I spent Friday night being dazzled by how much Marrickville has transformed since I lived in that neck of the woods.
More than half a lifetime ago I bought my first house in nearby Petersham. The only reasons we went to Marrickville were to see my solicitor or to eat fabulous Vietnamese food.
These days the suburb has a thriving bar and restaurant scene, a big performing arts precinct and lots of craft breweries.
Earlier this year, Time Out asked 20,000 city-dwellers around the world to vote on an index highlighting the 51 best, coolest and most welcoming neighbourhoods around the world and Marrickville and Fitzroy were the only Australian locations that made the list.
Marrickville has arrived!
Our first stop on our latest trip to the suburb was a vegetarian restaurant called Two Chaps to sample their set banquet.
By day Two Chaps is a cafe and bakery, but it turns into a restaurant a few nights a week. It was packed with happy diners when we were there and is such an atmospheric industrial space, with a roller door entrance and concrete floor.
The dishes in the set banquet just kept on coming. Wow I was sooooo full afterwards!
Then we headed to The Factory Theatre for some Sydney Fringe Festival comedy.
We were a bit startled to be directed to a red shipping container to watch Becky Lucas and Cameron James perform some new material. It was a very intimate gig!
Cameron is from Newcastle and was talking about his time working at a horror-themed theatre restaurant in Hamilton that I had never heard of. Apparently the venue got around the lockout laws for not serving shots by classifying them as “dessert”, which made the place very popular … until the police realised the owner didn’t actually have a liquor licence at all …
After the gig we contemplated going to the super cool Messina HQ for ice cream but the queue was MASSIVE.
I forgot to take photos, so here are some day shots I found online to give you a bit of an idea of what it looks like:
And, while we didn’t get there this time, I absolutely love The Bob Hawke Beer & Leisure Centre, which is a few blocks away.
It’s an industrial warehouse with a brewery and a fabulous bar that has a deeply nostalgic vibe echoing the bowling clubs of my youth.
Classic!
On Saturday I got to relax a bit – by my standards – I went for a 7.15am walk and coffee with my friend Fee, did some grocery shopping, took a quick trip into the city to look at linen jackets, visited the local nail salon to get shellac on my toes, then drove up to DD’s for Mongolian Lamb at his local Chinese restaurant.
He dog sitted for me the next day when I headed to Newcastle for Father’s Day then I returned to the Northern Beaches for a drink at The Newport with the bloke who lived in DD’s townhouse before he bought it. DD used to live in the back townhouse before he bought the front one so they’ve been mates for ages, but haven’t caught up for a while.
It was a gorgeous spot to watch the sun set.
And then I admitted defeat as I am still poorly after my cold/flu/virus despite it being 14 days since it first laid me low. I know, I know, slowing down might help with that, but I only seem to go at one speed.
However, I took my foot off the accelerator and headed home at 8pm for a good night’s sleep … well, that was the plan, but my heart sank when I arrived and saw 20 road workers outside my apartment.
Noooooo, they were back and had managed to find new bits of concrete to jackhammer. Sob.
I know it’s not the workers’ fault but I really wanted to shoot at them with a spud gun from my balcony.
Grrrrrrrrr.
They finally packed up around 5am. And now a new working week begins.
I hope your weekend was filled with love and fun.
Song of the day: Harry Styles “Sledgehammer”
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