Darlinghurst Blog: Plant Life: Jacaranda Tree

My correspondent from the Darlinghurst Flatlands, Ruby Molteno, sent me this colourful photograph earlier this week. Is it the first flowering Jacaranda of spring?

Darlinghurst Blog: Food: Third Village

When I spoke to a neighbourhood shopkeeper the other day about how I recently went to the Third Village cafe in Darlinghurst's Italian region, the first thing they said to me was, ''Did you see the chef's tongue?''

It was an odd question, but even stranger was the shopkeeper's description of this tongue. And no, it's not a piercing. I won't go into details either, you'll simply have to go in to Third Village and ask the chef to show you his tongue. I dare you. And please, pretty please, do report back. 

Anyway, with Ruby Molteno back in town after adventures abroad, I met up with her last week at the Third Village on Stanley Street. This little cafe opened in January by a Swiss couple called Eva and Benn and is so named because according to their menu, they support world aid projects:

''Third Village is not just a cool place to go, it is a place that connects you to the developing world through our developing social initiatives.

''In addition we only use coffee sourced in a socially, ethically and environmentally responsible way to improve the methods and rewards for growing coffee, tea and cocoa in developing countries around the world."

I don't know the specifics of which world aid projects they support, but I do know that back in January when floods ravaged parts of Queensland, Third Village donated the proceeds of their Muffin of the Week (mixed forest berry) to the Premier's Disaster Relief Appeal. I hope they sold lots of muffins.

Third Village is a fairly small space with seating for about 20 people. I hope they have applied for outdoor seating, because part of the appeal of Stanley Street is sitting on the footpath and watching the world go by, which is one of the reasons I still often go to Bill and Toni's about three doors down (the other reason is for their excellent pinball machines). 

One entire wall of Third Village is covered in two massive murals by the lovely Potts Point artist Gary McEwan and they look quite impressive, despite my lazy photograph:

The Autumn lunch menu (even though it's definitely Winter) ranges in price from $7.90 for a cheese and tomato sandwich, to $17.95 for a rib-eye steak sandwich with caramelised onions, roast zucchini, tomato, rocket, avocado and aioli on Sonoma sourdough. Along the way there is also a soup of the day with the same bread ($12.90), a beef burger with beetroot, onion, lettuce, tomato, cheese and aioli, served with oven baked potatoes ($16.95), as well as an Asian style salad with coconut milk-marinated chicken, spinach, cucumber and mint ($14.90). 

Ruby, unusually, passed on the breakfast menu - which includes eggs cooked six different ways as well as the yummy sounding french toast with poached pear, mascarpone and maple syrup ($14.50) - and instead went for the creamy rocket and pumpkin penne pasta with grated parmesan ($13.95):

I had a taste and it was creamy and garlicky delicious. And even though I wasn't hungry, I devoured my lemon chicken sandwich with lettuce, tomato and Neufchatel cream cheese ($10.50):

I only had a glass of water as I was in a hurry and had to hop, but Ruby loved her flat white. They also have a range of ''things that are not coffee, but we still like them'', such as smoothies and fresh squeezed juices named after people such as Jay, Peggy and even Barry. 

Next time I go, I want to try their Iced Coffee, which is made from a "freshly extracted" double espresso blended with vanilla ice cream, milk and honey ($5.50). Sounds dreamy delicious and another reason to return in addition to checking out that tongue.

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Third Village

80 Stanley Street

Darlinghurst (East Sydney) NSW 2010

02 9361 5826

Third Village Facebook Page

Third Village Website

Darlinghurst: Retailers: Seletti

Like most Darlinghurst studio dwellers, I don't have all that much room for sculpture or unnecessary trinkets in my life. Hell, I don't even have space for a lounge. Or a garbage bin, ironing board, coffee table; the list goes on. It's all about necessity. So when I do buy something practical, like a lamp or a coffee cup, I want it to be the most beautiful one available. There's no room for ugliness. So when I stumbled upon Seletti last week, I was in aesthete heaven.

Seletti opened in September last year in a space on Stanley Street, just across the road from Beppi's restaurant. It is owned by the charming Roberto Tagliaferri, who is the only Australian distributor of the Italian homewares brand Seletti. He had been acting as a distribution agent for a while before deciding to open up his own shop last year. 

Seletti specialises in quirky and lovingly designed homewares. Everything is practical, but oh so interesting to look at. The shop also sells the Italian-made Abici bicycles, which are old-fashioned in style, come in a range of gelato colours and cost upwards of $1200.  I personally want the Granturismo Donna model in cream, which you can see here. But where on earth would I keep it?

I also became rather excited by the $2500 chest of drawers with the coloured polka dots in this picture:

But I can only continue to dream, for I have no room for that either. 

What I liked most about the shop is that there are so many things that I have never seen in any other store, such as these large ceramic, oval-shaped boxes (above; which are apparently for storing sex-toys) and these toolbox-style, boom-box painted boxes:

I also liked the fact that Roberto was surprisingly unpretentious and friendly for a trendy homewares shop owner. 

When I asked him the rather pretentious question: "Where are these excellent boom-box boxes made?"

He replied with a straight face: ''China.''

While I did leave the shop empty-handed, I intend to return to buy one of these excellent science-beakers, which cost about $60. The large one would make a great jug for serving cocktails in:

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Seletti

50 Stanley Street

East Sydney NSW 2011

1300 730 244

www.seletti.com.au

Darlinghurst: Street Art: Ruins

I was mooching around the back-streets of Darlinghurst today with my girlfriend, Ruby Molteno, when she spotted this spooky stencil of a man's face hiding among the ruins of a terrace on the corner of Bourke and Stanley streets. As usual, the Horizon manages to sneak in to the shot.