Hometown highlights
A friend in town, an anniversary, an “I deserve it” moment … welcome to the luxury micro holiday club On a shiny winter’s day, seagulls, surfers and whale-watchers are framed in the picture windows of Bondi Beach’s famous Icebergs Dining Room and Bar. The caviar tartlets and the thyme-infused Campari spritz have been dispatched. A…
Small but perfectly formed, Regatta is back in Sydney and dressed to kill. Imagine you’ve arrived a little early at Jay Gatsby’s drawing room in West Egg, Long Island, ahead of a lively soiree. The marble floors are being mopped and polished to a shine; there’s the sound of carpets being vacuumed; the Christmas tree,…
Remembrance of things (almost) past … from razor gangs to Art Deco lines just as sharp Packing boxes ready for a Blue Mountains relocation, I was suddenly overwhelmed by a sense of not having done my Kings Cross history homework to a high enough standard. I wanted one last round, and a ‘hood hangover to…
A new luxury pharmacy with scent to burn and treats for pets opens on Sydney’s fashion strip There is no end to the number of ways you can appreciate a good scent. Proof was the official opening this week of Santa Maria Novella at The Intersection in Paddington (Shop 10, 2-16 Glenmore Road), a heady…
Tapping into this year’s staycation imperative is a new way to explore Sydney Harbour Excess All Areas played hooky this week, exploring the bays, beaches and bushland of the playground that is Sydney Harbour on Spectre, a sleek 12-metre Scandinavian Axopar37 sports cruiser, aka MySydneyBoat. Company director Mark Dalgleish and his skipper daughter, Elodie Dalgleish,…
Find position, panorama, and a parade of shiny navy ships at Sydney’s Embarkation Park One of Sydney’s best views is from Embarkation Park. It’s located at the Potts Point end of the famous Kings Cross thoroughfare, Victoria Street. In one visual sweep you get the works! Look for the naval ships docked at Garden Island,…
Drawing on the savoir faire of a flamboyant French “nose”, Saskia Havekes announces a new addition to her Grandiflora family A fine perfume, says Saskia Havekes, has shape, tempo, and beauty. And, if you’re lucky, Christophe Laudamiel. The French chemist and master perfumer came on board to help create the final fragrance in Havekes’s exclusive…
The luxury French perfume house, Creed, has opened a boutique in Sydney’s Double Bay. On a November evening in chic Double Bay, the bold and the beautiful are milling about on the footpath outside 36 Cross Street, clinking glasses of Perrier-Jouet to celebrate the opening of the first Sydney stand-alone boutique from the enduring luxury…
Technique, vision, and a Venezuelan cacao bean have produced a chocolate that leading chefs are doing their block over … Some never forget a face. Chef Giovanni Pilu, of the award-winning Sydney restaurant, Pilu, never forgets a taste. Several years ago, he encountered what he thought might be the perfect chocolate. “It was at the…
Offal is possibly one of the food world’s most divisive menu items. Most people either love it or loathe it. If it’s the latter, there’s a harbourside dining dock that might change your mind… Offal is never going to be the gourmet world’s red carpet glamourpuss. Not for brains, tripe or liver the…