View from the Steyne Hotel. Not bad eh?
Enjoy breakfast in Cafe Opera, Level 1. Breakfast is available from 6:30am -10:30am daily.
As a hotel breakfast it ain’t bad. Passable (just) scrambled eggs but best of all streaky bacon and decent sausages. A highlight is the honeycomb, yoghurt and fruit. Nice filter coffee.
0845 Meet with your Destination NSW host Lauren Zoneff and make your way on to the Harbour Master Steps for your Manly Fast Ferry.
Myself, Kerry from Eat, drink + be Kerry and The Age Good Food Guide editor Janne Apelgren are on the tour.
First stop Organicus Kitchen and Pantry where we hear former triathelete (and Mother of five) Nici Andronicus’s amazing story and how exercise and organic foods (and proton beam treatment) helped cure her husband’s particular form of brain tumour. I bring home some muesli in which the nuts are activated – made to sprout – which in theory makes it more healthy. I’ve no idea on the science of this but it tastes great. As do the selection of cakes and the special pineapple ricotta, which are all designed to be organic and healthy. Coffee ain’t bad either.
Next off is a tour of Manly seeing all the sights and the mazing view of Sydney. We see various cafes and restaurants across the seafront, including the massive and recently refurbished Steyne Hotel (bought a consortium that includes by Gerry Harvey and John Singleton for $27m in 2010) that has a rum and cider bar on the top floor with stadium seating overlooking the beach.
Ceiling height shrubbery at Organicus.
Visit Barefoot Coffee Traders, next door Adriano Zumbo’s temple to cake and sample one of his many delicious creations at this beachside location. The owner’s dad is there with his old Jack Russell Pretty. She’s had an op and only has until Christmas…I’m almost in tears…
Check out Hemingway’s, inspired by guess who? It’s a great looking spot.
I really enjoy 4 Pines Brewing, which is developing a beer to send into space. They have hand pumped beers and are working on cask conditioned ales. They have a credible version of English bitter and I enjoy a whole pint. then their creamy stout.
Finally, we rest our feet at the one-hatted (amazing how Masterchef has put hats in our vocab) Manly Pavilion. With a harbour view it is packed with what looks like a fairly conservative Sydney lunch crowd. Champagne and a nice selction of wines and after th morning I quoff the lot. The food is good. But there are some flaws – two courses contain crumbs (bizarre) and foam (yikes!), a flavour delivery mechanism which in one is overwhelmed by chilly oil. Still, nobody’s going to complain about the food here.
I forget to ask for Adriane if Monty, the fishy breathed seal, that you used to be able to swim with at the acquarium is still there.
1500 Day trip to Manly concludes (approximate time)
Arrive back at 4.30 and only just have time to revive myself, importantly my feet, in a bubble bath.
1730 Meet Lauren Zoneff, Destination NSW in the foyer of the InterContinental Sydney. Enjoy a Small Bar Tour prior to dinner in the city concluding at Surry Hills
Grasshopper: Melbourne laneway drinking comes to Sydney
Robert Richards is an English music business refugee who helps small bars set up for the City of Sydney – although I think he said there is an obstacle internally to him conducting these tours commercially. What’s now known as “The Gastropark Five” are on the tour.
Apparently. since August 2008 around 30 new small bars have sprung up in the City, often in what were rubbish strewn backstreets between warehouses
It’s full on. In the CBD we see Stitch Bar, Since I Left You and have a cocktail in an alleyway at The Grasshopper. Over the other side of Oxford Street it’s Pocket, 13b Cafe & Cocktail Bar, The Commons Local Eating House. It’s a really vibrant developing and quite grungy scene modelled on Melbourne.
2000 Enjoy dinner this evening at Gastro Park courtesy of Destination NSW.
The Gastropark five. Photo courtesy of manager Martijn de Boer
It’s like this restaurant is run by Andrew McConnell’s geeky half brother from Sydney. I love the fit-out, which apparently only cost $80,000 and the food from ex-Pier chef Grant King. There’s a familiar face from Movida working the floor and we chat. Manager Martijn de Boer takes a pick of us crazy bloggers, digital SLRs at the ready. I’m sure from now on we’ll be known as the Gastropark Five.
The food is super technical and astonishingly good – I’ll do a whole post. Despite being knackered the four shared desserts are fresh and uplifting. I leave very excited.