Photography courtesy Miniforms. From vegetarian cocktail bars to stunning new watches to dreamy tables for the living room, here are five things on our radar at the moment in the T Australia office.
A new hidden laneway bar with a vego menu
Ovolo Hotel’s Backroom is a hidden gem tucked away on Melbourne’s famed Toorak Road, launching next week. The perfect space for a post dinner tipple, late-night snack, or cocktail, entry is via a discrete concrete door on Toorak Road (next door to Lona Misa on street level), identified only by a singular neon martini glass sign. Be it a specific drink, region, brand or event, Backroom will open every Friday and Saturday evening as a space to showcase the finest artisans purveying the best liquid prescriptions from Australia and around the world. Opening on 1 July with its first collaboration concept, the ‘All-Australian Takeover’ will include quintessentially Australian beverage brands Feels Botanical, Regal Rogue and CAPI.
As part of Ovolo Hotel Group’s Plant’d initiative, the bar will showcase an entirely vegetarian menu, starting with dishes such as potato bread served with Feels Botanical Revel & Vegemite butter with shitake anchovies, fried artichoke hearts served with with Calabrian chilli pesto and Feels Botanical Vivify pickled rockmelon and Haloumi doughnuts with Feels Botanical Rousse, hibiscus and morita chilli jam.
A design icon in two new colours
Miniforms has just revealed this year’s new colours for their award-winning Soda collection by Yiannis Ghikas. Soda is now available in two new colours: Amethyst and Blue to accompany the original shades of Petrol and Amber. We’ll have one in each please.
James Richardson Furniture first debuted Soda on Australian shores in 2020, and the pieces have since earned iconic status for their strong, sinuous silhouette, contemporary colours and captivating glass-blown structure. Coming in at 20 kilos, the product is blown, drawn out and shaped by three master glassmakers from the island of Murano in Italy. jrf.com.au
A foodie collaboration all winter long
North Bondi Fish has collaboration with Kepos Street Kitchen to create North Bondi Kepos, a Middle Eastern inspired pop-up, opening on 30 June. Under the guidance of hospitality heavyweights Matt Moran and Kepos Street Kitchen’s award-winning chef Michael Rantissi, with a menu curated by Michael Rantissi, Kepos Street Kitchen will take over the North Bondi Fish kitchen to showcase the flavours of modern Israeli food. northbondikepos.com.au
A watch that’s masculine-meets-feminine
Firmly embedded in the masculine universe of the house, the Hermès H08 watch combines tension and fluidity, robustness and delicacy. As sporty as it is elegant, it features a strong aesthetic dimension and plays with shapes and materials. The urban and contemporary look echoes the world of Hermès men’s ready-to-wear. hermes.com
Bringing some glamour back to The Bar
Restaurateur and entrepreneur Maurice Terzini has evolved the InterContinental Sydney Double Bay’s food and beverage offering, with the opening of The Bar. Known for hosting the likes of Princess Diana, Bill Clinton, and Elton John, the restoration is the first step towards reclaiming the iconic hotel’s grandeur through a first-class service offering. The Bar will serve classic drinks and cocktails with table side service, and an Italian-Australian inspired classic menu, focusing on local produce, such as Sydney rock oysters, beef tartare, spanner crab and Pyengana cheddar Lasagnette, an American bar cheeseburger and a club sandwich. intercontinental.com
