So that was June, huh? Somehow, we’ve reached the halfway point of 2025 already. And as we turn our back on the first half of the year, we also say goodbye to the shortest day too. Here in Sydney, we’re keeping our chapped fingers crossed that this means warmer weather – or at least warmer homes.
You might’ve seen some of the videos on social media of Sydneysiders wondering how it can be warmer outside than in, wearing a light jacket to the shops or the pub then rugging up in jumpers, fleeces and gloves the moment we walk through the door.
Someone even pointed out we’ve created a whole realm of indoor clothes for the Aussie winters; Oodies, Slankets, Uggs – they all exist because Australian homes are so poorly insulated. We have a hole in the mortar of our kitchen wall that you can see daylight through and when it’s windy, all the cupboards open as if by some ghostly presence.
Anyway, enough of me complaining about the cold.
June’s been a fun month with lots happening and plenty of food and drink to fend of the chills.
We’ve also published a whole raft of stories and videos on our time in Laos, which you should definitely check out here.
But this is the month that Vivid turns on the lights around Sydney, which is always lovely to see. We’ve had friends visit from up the coast, dinner catch-ups, big birthdays and impressive media dinners with international hotel groups. I also take a mate to a cocktail party celebration for an iconic Sydney venue, which is a lot of fun.
But I’ll let you read all about it as they say.
Cheers
Jim & Christina xx
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Every June, Vivid Sydney lights up the city with one of the most interesting activations around. Interactive light installations and events shine brightly all over town, bringing thousands of people in each evening.
Tonight, we’re seeing the lights from a slightly different angle: our friend and colleague Nick Wayland, founder of TravMedia – a travel networking company – has a yacht. Here are some of the sights of Vivid from the water.
Even Prime Minister Anthony Abanese has put the lights on for Vivid. It’s good to see Kirribilli House lit up like this.
Seeing Vivid from the water is great – not just because it’s awesome being on the harbour anyway or that you avoid all the crowds – but because you get such a different perspective from here. Thanks Nick.
Tonight we’re out with our lovely friends Sonia and Chris, who are in town from Lennox Head near Ballina. It’s great to see them, especially as it gives us an excuse to explore a couple of new venues.
This is the Baptist Street Record Club in the new development where the Surry Hills shopping centre used to be. It’s a great spot playing some outstanding tunes from the ’90s and with some excellent cocktails (and a generous little happy hour too btw). You can eat here too, but we’ve got dinner plans…
TL-BR: the menu, kefalotyri saganaki, psomi bread rolls, part of the spread incl. lamb meatballs, grilled octopus and fries
We’ve got a booking at Olympus, a beautifully designed Greek restaurant in the same building. The atrium here has a real tree growing in the middle of it and a retractable roof. Very slick.
Food here is brilliantly crafted if a little miserly for the price, but delicious nonetheless. The saganaki cheese is a highlight, frothing and bubbling in its sweet yet salty juices, and the grilled octopus is also superb.
And here are our friends. In the left and middle frames are me and Chris, and Sonia and Christina still at Olympus. The right frame is all of us having one (or two) more drink in nearby Vasco, a Surry Hills institution.
Chris has introduced me to alcoholic ginger beer with a shot of spiced rum in. Me likey – though I also ask the bartender to add a couple of dashes of Angostura bitters to the ensemble. You should give it a go.
This evening, we’re having a couple of drinks at home with our pal and neighbour Bec. A little while ago, Christina and I spotted this board game in the local Salvo’s. It’s called Boganology and is an Aussie ode to Monopoly.
Instead of buying train stations and streets, you can buy bogan icons like a Southern Cross tattoo or a technicolour yawn in Kuta, which costs other players when they land on them. Instead of collecting money as you pass the Go square, you pick up ‘$50 bucks from the Bogan Boss’ when you hit the ‘Benefits’ square.
It’s a lot of fun and we thought it would be appropriate to put on some party pies while we play.
We’re catching up with more mates tonight at the excellent Fratelli Paradiso in Potts Point. We haven’t been here in years and it hasn’t changed much, which I’m happy about.
With us are the lovely Claire and Tim Haigh. Claire used to work in the hotel industry, which is how we know them, but conversation rarely turned to work with us. Nice to have friends like that.
Food here is delicious – though three out of the four of us all go for the pappardelle with slow-cooked beef. Surprisingly filling, it doesn’t leave a lot of space for dessert, so we share a truly amazing bomb alaska with pistachio paste and lemon curd. Magnificent.
Tonight, I’ve managed to sneak to the pub after a long day clearing Christina’s mum’s house out ready for completion of sale. My mate Dom is down from the Gold Coast, so he’s out with my other buddies Brett and Brownie at the Dry Dock Hotel in Birchgrove.
This place used to be a pretty average pub, but it’s had an enormous facelift and now serves swanky things like this lovely botrytis viognier from Yalumba Estate. How very sophisticated!
L-R: me, Danny, Anton, Steve, Gareth, Simon, Richard, Bill
Somewhat less sophisticated but no less fun, I’m out at Maya da Dhaba in Surry Hills tonight with my futsal team. We’ve been playing together since 2005 and the team’s been going even longer than that, so it’s a tight group.
We’ve also been going to this curry house for a long time, but this might be the last time. Service has really fallen off in recent years but the food was always good. This time, the dishes just aren’t hitting the mark, which is such a shame.
There’s a lot of loyalty to this place, but when there are so many great Indian restaurants around, it seems a bit of a waste to persevere with somewhere that’s clearly falling from grace. RIP Maya.
This evening, Christina is flying solo! I’m gutted not to be able to come to this media event with her as it’s not only going to be a beautiful sit-down dinner with some of our favourite people in the travel industry, but it’s also at the International Sydney, a beautiful bar and restaurant in Martin Place’s MLC Centre.
To make matters worse, I’m missing out on the evening’s hosts: the good folk from Minor Hotels. These guys have some superb hotels under their umbrella, including the Anantara Riverside Bangkok, which we stayed in a few years ago, not to mention the Oaks Cypress Lakes Resort in the Hunter Valley.
The reason for these festivities is because Minor Hotels have just released their plans to expand their already impressive portfolio of over 560 properties in 57 countries (a current total of some 81,000 rooms!).
But over the next three years, Minor Hotels are planning to open another 285 new hotels – a total of 47,000 keys) across the world. As the majority of Minor Hotels’ interests are in Europe, focus for this growth is in Asia (100 new properties), the Middle East and Africa (40), and Australia and NZ (60).
When she comes home, Christina tells me about the lavish dinner that’s served at The International.
Canapes of baccala, laab and tuna sashimi, entrees of spatzle with parmigiano Reggiano, and mains of bistecca Fiorentina and John dory break my heart.
She even wins a prize! A free stay at the incredible Anantara Palazzo Naiadi in Rome or the scintillatingly beautiful Anantara Convento di Amalfi Grand Hotel on the Amalfi Coast!
Guess we’ve got to go to Italy now. What a shame!
To rub it in just that little bit more, Christina shows me this: she’s enjoying a delicious looking martini with our awesome friend Jane Lawson at the International. Thanks Chris.
Yes, I’ve complained a lot about not being able to go to the lovely evening with Minor Hotels, but my evening isn’t looking so bad really.
I’m at the Hotel Palisade in the Rocks, an iconic establishment that stands alone on the Sydney skyline. I’m here with my mate Mark a.k.a ‘Frenchie’ for an evening of celebration and entertainment.
You see, at the very top of this monolith of a pub is the elegant Henry Deane, a rooftop cocktail lounge that is turning 10 this year. To celebrate, management have two new and exciting menus on offer featuring creative cocktails and sumptuous dishes.
As we exit the lift, we’re welcomed with a glass of Champagne and a bump of chilled caviar. How very sophisticated! Views – even from here – are astounding as Sydney glitters before us.
Cocktails TL-BR: Home Slice, Tribecca Sour, El Caramello
The bar is a flurry of activity as cocktails from the new menu issue forth. Frenchie and I do our best to work our way through them while trying not to stand out too much – even when Frenchie sloshes most of his first cocktail on the floor during the speeches.
So it is that we start with one and a half Tribecca Sours – a luxuriant blend of Hennessy VS, Luxardo, red wine and a pepper tincture created by the staff behind the bar. It’s superb and encourages us that we should try some others.
A staff favourite, the El Caramello is a potent mix of Don Julio Blanco, coffee, white chocolate and salted caramel. It comes out a little like an old fashioned, with a stamped oversize ice block, but it’s devilishly sweet and moreish.
But the real show-stopper is the Home Slice. Using Kettle One vodka soaked in sourdough bread as the base, flavours from dehydrated Vegemite (yes, you read that correctly), vanilla and verjuice combine to a surprisingly wholesome and well-balanced drink.
Very impressive.
The crew of the Henry Deane have worked so hard this evening. They should be very proud of what they’ve achieved. And we haven’t even told you about the food.
Right next to the bar, succulent samples of what will be bigger dishes are finished in an entertainingly small kitchen before being served.
Here you can see marinated grilled chicken skewers with green tarator and preserved lemon, and little bowls of chopped Jerusalem artichoke, smoked mushroom, pickles and guanciale, but this is just a fraction of delicacies coming out.
Also doing the rounds is potato hash, abalone sauce and smoked pork dust, chickpea panisse with smoked carrot and macadamia feta, spiced chopped prawn and butter bean dip with fermented honey, and lightly seared swordfish with capsicum and walnut aigre-doux.
Very creative and extravagant.
As you can see, our job as cocktail tasters is going well. We try quite a few drinks on the new menu and the good news is there aren’t we don’t like. Here’s the full menu – I think you can see why we like them all:
Spill The Tea
Johnnie Walker Black Label, home brew peach ice tea, pearls
Bloom Service
Bundaberg Silver Rum, St Germaine, cherry, fairy floss, served frozen
Miss Marshie
Ketel One Vodka, toasted marshmallow, fizz, pineapple foam
Home Slice
Ketel One Vodka, Vegemite, verjuice, sourdough, vanilla
El Caramello
Don Julio Blanco tequila, salted caramel, coffee, white chocolate
One For The Hedge
Ron Zacapa rum, rhubarb, Guinness reduction, cinnamon
Tribecca Sour
Hennessy VS, Luxardo, red wine, rosemary, pepper tincture
Circa 1915
Hotel Palisade Portside Gin, coconut, mandarin, kaffir lime
There are two more on this list that I want to just highlight as my personal favourites. First, the Dijon Vu – pictured on the bottom right – is brilliant. Not only does it use one of my favourite spirits (mezcal), it blends an apple and mustard shrub (hence the name) to create beautiful balance and to finish with, the garnish is a shard of crisp prosciutto!
As for the last one…
Frenchie and I are at the end of the evening (not just because we’ve had too many cocktails, but because everyone’s going home) and finish with a superb iteration of the classic gin martini.
This is the Hatori Martini. It has a base of Tanqueray gin, but with hints of wasabi, sake and pickled radish in the mix. And best of all, it comes with a little bowl of wasabi peas! Genius.
Get yourself up to Henry Deane atop the Hotel Palisade asap to try some of these wonderful creations and soak up the stunning views over the harbour.
So this is my mate Brett. You met him earlier at the Dry Dock. We’ve convened again at the pub – this time the East Village Hotel in Balmain East – for lunch.
Why are we smiling so much you may ask. Well, we met at just after midday. This photo is happening at about 3.30pm. And no, it’s not our first glass of wine – nor will it be our last.
The problem Brett and I have is that we just enjoy each other’s company too much. The other problem is we’re both supposed to be at work!
And then there’s another issue: I’m also supposed to be playing 11-a-side football in a couple of hours…
And here were are: meet my team. And more importantly, here’s the birthday boy! Tony is turning a very surprising 50 today, so after our game (yes, did score and set up two other goals, but no we didn’t win), we head to the pub.
Happy birthday, Tony. Hope you had a great day, mate.
It’s lunchtime and Christina’s in town with our mate Rex. Ostensibly on a mission to go the art gallery for this year’s Archibald Award nominees, they’ve found their way to One Pot first.
This Taiwanese hot pot restaurant is hidden in plain sight on George Street near Goulburn Street and serves up a mouthwatering selection of hot pots and rice dishes as well as Korean fried chicken, dumplings and a host of other delicious entities.
It’s cold today, so Christina and Rex are indulging in heart-warming hot pots – you can get anything from lobster and crab to chicken, pumkin and even duck blood hot pots here!
Stomachs full, they move on to the Art Gallery of NSW to satisfy their cultural hunger. As well as the portraits from the famed Archibald Prize, there are some excellent exhibits here, including Yala by The Mulka Project.
Set up in the Nelson Packer Tank of the new Naala Badu building complex, this extraordinary display shows the different seasons and song lines from Yolngu country in North-eastern Arnhem Land.
This 25-minute immersive experience is full of surprises and really takes you into the heart of this deeply spiritual part of Australia.
Although we haven’t been to Yolgnu country, we’ve been to far-northern Arnhem Land and the most northerly point of the NT. It’s an incredible place that we’ll never forget.
Game day! And what a game it is. We’re playing Burwood FC today, a formidable team with whom we have history. But the day is ours with an impressive 4-2 win!
Perhaps we can attribute our success to our new official mascot. This is Baxter the Boarder Terrier. Even his toy ball matches our kit. The perfect fit!
His people are our mates Danny and Vicki. Thanks for bringing this hairy little bundle of luck to the game, guys!
We’re catching up with our mates Justyna and Phil today for ‘lunch’. What started as a couple of beers and a Sunday roast in Balmain Bowls Club has ended up in four bottles of wine and a win on the meat raffle!
Christina and I haven’t had a win on the raffle here for ages, so it’s good to see someone we know getting the goods. Maybe it’s beginner’s luck – this is Justyna and Phil’s first meat raffle experience.
Maybe we should bring newbies here every Sunday.
Hope you enjoyed this Favour of the Month of June.
Cheers
Jim & Christina xx
