Art in Melbourne, Minister of for the Arts, Lynne Kosky, pronounced chef/owner Shannon Bennett an “artist in the true sense of the word”. Kosky may well have been referring

Backchat - 5 January 2010

Rich Bastards Anonymous

Did you know that Tag Heuer is pronounced Tag Hoy-er, and not Tag Heurghhh? You did? Well, you’re doing better than me. Did you know that Longines (pronounced: Lawn-jean and not Long’ns) has released its Quadruple Retrograde with more needles than a Spitfire cockpit? I bet you did. Welcome to the rarified world of Rich

Video Watch - 20 December 2009

Shakira – She Wolf

It’s nice to be occasionally reminded that the music world’s past present and future is neatly ‘yin and yang’ed by the Anglo bop of the Beatles and the Afro-American cruisey groove of Smokey Robinson. Occasionally a pop anomaly appears from another culture entirely, bypassing the conveyor belts of the MTV machine… and hundreds of millions

Local - 15 December 2009

Perth City Gate Overhauled

Citigate Perth: 707 Wellington St, Perth WA (08) 9327 7000 or www.mirvachotels.com/citigate-perth Citigate Perth is a four star 278-room hotel managed by Mirvac hotels. The hotel had previously been the Orchard/Grand Chancellor Hotel and its dated interior was in dire need of an upgrade. Woodhead was commissioned to provide design services for the $9m refurbishment,

Local - 15 December 2009

My Fair Verona

Pendolino: The Strand Arcade, 412 – 414 George Street, Sydney NSW (02) 9231 6117 or  www.pendolino.com.au Juliet draped over her balcony waxing lyrical to a bleeding-hearted Romeo is probably the only scene of Verona most could conjure up. And it seems Italian restaurateur Nino Zoccali is tapping into that sentimentality with his latest venture, Pendolino:

Function Space - 12 December 2009

Bankstown’s Ballroom Blitz

Bankstown Sports Club 8 Greenfield Parade, Bankstown, NSW (02) 9722 9888 or www.bankstownsports.com Paynter Dixon Managing Director Greg Howard has been working with Bankstown Sports Club for over two decades, adjusting the club’s master plan through various stages of its successful expansion into neighbouring properties. The latest string in the Bankstown bow is the Grand

Backchat - 5 December 2009

Slicing the Metaphorical Pie

Let’s just say you were buying a car and you gave me the job of finding the right one. You make it clear to me that the engine was important, it had to be powerful, well maintained, yet quite easy on the gas. “Sure, leave it with me.” The next day the alluring big-cat purr

Local - 4 December 2009

The State of Origin

Toby’s Estate: 29 Weston St, Brunswick, VIC (03) 9009 5462 or www.tobysestate.com.au Toby’s Estate has moved south in a move to claim a chunk of Melbourne’s coffee trade. The boutique coffee supplier distributes to over 100 cafés across New South Wales, and, wishing to remain boutique, has stopped its push across its home state, opting

Video Watch - 17 November 2009

Aqua — Back to the ’80s

Guess what? Aqua — a loose affiliation of talentless Norwegian Eurovision rejects — has decided to wager its final shred of credibility on the decade that style forgot — that’s right, the ’80s.Apparently we oughtta ‘get back to’ the Reagan Era for some satellites, skinny ties, Top Gun, Twisted Sister, Mr T, moon boots, Dynasty,

Spa - 15 November 2009

Fishing for Compliments

The Sebel Surry Hills Sydney: 28 Albion St, Surry Hills, NSW (02) 9289 0000 or www.sebelsurryhills.com.au After all these years the name Sebel still has the ring of louche abandonment about it. Of course, I’m referring to the now defunct Sebel Townhouse in Elizabeth Bay, the notorious rookery for the ‘mad, bad and dangerous to