Melbourne Places

Tarlo and Graham at the Windsor end of Chapel Street offer a great visual feast with their windows.

Strolling around the Windsor end of Chapel Street is always fun but what draws me back time and time again are the windows of Tarlo and Graham.
I find I’m drawn on a weekly basis just to check them out.

They don’t always change weekly but another view gives another perspective and sometimes I miss something on the first
viewing and even on the second.  These objet d’art and the style of the interiors they suggest, are a sort of industrial meets the….  well the
macabre.  They may not be everyone’s idea of home sweet home but it is great fun to view.

The windows vary which is what  makes them so fascinating.  These colourful wool rugs appeared during the cold winter months.

William Tarlo and Philip Graham opened their shop about 6 years ago.  They said in a recent interview that their aim was to provide an exciting and stimulating environment focusing on the unusual, exotic and collectable. Check out their website to see what they mean.

Where:-
Tarlo & Graham
60 Chapel Street
Windsor – phone 9521 2221

Opening hours:-
Monday to Saturday 12pm – 6pm
Sunday 12pm to 4pm
Of course their windows are open for viewing 24/7

Getting there: -
Train:-
The Sandringham Line to Windsor Station They are opposite – on the corner of Chapel and Mcilwrick Street
79 Tram:-
This tram runs from St Kilda East to Richmond along Chapel Street.

Website:-

http://www.tarloandgraham.com/home.html

The Wayside Inn is a stylish Gastro pub in South Melbourne.  When I travel around South Melbourne and Port Melbourne I’m  staggered at how many old hotels/pubs  have  been moved into the modern age with a makeover. It is also astonishing, if you keep your eyes open, just how many  you see that haven’t had the make-over treatment.  The place is alive with pubs

It is mind boggling to think how many watering holes were needed to supply liquor to our forefathers.

The Wayside Inn Hotel has recently come under new management with a new cook.  They describe their food as having a  ‘Rustic Italian’ influence.  The meal we had on a recent Thursday evening bore this out.
We arrived straight from work on a cold wet evening at around 6pm.  They have a flexible finish time for happy hour and our glasses of a house Margaret River Merlot were still the Happy Hour price of $4.00 –  exceptional value at $4.00

On Thursday they serve a $15.00 steak  and it came with Caponata a Sicilian vegetable stew.  This was delicious.  The Caponata has a sort of sweet/sour taste ( nothing like a serving of Chinese sweet and sour sauce).  It was a subtle but unique taste to me and it went perfectly with my steak that was cooked to perfection.

The menu is small and I believe it changes. For desert there is no menu.  There is one choice.  On that Thursday it was Panna Cotta with caramelized figs and syrup.  Perhaps it is always Panna Cotta.  As Pana Cottas go this was up with the best.  I’d go back for the Pana Cotta and coffee.

The interior is smart with a hard edge.  The heaters warmed it, the nosh and the wine were good – not a bad way to spend time on a winter evening.

There is a beautiful garden room that makes me think even more of summer.

The bar is cosy with a fire in one corner and comfortable couches around it.  You can also eat in the bar.
The staff were wonderful and the cook popped out to discuss the Caponate with us.  I was surprised at how few people were there that night.  However I’m told that Karaoke Night on Friday draws crowds. Ir begins at 9.00pm.  Karaoke isn’t my thing but I will be back for the food.  I can see that the garden bar will be a good place for idling time on  a warm evening.

The web site www.waysidehotel.com.au gives a menu but it differed from the own we saw.  I like the idea of the menu being flexible  and depending on the cook.

The Wayside Inn Hotel
446 City Rd
South Melbourne VIC 3205
Phone (03) 9699 8469

Opening hours:-
12.00  noon until late.

Getting there:-

Trams:-
Tram 112 from the CBD goes along Clarendon Street.
Get off at the corner of Market and Clarendon Street and wander along Market street until it joins City Road.  The Wayside Hotel is on the corner of City Road and Frerris Street.
Tram 96 (light rail) Get off at the South Melbourne Station and walk along Ferrars Street to City Road.

Car:-
There is parking in Ferrars Street

Last week I had lunch at the buffet in the Melba Room at the Langham Hotel, Southbank, for the second time.  It proved to be as good as my first visit about nine months ago.

The grand staircase leading to the Melba Room.

On this cold, bleak, winter Friday the dining room was almost full.  Proving what I have always thought; a cold bleak day is an ideal day to spend eating.

This trip empathized just how great and varied the food is at the Melba Room buffet.

The Melba Room opens at noon and steadily fills up.

To me the lunch time buffet in the Melba Room is all about eating.  The light, bright and elegant dining area is heavy with food and it needs to be eaten.

As we had been before and knew what was available we decided to plan our meal.  That is, put some order into our eating and treat it like traditional feast with numerous courses.

I decided to pass on the soup – it was vichyssoise (leek and potato) which I make myself.

I began with hors d’oeuvres and headed for the cold meats and salads – delicious.

Then on to the fish course – prawns and crab and I added sushi to this course as a sort of sub course.

The sushi is made to your own personal order.  The more knowledgeable about sushi you are the more you can vary what ends up on your plate.

I liked the idea of a stir fry for the next course, it was light with rice noodles available and scallops.  The scallops were for use only by the stir-fry cook, not to be confused with the fish course– again we chose the ingredients.

You may think by now enough food has been consumed but think on those long Italian Lunches; course after course comes from the kitchen to the table and into continually munching and talking mouths.

It was now time for roast beef and the wonderful roasted vegetables – a sort of heavy main course.  It  lacked  Yorkshire pudding. I wonder if the cooks can cook Yorkshire pudding.  Has it gone out fashion?  My mother always cooked it with roast beef.

By this time a good two hours had gone by and it was time for deserts.

Each desert is a perfect miniature

This slice was a work of art – as nice to look at as it was to eat.

Finally coffee and cheese.

We will be back and then I’ll try the curries.  What course in a great English feast would include curry?  And I missed the Chinese dumplings on this visit…………there is still more food to sample.

Times:
The Melba Room starts serving luncheon at noon, the hot food is removed at 2.30 and the restaurant closes at 4.00 to prepare for dinner.
Costs:
Monday to Friday  $49.00.
Prices in the weekend are higher
Saturday $75.00
Sunday $84.00
It is suggested you book especially on Saturday and Sunday when it can be very busy.

Getting there:
The Melba Room, The Langham Hotel, 1 Southgate Avenue, Southgate  8696 8888.
You can enter from The Southbank Promenade along the river or it is just off St Kilda Road, in Southgate Avenue

Trams:
Any tram that goes to Federation Square or Flinders Street Station will get you there.

Cars:-
There is parking underneath – remember to get your parking ticket validated when you pay for your meal.

This stunning piece of urban art is a work by Frank Malerba.

You can see it yourself as you head along Cecil Street away from the South Melbourne Market.

It is wonderful to be able to see such eye catching pieces of art during an every-day shopping excursion or a walk around the local streets.  Frank Malerba was commission by the developer and the commission was approved by the Port Phillip City Council.

He says he drove around South Melbourne for a few days, “To see what it was all about.”

When you look at the art work does it say South Melbourne to you?
It has been up for over a year and looks exactly the same to me now as it did when I first saw it, months ago.  No deterioration.  Frank Malerba knows what materials to use for durability.

I wish more developers would think of the public and how we need visual feasts as we travel around our city.

My thought when I first saw the mural was, “Who is the lucky person who owns it?”

I assume if you own the unit it is attached to, you don’t own the art work.   And that you can’t sell the unit and then pack up the Malerba panels and take them  away with you.

I guess that can’t happen but it makes me ask who does own it and who is responsible for maintaining it?  The Port Phillip City Council?  Or is it the Owners Corporation’s responsibility? Perhaps someone will know.

One thing I do know is that it is wonderful to see such interesting art, by a well-known local artist, for all of us to view.

Developers:-  how about more of this?

To view Frank Malerba’s urban art on the corner of Cecil and Dorcas Street:-
Tram 96:-  (light rail)  to the South Melbourne Station.  Head for the Market.  Cecil Street runs from the  roundabout.

Tram 1:- get off at the corner of Cecil and Park Street and head to the market. – check out Dorcas Street when you cross over it.

The camellia collection at the Royal Botanical Gardens Melbourne is planted in an imaginative way.  The area is a sort of square with a twisting path that wanders between the plantings giving a touch of magic – almost as if you were in a private room of camellias.

Turn right after this beautiful tree and  you are in the camellia garden

The magic is more pronounce at the moment with plantings of daphne amongst the camellia trees.  The perfume from the daphne wafts around as you stroll along the path. It’s a heady sort of perfume.

There are early and late camellias so you are never there when every tree is in flower but the Royal Botanical Gardens say August is The camellia month.  There is plenty to see at the moment and many of the species are identified by name.

Some beautiful white blooms.

Clumps of snowdrops tucked between the camellias give a touch of early spring.

Getting There:-
Any tram that goes down St Kilda Road.
Tram 8 runs alongside the gardens and into Domain Road which also borders the gardens.

Opening Hours:-
7.30am to sunset

The Oriental Tea House is something different.

The Oriental Tea house in Chapel Street was once a pub

Yum Cha on Sunday is something I enjoy – watching the trolleys come past, studying the food and deciding ‘yes’ or ‘no’.  The frustrating part is that when I have eaten enough I see something new appear from the kitchen, glide past me and I am temped all over again.

At the Oriental Tea House there is none of this.   You order your Yum Cha from the menu.  It is rather like a ‘Chinese Tapas’.

You can pop in at any time during the day order a tea and a Yum Cha snack.

I ate at the Oriental Tea House on Chapel Street for the first time before we attended a gold class session of ‘Sex and the City 2’ at the Jam Factory.

We went early to give us time to talk, relax and to get into the mood for the glamour and style we were to see on the screen. It was a good choice.

The good thing about the Oriental Tea House is that it severs the same food all the time so we could create our own stylish early dinner.

The name ‘ The Oriental Tea House’ appeals to me.  Just the sound is relaxing.  The clean white open space when you enter, with the store of interesting teas and other merchandise including Chinese herbs in the front and then the restaurant at the rear, is welcoming and soothing.

I like the emphasis on tea but as we were preparing to watch over-the-top glamour on the screen we decided bubbles were appropriate.

This is what we ordered:-

Spinach Seafood Soup

Won Ton Soup

Vegetarian Buckweat Dumplings with Chilli

Delux Basket (nine different pieces of dumplings steamed in a large basket).

Calamari in Spicy Salt

The dishes appeared haphazardly with the squid coming a distant last.  It occurs to me now that each dish may travel from the kitchen as soon as it is cooked – something to think about when you order.  If you order soup it is nice to both get your soup at the same time.

The dumplings are delicious. The best I have had recently.  As I write this I am still thinking about them and plan to pop in for one of their teas and a ‘variety basket’ of dumplings.  At $6.90 it is excellent value

We didn’t try the Tea-Tails – cocktails made with tea blends.  The idea of a tea based cocktail served in a teapot is a whimsy that brings a smile to the face – it has to be worth a try.
Here is an example of some that are available:-

Campari Treasure 8.5
Bitter sweet with a hint of orange Campari.
+ Calm & Concentration TEA served on ice

Russian Spy in Shanghai 8.5
This one really packs a punch with Vodka
+ Gun Powder TEA served with fresh lime

Baileys Kiss 8.5
Spicy with a tasty kick of Baileys & milk
+ Chai TEA served over ice

Luck of the Irish 8.5
One to really help you unwind with a warm blend of Irish Whisky
+ Relaxing TEA

Where:-
The Oriental Tea House
455 Chapel Street
South Yarra (opposite Bridie O’Reilly’s)

Phone:-Restaurant 9826 0168

Web site:-

http://www.orientalteahouse.com.au/chapel-street/w1/i1001202/

Opening Hours:-
10am until late – every day.

Getting there:-
No 8 Tram to Toorak. Get off at the corner of Toorak Road and Chapel Street.
No 78  Tram – this tram runs along Chapel Street from St Kilda to Richmond.

The St Kilda Botanical Gardens are in winter mode.  It is a lovely time to visit and see the gardens preparing for spring and summer.  Occasionally you see a sign of things to come with clumps of bulbs sending up their first spring shoots.

The ambiance in the Alistair Clarke Rose Garden is different at this time of the year. The roses have been pruned – the green and the flowers have gone and the canes are stark against the mulched ground.

I am interested in their pruning style.  When I studied the canes and what was left after such abundant growth earlier in the year I realized that I had been very timid when I pruned my few roses.  The gardens have cut them back severely.

I am looking forward to seeing how these canes sprout and how quickly the flowers come.  Last season they were beautiful.

The grass is very green after all the rain we have had and bare branches of the deciduous trees stand out  against the sky and the luscious green of the Macrocarpa hedge that protects the rose garden.

There is a lot to see at this time of the year.

Getting there:-
96 Tram to the terminus the end of Acland Street. Walk up Blessington Street – on your left.
Trams 67, 3 or 16 to the corner of Brighton Road and Carlisle Street and walk along Blessington Street – Blessington Street is on your right when you get off  the tram.

The say good things come in small packages and the St Kilda, Salvation Army Opportunity Shop is proof of this.  They have downsized.  In doing so they have created a much better outlet in Carlisle Street than the previous one on the corner of Inkerman Street and St Kilda Road.

That huge rambling and messy warehouse on the corner of Inkerman Street and St Kilda Road has closed.  The site has turned into a bike emporium.

The new shop in Carlisle has style compared with the old one and they have cut down on their stock.  I always believed that there was so much ‘stuff’ in the old warehouse no one would be able say exactly what was in there.

The new store has added style to a Salvo browse.  The shop is laid ‘out’.  The dressing rooms are no longer a sort of curtained box, designer gear  is in the front when you walk in.

Shoes are ordered on racks and someone keeps them tidy.

Home wares tend to be colour coded for example there is a shelf of blue.  Books are newer – less knocked about,  It feels cleaner and there are less of the things that no one is ever going to buy.  It also feels as if the place is dusted sometimes – perhaps regularly.

I have been told they are charging more that they did in the old warehouse. This could apply to their designer gear although my black Country Road singlet was $5.00.

Last time I was there they had a piano, which seemed odd because the shop  next door is a piano shop.  I was hoping some one in the large browsing crowd would play it.  If they did it was after I left.   I also noticed some crutches in one corner should you ever need any.

The Salvos, St Kilda:-
Opposite the City of Port Phillip Town Hall in Carlisle Street.

Opening hours:-
Monday to Wednesday 9.00am to 5.00pm
Thursday to Friday  9.00 to 7.00pm
Saturday 9.00a, to 5.00pm

Getting there:-
Trams No 3 or No 16
Get off at the stop on the corner of St Kilda Road and Carlisle Street.

The Albert Park Rotary has opened a community style second hand book shop.

The idea is to involve the community in collecting and buying books and giving them a chance to circulate in the  Port Philip.  And as always with Rotary the money goes back into the community.

All the books are donated some are collected in bins that have been left in Port Phillip libraries for members to place their pre-loved books.  I guess we have all got books that we have read and probably won’t read again and that we don’t have room to house. This is a good place to give them a new start in life.

The shop is in a room of the Old Galilee School Building on Montague Street in South Melbourne.

You enter into a foyer that appears to be a collection point for rubbish to be taken to the tip.  Don’t let this put you off, pick your way though it, turn right and step into the shop.  The ambiance of the shop is that of a library – shelves of neatly ordered and organized books.

And like a library they house books for everyone including fiction, nonfiction, crime,  children’s books, cooking, travel and there is a good selection of classics.  The books are all in excellent condition, undamaged and very reasonably priced.  Many priced at about $3.00, so ideal for travellers and people who like to read and pass their books on.

I have been there on a couple of Saturday and both times, including one cold and damp Saturday, there were a lot of browsers.  This suggests that there is a good turnover of books and a glimpse into the back room shows many more waiting to be processed.

It is a comfortable, relaxed, friendly atmosphere and strangers talk to each other about books.  One day the till didn’t work and it was discovered that it wasn’t plugged in, the radio had taken over the plug. I like casualness of this.  I would suggest that you bring money in small denominations.  The books are so cheap large amounts of change can be a problem.

Where:-
The Old Galilee School Building, corner Montague and Bank Streets, South Melbourne – enter from Bank Street.

Opening Hours:-
The shop is open every Saturday from 10am – 2pm
For enquiries or to donate books ring Henry 9681 7382
Getting there :-
Tram No 1 to stop 27 in Park Street.
There is plenty of free parking around the school.

This is an exhibition of frocks from 1855 to 1960.  It is interesting to see how design and fashion has changed over those 100 years.  Especially when you think it reflects enormous social and lifestyle changes for women.

Day dress 1865-1870 sold in Geelong

The exhibition focused on where the dress was made and sold – that is what department store retailed it.
What I missed was how they were made especially those from the 1850s.  Very elaborate garments with tucks, ribbons, bows, flounces, puffs etc.  Who cut the patterns and  what sort of sewing machine sewed with such intricacy?  How much was done by hand?

Handmade dress 1850s

We know that one garment was made completely by hand.  When you look at the frock and think about that, it is awe inspiring to consider the skill and time needed.   You would also need good eye sight – although I’m sure people wore glass in the 1850s.

We know that in the 1950s dressmakers used tissue paper patterns – they can still be seen in op shops and at markets but how did they cut the design in 1850s – the same way?

The bodice of a wedding dress 1907

It is interesting to note that the 1950s fashion was more restrictive and formal that that of the 1920s.   The 1920s garments are free and fun whereas the 1950s are designed to a ‘female figure’ with emphasis on the waist and full skirts with stiff petticoats.

1950’s day dress with stiffened petticoat

A disturbing item in the exhibition is the cape made of platypus fur.  I worked it out that several of those charming beings gave up their life to make this cape.

Cape of platypus fur 1890

There is also a glass cabinet of accessories with descriptions of each one.

Perhaps the success of an exhibition is that when you leave you want to know more – your interest has been roused.  I want to know more about the early frocks and how they were designed and how they were made.  I want to know what the very early sewing machines looked like and easy they were to use.

What:-Australian Made 100 Years of Fashion.

Where:- The Ian Potter Centre: NGV, Federation Square

Opening Hours:- 10.00am to 5.00pm daily, until 23 Jan 2011

Admission:- Free