Across the Border: Kings Cross: Street Art: Llankelly Place

Kings Cross's newly renovated Llankelly Place is proving to be one hip laneway. It has cafes, bars, had a pop-up Tokyo Bike Shop and is now becoming a magnet for nicely executed street art. The Llankelly Place facade of this 1930s apartment building, which fronts onto Macleay Street, has become a gallery for two very different styles of street art. The first is of a cherub-type girl or boy who appears to flying through the air while looking at some arrows circled on its chest. 

I'm sure the circle of arrows probably has some deep meaning. 

The other piece is of a dalmatian that has been popping up all over the neighbourhood, from Surry Hills to Darlinghurst and Kings Cross. I posted a photo of one Surry Hills dog on my Facebook page last week. There's also one on the side of the Darlo Bar or Royal Sovereign Hotel on Darlinghurst Road. 

The dalmatians are signed by N.B. and all have speech bubbles above their heads saying obscure things such as, "He Took My Leg" and "God's Old and Smells Funny":

I wonder if the artists had to ask the owner of the building for permission to put up their art?

Darlinghurst: People: Windshield Cleaner

I wish I had asked this chap his name. Now he is just one of the many nameless people who spend their days breathing in the traffic fumes at busy intersections to make a few dollars washing motorist's windshields. They are always friendly and I find them quite fascinating. This chap works the intersection of William and Palmer Streets. Say hi if you see him.

Across the Border: Kings Cross: People: Black Cockatoo Man

Just one of those chaps that wanders about the neighbourhood. If you live in the area, you must have seen him: The Black Cockatoo Man. A man who always wears black to match his pet Black Cockatoo. 

This picture was shot at the Saturday Kings Cross Markets by my dear friend John Webber, because I was too scared to go too close to the bird. 

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: Food: Gelato Messina

So it's school holidays time again. How do I know this? Because there are no 3pm weekday queues outside Victoria Street's Gelato Messina. 

There are also no school children, from Darlinghurst Public and SCEGGS, lingering on the footpath of frozen yoghurt specialist Wow Cow, just up the road at 304-308 Victoria Street. 

Ah, I do love school holidays in Darlinghurst, because it also means there are loads of parking spaces as families abandon the neighbourhood for far-off adventures. 

And when I had a rare Monday off work this week, I took advantage of the child-free zone at Gelato Messina, ordered a two scoop cone and grabbed a coveted footpath seat where I scoffed my indulgence and watched the world go by.

But it's not just school children who crowd the tiny shopfront of Gelato Messina. Since opening in 2003, Gelato Messina has become a regular night time stop for adults, who block the footpath outside the shop from about 7pm to 11pm most nights of the week. Gelato Messina even extended their trading hours to 11.30pm on Fridays and Saturdays, to cope with demand.

So why is their gelato so popular? Indeed, why is gelato so popular? I guess it's because it has less fat than ice-cream and while most food low-fat food products don't taste as good as their full-fat counterparts, gelato actually tastes better than ice-cream. Less fat in gelato's case, equals more intense flavour it seems.

Gelato Messina is owned by Jose Cosentino and Nick Palumbo, who are also connected to Omerta (Italian; great place for an al fresco vino), a few doors up the street and A Tavola (also Italian; pasta a specialty), diagonally across the road. Both specialise in food from the Abruzzo region in central Italy, about 80km east of Rome.

It seems the Abruzzians are trying to take over this part of Darlinghurst . . . with a new quasi-addition, which I'll mention in a moment. But back to the gelato:

Yum. 

One scoop = $3.90.

Two scoops = $4.90.

Three scoops = $6.90.

1.5 Litres - hell, yes! = $25.90.

Yum. I had a figgy scoop as well as a scoop of the Banana Caramel gelato made from yoghurt instead of milk:

Yum. Oh, and sorbet!  No milk; even less fat:

Not content with their three shops in a 50m radius of prime Victoria Street strip, the Abruzzians have recently taken over the shop next door to Gelato Messina.

The shop will be used as a Gelato Messina kitchen and they are also planning to host gelato-making classes and demonstrations, starting in about two months time. 

I really don't see the point in learning how to make gelato when Gelato Messina does a fine job of it already. But - no doubt - their classes will attract a certain devoted readership of The Sydney Morning Herald's Tuesday lift-out, Good Living, who love nothing better than dragging their $150 Rolser trolleys around weekend food markets in search of under the counter unpasteurised cheese.

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Gelato Messina

1/241 Victoria Street

Darlinghurst NSW 2010

02 8354 1223

www.gelatomessina.com.au

Darlinghurst: Retailers: Royalty Prussia Cafe

My friend Ruby Molteno has been urging me to blog about the Royalty Prussia shop on William Street for some time now. Ruby is strangely fascinated by the Royalty Prussia and I must admit it does hold a peculiar - and very small - space in my heart. I suppose it has something to do with its mysterious provenance and unashamed campness. 

Just how Royalty Prussia came to find a home last year among the traffic and street prostitution on William Street - and why it is not located in its spiritual heartland amongst the wealthy of Double Bay - is the first mystery. The second mystery is who runs the shop. The third mystery is who shops there.

Unashamed campness? Simply walk on by its large floor to ceiling windows and you will understand. Royalty Prussia is like a 24-hour, seven day a week party of gilt-dipped, feather-decked over the top campness. The love child of Liberace and Liza Minnelli. A place where Michael Jackson could drop $20 million on a royal-style carriage for Bubbles the chimp - if he was still alive and lived in Sydney. 

But - and I am ashamed to say - I don't really know the true cost of that carriage, which once took pride of place in Royalty Prussia's crowded, eternally lit window. 

And I must admit, that I have never been inside Royalty Prussia, because just passing by its windows was overwhelming enough. 

But that could all be about to change. 

As my spy in the Darlinghurst flatlands, Ruby has been well positioned to observe the recent movements of tradesmen and tradeswomen at Royalty Prussia and this - as well as the signs plastered on the windows - indicate Royalty Prussia is soon to open The Royalty Prussia Cafe. 

And when this happens, Ruby and I will be first at the bar ordering cappuccinos, which will hopefully come served in an ostentatious teacup and saucer befitting the Royalty Prussia aesthetic. 

Royalty Prussia opened on the ground floor of the historic 1926 Chard Building, at 171 William Street, in May last year. It is owned by Isreali-born Galita Yoshia, who as this Sydney Morning Herald article suggests (third item down), is rather fond of retaining the mysterious origins of Royalty Prussia.
Royalty Prussia has not just one, but two websites: one with a .com address, the other with a .com.au address. The two sites are identical and advertise Royalty Prussia's specialty of building and manufacturing exterior and interior designs for ''Luxury Homes, Palaces, Hotels, Yachts and Jets''. 

According to the website Royalty Prussia specialises in ''European-Aristocratic designs with the purpose of reliving the splendour of old times''.

''Our design is influenced by the lives and palatial surroundings of European royalty,'' the website says.

''Our work in art and architecture holds historical value, which today signifies prosperity and affluence.''

Which doesn't explain why they set up shop on the grungy William Street strip. 

And rather than using their website to promote their Darlinghurst showroom - their only showroom as far as I can tell - they instead decorate each web page with that old perfume-advertisement marketing trick:

''Paris. London. Moscow. Monte Carlo. New York. Dubai.''

Nevertheless, I'm looking forward to that cappuccino.

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Royalty Prussia

171 William Street

Darlinghurst NSW 2010

02 9357 5335

www.royaltyprussia.com.au

www.royaltyprussia.com

Darlinghurst: Houses: 40A Caldwell Street Part Two

You may recall how I wrote last month about the proposed dunny lane development in Caldwell Street, whereby a Federal Court Judge has submitted an application to the City of Sydney council to build a house on a tiny 48sqm Darlinghurst block. 

If not, you can read the blog post here.

The development application angered residents of Caldwell Street and nearby Surrey Street, especially the owners of three houses whose properties back on to the proposed four-storey house site. 

Their opposition to the development - and the judge's canny purchase of the land for a token $1 - attracted much attention in the mainstream press, with articles in The Australian newspaper and The Sydney Morning Herald. 

The exhibition period for the development was initially to end on March 3, but the council extended the deadline to March 25. The council received 60 submissions during that period and of those 59 were opposed to the development. There was just one single submission in support. 

According to the council, submissions included residents' concerns about loss of access to properties via the rear laneway and impacts on surrounding residential amenity, including reduced privacy, overshadowing and water run-off.

Submitters also raised concerns about impacts on the heritage value of the dunny laneway and Beare's Stairs (below) as well as inconvenience during the proposed construction period.

City planners will now review all the submissions and present them to the Planning and Development Committee for consideration, which is expected to happen next month.

It will be interesting to see what the committee decides.