Melbourne Patron

Most public holidays, the excellent publication Broadsheet kindly creates a list of venues across town that will be trading. At the time of writing, this year's list only seem to cater for Melbourne and Sydney (as per their website currently), but if you're in one of those cities and, like me, will require caffeination and at least one brunch hit while the Easter Bunny's in town, check it out. Broadsheet 2013: Who's Open Over Easter Melbourne Sydney

Adelaide (or "Radelaide" as I more often hear it referred to) holds special meaning for me, because it's where my parents grew up before they relocated to Sydney in the late 1970s. As a result, I've been there a lot - particularly as a kid with the family, mainly to see the grandfolks, when they were still around. We'd stay at their place in North Plympton, on an avenue of one-storey, sand-brick houses, each and every one with a tidy lawn, neatly-pruned rose bushes, and a low fence, over which you'd chat to the neighbours. We'd hang out in the back room (because that's where the air con was), with its tiled flooring, vertical blinds, green knobbly couches, photo frames galore, and my grandfather's bar (yep, near-alcoholism goes way back in my family). Nanna would put out little bowls of Dixie Drumsticks, beer nuts and YoYo biscuits, and Grandpa would pour me a lemonade  from one of those mini blue Schweppes cans. While the grown-ups talked and Whee...

Meyers Place is one of my favourite Melbourne laneways to hang out in, not least because it offers a variety of bars to choose from. Yes, there are several, but together they form a chilled-out sanctuary from the ritzy, pricey hotspots around the top end of Bourke Street ( Siglo/Supper Club/City Wine Shop , Longrain , Madame Brussels , Gin Palace and 1806 all come to mind). Don't get me wrong - many of these are excellent; but when you venture out midweek on a regular basis, it's nice to know you have a cluster of affordable, more relaxed options available, as well as the schmancier, special-occasion places. Also handy is how easy Meyers Place is to find, compared to many other Melbourne laneways. "It comes off Bourke Street, near the Parliament end," is a phrase I'm sure I've spouted multiple times to uninitiated friends. Failing that, I tell them to look for the Palace Theatre - it's almost directly across the road. The Bourke Street entrance to Me...

One of my dear friends turned 30 recently, and as part of the five-day celebration, a few of us went to dinner at Easy Tiger (96 Smith Street, Collingwood). I'd been once before and loved it - we'd had excellent waitstaff, sat out in the courtyard surrounded by funky fairy lights, and the same friend - who at that point had just discovered she was fructose-intolerant - had been impressively catered for. Considering it's an Asian restaurant (apparently highly influenced by the chef's experience in Chinese, Japanese and Thai cuisines), and that onion (high in fructose) features regularly in Asian foods, we were delighted that our waiter went to the lengths of marking on the menu which items were, or could be made, fructose-free. So it was with high and gleeful expectations that we arrived for a birthday feast. My housemate and I landed first and were graciously seated street-side in ridiculously comfortable chairs, a bit low for my liking, in a rather squishy arrangeme...