Toko: 490 Crown St, Surry Hills NSW Communal tables: love ‘em or hate ‘em, they’re here to stay. Those in the ‘aye’ camp love the vibey social aspects of the long benches made famous by Longrain and Wagamama — walk in with your company’s prehistoric Accounts Manager and walk out with a groovy new friend
Sweet Infinity: The Strand Arcade, Shop 18, Ground Floor 412-414 George St, Sydney NSW (02) 9231 0472 or www.sweetinfinity.com.au Marie Antionette would have a field day poring over the window display of Sweet Infinity’s new Strand Arcade outlet. It’s the first retail-only outlet for pastry chef and owner Leanne Beck, and the designers GroupGSA had
Fall Out Boy is an Emo band. Well, actually it may not be an Emo band… it would help if I actually knew what ‘Emo’ was to make that particular judgement. Whenever I ask someone younger, and with baggier pants than myself, for the definition of Emo, they say ‘My Chemical Romance’, in much the
Connections Nightclub: 81 James Street, Northbridge WA Perth’s Connections Nightclub, after celebrating 30 years of continuous operation last year, has done what every self-respecting lady does these days after passing such a milestone… she’s had a facelift. And not just a lick of paint and some botox, we’re talking about ‘the works’ with nearly half
Reina Bruja: www.reinabruja.com Spanish designer Tomás Alía’s latest Madrid project, Reina Bruja nightclub, is an ever-changing environment thanks to clever use of the LED technology that delivers a palette of 16 million colours to any nook of the club. A subterranean space divided by columns, Reina Bruja magically combines light, colour and organic curves from
Maybe I’m a slob, I’m not entirely sure. But once I walk through the door of a hotel room I like to spread out. The contents of my bag get strewn to all corners in a matter of minutes. This normally occurs to the strains of some ‘top stories at the top of the hour’
Dazzle: www.huge.co.jp/DAZZLE Diners at Tokyo’s latest fashionable restaurant, Dazzle, are bedazzled by more than just the amazing interiors. As they step out of the elevator floor they encounter not a swish maître d’ station but a frenetic kitchen! Owner, Yoshihiro Shinkawa, says the aim is to share the ambience of chefs preparing the food, while
It’s been a busy year. That’s 2006 I’m talking about, not 2007, which remains tantalisingly out of reach as I write. How busy? Five expresso machines busy. Ché? Let me explain. The best yardstick of the pace of my year is how many stove-top expresso machines I incinerate — the more frenetic I get, the
As we were going to press, Justin Timberlake and ‘Weird Al’ Yankovic were both riding high in the download charts. One, of course, is white and nerdy, while the other has made a business out of producing high-quality pop parodies. One looks totally incongruous as he tries to hang with the homies, while the other
Hesperia Tower: www.hesperia-tower.com Barcelona’s Hesperia Tower hotel, designed by Richard Rogers Partnership, is a somewhat controversial skyscraper whose architecture and design are reason enough to make it a destination hotel. This imposing monolith, with a glass-honeycomb-domed restaurant perched on top like a visiting UFO, towers 104 metres high. It also features a second restaurant ‘Bouquet’