Jane, sister venue of award-winning degustation restaurant Arthur, has opened a less formal space in Surry Hills, where locals could come in for after-work drinks or dinner with friends.
Located at the former site of Ume and Bistrode on Bourke Street, Jane opened in December 2021 as an a-la-carte all-day dining and cocktail bar. Like Arthur, Jane offers sumptuous meals that are beautifully presented.
Photo credit: Jane Surry Hills/Google Map
Think Sydney rock oysters with desert lime, panisse (chickpea flour fries) with wild boar njuda and parmesan custard, cocktail honey bugs with tarragon, and duck with pencil leeks and davidson plum.
Photo credit: Jane Surry Hills/Google Map
The restaurant is named after the grandmother of Chef Tristan Rosier, who also owns the restaurant. Chef Rosier incorporated some techniques currently being used for Arthur with old-fashioned classics from his grandmother’s cookbook. Jane’s Pink Cake, for instance, is Chef Rosier’s take on his grandmother’s sponge cake with pink icing.
Photo credit: Jane Surry Hills/Google Map
In addition to a food menu inspired by the cookbook of Chef Rosier’s grandmother, the 30-seat restaurant offers a great cocktail list and delicious wines by glass.
Designed by Luchetti Krelle, the space inspires togetherness and warmth with its beautiful autumnal palette. There’s a custom-built eight-seater marble table with a lazy susan as well as two-seater booths that are perfect for couples.
Photo credit: Jane Surry Hills/Google Map
Reservations can be made through their website, though walk-ins are also welcome. You can follow them on Facebook or on Instagram for more information or updates.
Did you know that more than 80,000 pyrotechnic effects spread over 178 firing locations have been set up on the Sydney Harbour Bridge, five water-based firing platforms, and the four sails of the Sydney Opera House for the most spectacular New Year’s Eve celebration in the city?
Regarded as one of the largest and most technologically advanced fireworks shows on earth, the highly-anticipated event can be viewed from numerous vantage points across Sydney and will be watched by thousands across Australia and even the world.
Schedule
A team of 50 pyrotechnic experts and crew will manage 60 tonnes of equipment, including 25 kilometres of cabling linking 15 computers throughout the night to launch six tonnes of fireworks across two displays — one at 9:00 p.m. and another one at midnight.
An Aboriginal Elder will perform a sacred Smoking Ceremony at 7:30 p.m. as a sign of respect for Traditional Custodians past and present. The ceremony will also be done to welcome all visitors onto Gadigal land.
Light projections will enliven the pylons of the Sydney Harbour Bridge throughout the night. On the eastern side, dazzling lighting effects will grace the harbour foreshore.
The 9:00 p.m. “Welcome to Country” fireworks display is curated by First Nations artist Blak Douglas. It will feature silhouettes of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander dancers projected on the pylons of the Sydney Harbour Bridge while the sky overhead lights up with fireworks in the colours of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander flags.
The midnight show will bid 2021 adieu and welcome 2022 with bursts of neon, pastel colours, white strobe effects, colour-changing shells and silver spinning fireworks.
Fortunato Foti, the man behind the fireworks display, has been doing this for 25 years. He has been instrumental in creating “one of the largest and most technologically advanced fireworks shows on earth.”
Photo Credit: Supplied/City of Sydney
Mr Foti belongs to the seventh generation of pyrotechnicians in his family and they have been making fireworks since 1793. His current team includes his children, nieces, nephews, cousins and siblings, plus an experienced staff.
“We normally do between 400 to 500 fireworks shows a year but nothing compares to the exhilaration of creating Sydney’s New Year’s Eve displays,” Mr Foti said.
“Creating an event of this scale and being responsible for entertaining millions of people across Australia and around the world is what it’s all about – it’s what drives us each year to do something new, brighter and better.
“This year is no different – taking into consideration the theme of ‘see Sydney shine’, we promise a show that everyone will enjoy, whether they’re watching it around the harbour, at home or online.
“Both the 9:00 p.m. and midnight displays have been meticulously planned to ensure the fireworks are perfectly synchronised with each show’s specially created soundtrack.”
“Every year Foti Fireworks creates the most spectacular and memorable displays across our harbour for everyone to enjoy – they capture the attention of audiences around the globe,” Lord Mayor Clover Moore said.
“The Foti team spend more than eight days getting every firework into position to be launched on the night. I don’t think anyone is going to walk away disappointed!”
The stretch of property, which spans 1,218 square metres., is located at 4 to 22 Wentworth Avenue.
This Surry Hills precinct has an existing development application for a 19-storey hotel with 202 luxury rooms as well as a new ground-floor restaurant and bar.
Photo Credit: City of Sydney
Decision on the existing DA, however, has been deferred by the Central Sydney Planning Committee in 2019, pending an “amended planning proposal and draft development control plan to take into account the whole street block.”
Realtors have described the location as “iconic” as its close to Sydney’s Hyde Park and the awaited completion of Sydney’s Silicon Valley, Tech Central. It’s also positioned within world-class transport links like the Museum station, the light rail system, bus services, and the new metro.
“Despite the impacts of lockdowns, opportunities to enter the Sydney hotel market are extremely limited, whether through an existing asset, or new development,” JLL’s Andrew Langsford said in announcing the sale of the properties. “This location benefits from CBD corporate demand and draws on a range of cultural neighbourhood experiences through Surry Hills and will be highly sought by hotel operators, especially given the pipeline of exciting projects in the immediate precinct.”
The mixed-used site consists of five lots, acquired by Pongrass Properties over an eight-year period, is meant to be sold as a whole package. The original values of the lots were at $3.75 million (for 4 Wentworth Ave), $1.65 million (8 Wentworth Ave), $3,369,150 million (for 10-12 Wentworth Ave), $1.4 million (for 14 Wentworth Ave), and $3.9 million (for 16-22 Wentworth Ave).
Tech Central, Sydney’s version of Silicon Valley near Surry Hills, has secured three major tenants for The Quantum Terminal, dubbed as the precinct’s “first centralised collaboration space for researchers, developers, engineers, and entrepreneurs.”
Q-Ctrl, Quantum Brilliance, and the Sydney Quantum Academy are set to move into the world-class technology precinct, spanning 3,00 square metres of space of the former Central Station, which is expected to put NSW on the map as a global leader in innovation.
Q-Ctrl grabbed the headlines early this year for its development of a new computing process that reduces the errors from environmental “noise.”
Quantum Brilliance is the leader in diamond quantum science research and one of a handful of companies around the world that can deliver quantum computing systems for clients.
Sydney Quantum Academy is a partnership involving four famous institutions: Macquarie University, UNSW Sydney, the University of Sydney, and the University of Technology Sydney.
Photo Credit: JLLPhoto Credit: JLL
“We are proud to be key partners of The Quantum Terminal and Tech Central and look forward to working closely with the NSW Government and key partners to bring this exciting, world-class innovation and technology precinct to life,” said Professor Mark Scott, Vice-Chancellor and Principal of the University of Sydney.
“We’ll be sharing the lessons we’ve learnt through our deep experience developing ground-breaking multi-disciplinary research, fostering innovation and supporting the commercialisation of successful start-ups.
“We strongly support the Government’s transport vision for the precinct as an activated, walkable and integrated innovation district where residents, visitors and workers can interact and linger in great places and public spaces.”
The NSW Government has invested in helping tenants of The Quantum Terminal. Beginning December 2021, startups and businesses may apply for rebates on rents and fit-outs for up to $600,000 a year.
Photo Credit: Tech Central
Divided within six Sydney neighbourhoods, including Surry Hills, Tech Central covers a total of 250,000-square metres of space that has been projected to create up to 25,000 new jobs once it’s completed. Premier Dominic Perrottet said that the hub will place NSW in a “pole position” as a global leader when it comes to technology.
Apart from The Quantum Terminal, Tech Central will also open the Tech Central Scaleup Hub, which will be Stone & Chalk’s second site in Sydney, as well as the Atlassian headquarters, which will begin construction in the first half of 2022.
A few years ago, the award-winning TV series ‘Grand Designs” featured a house at 8 Belmore Lane in Surry Hills.
The producers of a new TV show from Foxtel, “Selling in the City,” are looking to feature new local houses whilst undergoing a renovation.
The TV exposure turned out very well at Belmore Lane so being featured would appear to only add $$$$s to your valuation.
Touted as the next Foxtel LifeStyle channel hit, Selling In The City is a Selling Houses Australia spinoff that targets the multimedia-savvy millennial audience.
Featuring award-winning, Melbourne-based interior designer Rosie Morley and Victoria-based landscape expert Paddy Milne as hosts, Selling in the City will showcase small, urban properties and offer a montage of attractive design ideas and clever solutions for small spaces to help people maximise and get fresh usage out of their domiciles.
Audiences in Surry Hills are no strangers to the “small house makes it big” success story of Grand Designs: Season One fame that is 8 Belmore Lane, a.k.a. ‘The Small House.’
Then-owner Domenic Alvaro, an architect, managed to fit in three bedrooms, two bathrooms, living, dining, and kitchen areas, a rooftop garden, and a lock-up garage into a 6-metre x 7-metre x 5-storey rectangular prism that still allowed plenty of natural light.
The design won the 2011 World House of the Year award at the World Architecture Festival in Barcelona. The small (really small!) yet thoughtfully designed and beautifully executed dwelling on what were once three car spaces in a Surry Hills corner was an instant hit with TV audiences.
So do you think your home is the next TV success story?
The Selling in the City production team is actively searching for “apartments, townhouses, warehouse conversions and everything else in-between” to feature and offer fresh challenges for the show.
As Selling in the City pitches in its casting call, if the latte life has lost its appeal; or you’ve outgrown your current space and need an upgrade; or you’re looking to sell but want to spruce things up first, maybe it’s time to consider an out-of-the-box solution like going on TV and letting the experts literally run the show. All whilst documenting the experience for all of Australia to watch as it unfolds, of course.
Those precious minutes of airtime just might give you the home of your dreams.
After all, from shelling out $230,000 in 2008 to selling for $1.88 million in 2014 ahead of its scheduled auction, The Small House of Surry Hills certainly brought Domenic Alvaro value in spades. All that TV popularity (plus the award!) certainly didn’t hurt.
And whilst 8 Belmore Lane’s claim to fame stemmed in part from a different TV show, the premise offered by Selling in the City and its team of real estate experts and renovators to today’s hopeful homeowners is no less attractive and certainly more current.
“Selling In The City will focus on the millions of urban-dwelling Australians who live in apartments, terraces, and townhouses and want to renovate and transform their homes to sell and change where they live,” says Wendy Moore, Foxtel Group General Manager, Lifestyle.
“This fresh approach takes the trusted Selling Houses brand and opens it up to a whole new audience,” she added.
If you think your home should be on Selling in the City, watch this video and click this button to apply.
From focusing on modern Aussie food and also serving pizza, The Clock Hotel in Surry Hills has overhauled its food offerings, presenting a French-inspired menu for the first time.
The Clock Hotel’s new menu melds traditional French flavours with bistro classics available for lunch and dinner. Some of the dishes with French-inspired touches include Café de Paris crumbed chicken breast, the ‘Le Burger’ Raclette cheese, cornichon, Dijon mustard, pommes frites and twice-baked gruyere cheese souffle.
Photo credit: Clock Hotel Surry Hills/Facebook
Other items on the menu that are worth trying include crispy squid with parsley, chilli, and saffron rouille. For those with a sweet tooth, there’s the chocolate profiteroles with creme patissiere and hazelnut praline.
Photo credit: Clock Hotel Surry Hills/Facebook
And like a trip to Paris, a visit to the The Clock Hotel will not be complete without trying their natural wines, such as Regis & Sylvain’s white wine from the Loire Valley, known for its world-class wines, and Maison Rigal’s Gros Manseng from Vin de France.
Photo credit: Clock Hotel Surry Hills/Facebook
Besides the new menu, The Clock Hotel has also introduced a refreshed Street Bar, where you can stop by for a drink, thanks to the plenty of choices for craft beers and wonderful brews in the bottle shop next door.
The Clock Hotel’s updated Street Bar (Photo credit: Clock Hotel Surry Hills/Facebook)
The changes at the hotel are brought by Solotel, which is also behind some of the most iconic venues across Sydney, including the Albion Hotel in Parramatta, Golden Sheaf in Double Bay, and Public House Petersham.
The Clock Hotel operates Monday through Sunday, from noon until late. See their website for more information, including their trading hours or follow them on Facebook for updates.
Since the fire, Porteño owners and chef Ben Milgate and Elvis Abrahanowicz have moved their establishment to Holt Street with their Bodega tapas bar.
The property on Riley Street then underwent a $2.5-million refurbishment that transformed it into modern office spaces. The refurbishment into a modern office space received recognition at the Australian Interior Design Award and the Idea Awards, alongside various magazine features.
Milligan Group snapped up the former Porteño building and signed the fashion house, AJE, as its tenant.
Photo Credit: AJE/Facebook
AJE still has six years left to its lease but the building owners and investors have decided to put the former Porteno site, with a 760-square metre space, up for auction in late November 2021. Interests in the property has been high since this building stands on “one of Sydney’s most tightly held city fringe destinations,” per industry experts.
The precinct in the corner of Cleveland and Riley Streets is due to change in the coming years, with the redevelopment of the nearby Surry Hills Village from the TOGA Group. This precinct is slated to become a shopping centre with 111 apartment units and a boutique hotel.
After the fire, Chinese investors bought the building for $6.66 million in 2016. The site currently has a $13 million price guide.
Porteño Restaurant, which serves mostly Argentinian dishes, continues to operate at its new location. It has been recognized as one of the top 50 restaurants in Sydney by Gourmet Traveller, whilst the chefs were named 2013 Chef of the Year by The Sydney Morning Herald.
In 2020, the owners expanded the Holt Street site by opening Bastardo, a trattoria, and Humble Bakery. Mr Abrahanowicz dubbed this area their own little Porteño precint.
The Surry Hills property market has gone from strength to strength in recent years. After another strong 12 months of growth, the median house price has gone up 8.41% to $2.005 million to the end of September 2021.At the forefront, an agent long-renowned for his sales activity in Redfern has become Surry Hills’ #1 Agent.
It confirmed what locals already knew, highlighting the constant demand to move to the area, keeping house prices buoyant.
Surry Hills has officially been voted into the top 20 coolest neighbourhoods in the world. (You didn’t know? Click here to read about it.)
At the same time, Sydney saw a trend through Covid for people to move into larger houses. While the typical Surry Hills terrace has a footprint of 100-200 square metres (not huge by the rest of Australia’s standards), these properties offered inner-city residents a lot of spatial options during the pandemic — from living spaces over two storeys, to urban backyards, rear-lane studios and more.
Having been #1 in neighbouring Redfern for many years, Touma’s success in Surry Hills increased during lockdown. The government mandates for one-on-one property appointments meant he was personally introducing clients to every home. Some of them had never even considered Surry Hills.
We’ve been following Charles for his “Touma Talks” series, where he focuses on the stories of Surry Hills and Redfern in a number of videos.
Touma Talks has covered an eclectic mix of stories in a series of videos that gives interesting anecdotes about people and places that shaped their suburb.
Did you know that “Happy Hour” at Burdekin Hotel in Darlinghurst will be celebrated as “Thanksgiving Hour” for one week in November, to mark the many ways that Australians are thankful for the end of lockdowns and despite the continuing challenges of COVID-19?
Following a tough few months of restrictions, it’s high time people caught up with friends and in Darlinghurst, “Cheers! Spirits from the USA” and the Burdekin Hotel will be helping people do just that.
From the 22nd to the 28th of November 2021, guests at the Oxford Street venue can enjoy Thanksgiving-themed cocktails and American spirits at special prices.
Photo Credit: Supplied
The week-long array of cocktails will highlight the quality and versatility of American spirits, and showcase brands including Angel’s Envy Bourbon, Bulleit Bourbon, KOVAL, Old Forester, St George Gin, Wild Turkey, Westland, and Westward American Single Malt Whiskey.
“Cheers! Spirits from the USA” will actually be happening simultaneously across several other iconic bars in the country. Joining in the fun are the following bars:
SYDNEY
MELBOURNE
Maybe SammyKittyhawkGrain BarNola Smokehouse and BarThe Swinging Car Burrow Bar
The EverleighThe Elysian Whisky Bar The CatfishQue Club
BRISBANE
ADELAIDE
The Gresham
Maybe Mae
“After a difficult year, we’re looking forward to partnering with some of the nation’s leading venues to celebrate Thanksgiving,” Charles McEntee from the Distilled Spirits Council of the U.S (DISCUS) said.
“The country is known for having some of the most knowledgeable and innovative bartenders, so we’re looking forward to Australians being able to experience new and delicious cocktails using some of America’s finest spirits, whilst supporting much-loved bars and giving thanks.”
If you love both rum and chocolates, check out the rum-infused Kitkats from Surry Hills rum distillery BRIX, a special treat just in time for Christmas.
Launched in collaboration with KitKat Chocolatory, the special chocolate treats wereproduced using three of the Sydney distillery’s most popular rums. Here are the three unique, rum-infused bars to look forward to at BRIX.
KitKat Chocolatory x BRIX Mojito
Photo credit: Brix Distillers/Facebook
A Mjito chocolate? Yes, you heard that right! It features KitKat crisp wafer with creamy white chocolate, infused with BRIX White rum, lime, grapefruit and mint for a refreshingly tropical treat.
KitKat Chocolatory x BRIX Caramelised Pecan
Photo credit: Brix Distillers/Facebook
If you love caramel, you will like this caramelised chocolate infused with BRIX Gold rum, pecans, ginger and caramelised biscuit with the irresistible crisp wafer.
KitKat Chocolatory x BRIX Spiced Christmas Pudding
Photo credit: Brix Distillers/Facebook
Think of a classic Christmas dessert reimagined with these crisp wafers with spiced milk chocolate infused with BRIX Spiced rum, crumbled pudding, currants and macadamias in an eight-finger bar.
“We’re thrilled to partner with BRIX Distillery to bring Aussies the break we’ve all been waiting for. We couldn’t look past local distillery BRIX to bring a little party to this year’s limited edition KitKat bar,” said Nestlé head of marketing – confectionery Joyce Tan.
All these treats are now available on KitKat’s and BRIX’s website starting at $20, with the option to create your own rum and chocolate tasting by adding their Mini Rum Trio.
In addition to the special range of chocolates, BRIX is planning to do Rum & KitKat tasting pairings in the bar throughout November and December 2021, so stay tuned on their Facebook page for updates.
