Saturday, July 31, 2010

Mystery Photo XI - Pet Procession

It's been a while - but finally it's time for Mystery Photo XI - and the first guest Mystery Photo - thanks to @VerityChambers. Where in town would you find this pet procession ?


BTW Don't ask me - I don't know either !

Hatches Batches and Dispatches V

It's been a while since the last round up of some of the comings and goings on and around King St Newtown. It's getting harder to keep track of the goings on but thankfully I have all of your tips from last month's update and Twitter. The most reported Newtown related news in the last month or so is the possible resumption of houses in Leamington Avenue for RailCorp's proposed Western Express line. The story got a second wind once some discovered the linkage to the famous 'Three Proud People' mural; now unfortunately blocked from view from Macdonaldtown Station by the sound barrier.



New Openings
  • Cucina Sopranos on the site of the old Wedgetail
  • The Polish restauarant in the old Choclate Dog has a name - New in Town - and gets the mayoral thumbs up - tasty and generous portions.
  • A new Vietnamese noodle place called "Pho Sure" opened in the old service station on the corner of Stamore Rd and Liberty St Enmore (nice break from the terrible Thai/Tie puns)
  • Dolce and Gelato has had a name change, now called gelato blue. Apart from that all looks the same. 
  • Moo Gourmet burgers the latest to take on the site of Mickey's
  • King St deli has moved to south king, where there used to be a business centre
  • The Bank Hotel has re-opened after the fire 
  • A new design shop (cute !) called Lillypad Designs hidden at the back of the newsagent near the Dendy
  • Not so new now but not yet mentioned is the nursery next to the controversial car-wash on South King Street;

Development Applications

  • The proposed bottlo shop in Newtown Central has a name - Cellarbrations. A chain, of course.
  • Speaking of chains, Dominos Pizza coming to (far north) Newtown. Signage looks really garish
  • Mostly residential otherwise.

Reviews
  • Funky Cafe gets a mention in an SMH article about live music
  • Not quite a review, but both Pentimento and Newtown resident and ex-Mr Varga Bar Ben Soutter got quoted in an article about Cafe mobile phone etiquette.

Random
  • Most visited story the mayor shared in the last month was about ATM skimming on skim street; while Fairfax were too scared to name the bank involved, they did point out that NAB, CBA and ANZ denied it was them and the Pac declined to comment. Go figure.
  • A broader inner city story getting too much airtime is the bike lane backlash, led by such likables as former Newtownian (sadly) Alan Jones and the Tele. Sad to say even a Wilson Street local is complaining about the lanes
  • Once again, The Imperial is 'opening soon'. Sadly the plans of Sydney Fringe to use the Hub as a venue have come to nothing
  • A filtered water fountain has been installed outside the Town Hall (real one, not the pub)