Sutram's debut collection of 100 per cent organic cotton bedding. Photography by Jake Terrey. From a prolific retrospective at the National Gallery of Australia to an homage to the original pintxo in Sydney’s Surry Hills, here are four things on our radar at the moment in the T Australia office.
A Byron Bay Restaurant Harnessing the Japanese Art of Hibachi
Cooked up by the team behind the growing Light Years empire, restaurateurs Kim Stephen, James Sutherland and executive chef Robbie Oijvall, the newly opened Moonlight Hibachi and wine bar is an intimate departure from the crew’s signature bold offering. Celebrating the Japanese tradition of Hibachi, the seasonally rotating menu reinterprets classic flavours in unexpected ways. From Wednesday to Sunday, diners can enjoy a bite from the raw bar, or more substantial grilled dishes such as Hokkaido scallops with Café de Nippon butter and finger lime, whilst sipping from the tight list of biodynamic wines picked according to the lunar cycle. “We want diners to immerse themselves,” says Stephen of the venue’s Week-Days studio designed interiors, inspired by Japanese architecture and textured with plasterwork, stainless steel, concrete, cork, and timber. moonlightbar.com.au
The National Gallery of Australia Presents a Survey Exhibition of Artist Cressida Campbell
Considered one of Australia’s most important contemporary artists, painter and printmaker Cressida Campbell is the subject of a landmark retrospective at the National Gallery of Australia in Canberra. Curated by Dr Sarina Noordhuis-Fairfax and open until February 19, 2023, the exhibition spans Campbell’s impressive 40-year career, as explored inside the eighth issue of T Australia, where writer Kathy Lette celebrates and reflects on her longtime friend. “What most captivates me about her work is the way she finds poetry and beauty in the everyday, be it stacked dishes, compost scraps or rusty shipping containers. She also captures the light and vibrancy of Sydney, with its twisting waterways and resinous bush, with such emotive accuracy that I can almost smell the eucalyptus leaves and feel the fur of the flannel flowers.” nga.gov.au/exhibitions/cressida-campbell
Sutram Unveils Its Debut Collection of Organic Luxury Bedding
While linen served as the fabric du jour of Australian bedding in recent years, Sydney-based brand Sutram (a Sanskrit or Tamil word translating to overarching formula, plan, string, or thread) are championing organic cotton sheets and accents for the home. Eschewing classic muted tones, Sutram’s founders Rukaiya Daud and Kate Fowler instead embrace a loud and evocative palette. “Inventive use of colour has been, and continues to be, an endless source of inspiration for us, capturing our imaginations, lifting our mood, and being both an architectural element and medium for self-expression,” says Fowler. The range’s crisp 300 thread count sheets, designed to be mixed-and-matched, are made in India from 100 per cent organic, Global Organic Textile Standard (GOTS) and Fairtrade certified cotton, and coloured using non toxic dyes. studio-sutram.com
Step Inside Lennox Hastie’s Basque-Inspired Wine Bar
Chef Lennox Hastie spent five years in the kitchen at Asador Etxebarri, a wood-fired restaurant in the Basque foothills. A fixation with fire followed him back to Australia and shaped his (aptly named) first restaurant, Firedoor. Hastie’s newest venture, Gildas, is a more overt love letter to the Spanish chapter of his life, celebrating the region’s pintxo bars with a menu of Spanish wine, sherries, tapas and share plates. The wine bar’s namesake snack – the anchovy, pepper, olive-skewered gilda – appears in three iterations: Gilda, Grillda (using sardines) and Matilda (kangaroo). Green banquettes and blackbutt flooring evoke the warm and lively atmospheres of the San Sebastián bars Hastie used to frequent, with tables available for nightly walk-ins. gildas.com.au
