Bellissima Beresford

Sydney hotspot The Beresford launches the first of their new March Into Merivale Food and Wine Festival initiatives tonight with an event called 'Mammas Table' an Italian themed long table meal for you to bring your own friends or make some new ones! The gist is this:

1. Make a booking at $30 a head
2. Sit down at an Italian style long table for 26pax with people you know (and some you don't!)
3. Feast on dishes of pasta, salad, meats, cheeses, wagyu and gnocchi
4. Drink from the selection of whites and reds at the table (until they run out)
5. Go buy more wine to shout the best friends you never knew you had two hours ago

We think this is a brilliant initiative and a fabulous way to spend your previously unscheduled Wednesday. Contact The Beresford for bookings - every Wednesday until the 27th March.

Go Brooklyn

Brooklyn Boy Bagels made a huge splash at their launch on Sunday at Sydney's Darlie Laundromatic, selling out of those delicious boiled bad boys in just two hours

The Bagel has remained largely unrepresented in Australia and the reason is clear - a shitty bagel is pretty shit. You can't really get away with skimping where bagels are concerned. Enter New York raised Sydney food writer Michael Shafran (TheMeltingPot). Exhausted from years of tough, dry, sub-par bagels he took destiny into his own hands, studying master bagel-ry in the US before returning to Oz with a his own recipes for boiled bliss.

Perhaps one day we will see the salt beef of London's Brick Lane sandwiched between  those holey rolls. *hint*.

Embrace the bagel. Head to the Darlie.

Holy Fire

I've had a thing for Foals ever since an intoxicated Jimmy Smith told me that they had "the biggest dicks on tour" in a 2010 interview for Pages Digital. The Oxford boys have just dropped their third album 'Holy Fire'. It's more of what you'd expect - and by that I mean they've changed tack again and presented something you probably weren't expecting. The album opens with a pretty amazing prelude and continues to defy pigeon holing from there. Second track Inhaler seems to be a bit of a throwback to the rock era, while third track My Number is a D-Floor burner. Highly original, and as always, highly listenable. Get in.

Venue Alert: The Soda Factory

Making up for my proverbial dropping of the Alt-J ball I'm hitting you with this one ahead of time (cheer cheer). The Soda Factory is opening in Surry Hills on the 23rd of February - a cocktail bar serving up old school drinks and gourmet hotdogs (in line with the current Americana trend).

The drinks menu contains a Vodka Raspberry Float (yum) and a Kosher hot dog called 'The Barbara Streisand' which in itself is fabulous enough to warrant a visit. DJ Spinna (NYC) will be heading up the launch party and Grandmaster Flash making an appearance on Friday 22nd March. One to watch! Venue review forthcoming.