Lunch Magazine » Newcastle http://www.lunchmag.com The best ideas come from Lunch Mon, 03 Jun 2013 01:26:56 +0000 en-US hourly 1 Newcastle’s other tap dogs http://www.lunchmag.com/newcastles-other-tap-dogs/ http://www.lunchmag.com/newcastles-other-tap-dogs/#comments Thu, 25 Oct 2012 08:38:02 +0000 mark http://www.lunchmag.com/?p=7340  

The former steel city offers a more nuanced take on good old blokey adventure as Mark Eggleton discovered.
 
I’m sitting in the Great Northern Hotel opposite the train station in Newcastle. It’s a muscular old hotel built back in the 1930s – back when large brewing companies built grand pubs that were designed to dominate their surrounds and exude an air of importance. And they were important because they served beer and the odd counter lunch to local movers and shakers.
 

Room with a view... Crowne Plaza

While the Great Northern unquestionably has watched the rise and fall of Newcastle as a steel town, it still exudes a certain shabby chic. It is also a reasonable live music venue. On this particualr evening, I’m drinking with a bunch of blokes led by Craig “Rosie” Rosevear (former drummer with Aussie band The Screaming Jets) and we’re chatting about the glory days of Oz rock and surfing culture in Newcastle, which is rather apt in the faded glory of the Great Northern. We’re also drinking beer.
 
Beer had been a bit of a theme on the trip, with James Squire regularly consumed as had been numerous others, including Stone & Wood from Byron Bay and the local drop from Murray’s Craft Brewing Co.
 
The previous evening we had visited local restaurant Rustica with its lanterns arranged like honeycomb across the roof and its wrought iron portico bought from a 15th century Portuguese church. The walls depict images from Renaissance Italy. It’s a hodge-podge but it works and reflects the many passions of owner and transplanted Irishman, Will Creedon.
 

We were in Rustica for a Beer Appreciation dinner hosted by former brewer, international beer judge and local beer-lover Lachlan MacBean and we tasted a number of beers from around the world matched with delicious comfort food from the Rustica kitchen.
 
Beer was overwhelming our trip with a visit to the Albion Hotel already fitted into the itinerary and with a wee tasting of eight tap-poured Aussie craft brews courtesy of Newcastle's top tap dog Mr MacBean (again) our manly diets seemed to be built around bubbles and froth.
 
The reason – we were four men on the ultimate blokes trip to Newcastle. Besides the amber fluid, there would be rock climbing, tree-climbing, football, flying foxes, an obstacle course in the treetops, coffee, food and Segways … yes Segways.
 
We even had quasi-masculine sponsors in Uncle Toby’s Muesli Bars, Jeanswest, Schwarzkopf Professional, Natural Confectionery Company, BRUT toiletries and Opena Case – a mobile phone cover with a built-in bottle opener. All very blokey except maybe for the lollies, deodorant, hair gloop and probably the muesli bars but we were a bunch of sensitive, well-coiffed, sweet-toothed new-age blokes. Sure we’d consume the frothy stuff and play an interminable amount of X-Box games but we were out to prove our innate sophistication.
 

Chatting to Rosie in the Great Northern over a quiet ale we retold our exploits in detail. It all began with a kind of Parkour experience in the trees (but with harnesses) at the Tree Top Adventure Park in the Blue Gum Hills Regional Park. Four blokes (and one woman) scurrying, climbing and falling with style through a series of obstacles strung up in the forest canopy.
 
There were flying foxes and much commando-like activity. At the end of it, we were better, braver people. I immediately set myself up as a new-age guru and motivational speaker. 
 
After descending from the trees we headed to a packed Hunter Stadium to catch the might of the Australian Rugby Union team get beaten by Scotland in driving rain, Arctic temperatures and gale-force winds. As the ultimate blokes we sat in a corporate box with around 100 of our closest local friends and ate footy food in sideways rain if we stepped outside.
 
With football and trees under our belt, the next day’s trip to indoor climbing centre, Pulse Climbing, was relatively tame. We scaled walls and failed on overhangs but our masculinity was proven. In fact we were so comfortable with ourselves that we went Segway riding in a protected wetland. Sure we went laser clay-target shooting and I briefly dreamed of bagging a trophy kill, such as an endangered bird or small marsupial from the back of my Segway, but it wasn’t to be.
 
In the midst of trying to live the dream as Alpha-males, as four urban silverbacks, we had kind of become sensitive, environmentally friendly types. Maybe it was the hair product; maybe the lollies and muesli bars. All I know is beer, male company, good food and testosterone-packed adventure crammed over a couple of days just made me want to hug a kitten and I have an irrational dislike of cats.
 
 
Rustica restaurant 
2/1 King Street, Newcastle NSW 2300
(02) 4929 3333
 
Crowne Plaza Newcastle 
Merewether & Wharf Road, Newcastle NSW 2300 
(02) 4907 5000
 
East Coast Xperience 
412 Sandgate Road, Shortland NSW 2307
1300 46 56 36
 
Hunter Wetlands Centre
412 Sandgate Road, Shortland NSW 2307
(02) 4951 6466
 
Chifley Executive Apartments
111 Scott St, Newcastle NSW 2300
(02) 4040 1200
 
Murray’s Brewery
Bob’s Farm
Port Stephens
(02) 4982 6411
 
Tree Top Adventure Park 
Blue Gum Hills Regional Park, Minmi Road, Minmi NSW 2287
(02) 4026 7617
 
 
]]> http://www.lunchmag.com/newcastles-other-tap-dogs/feed/ 0 Taste leads Newcastle’s sense of renewal http://www.lunchmag.com/taste-leads-newcastles-sense-of-renewal/ http://www.lunchmag.com/taste-leads-newcastles-sense-of-renewal/#comments Tue, 03 Jul 2012 07:32:29 +0000 jonathan http://www.lunchmag.com/?p=6095  

Mark Eggleton discovers a few regional culinary gems inside a city keen on rejuvenation

For two days a well-fed yet hardy quartet of blokes had battled sideways rain and an ice-cold wind that gnawed away at our clothing until it found a way to cut straight to bone. In that time we had examined the incongruities of Newcastle on New South Wales’ Central Coast.

It’s a city with some of the most beautiful beaches and surf breaks on the Australian coastline yet it’s also one where in the not-so-distant past, heavy industry sat on the edge of a pristine shore belching pollution and churning out steel to the world.

Things have changed dramatically in the space of less than 20 years, most of the industry has gone except for the Port Waratah coal loader and the city has settled into a slightly unsettled existence. Its timeless in the sense that it’s time is not now and it’s no longer the past either; it’s a city slowly reinventing itself in a world moving much faster.

Yet Newcastle pushes on and its reinvention is manifesting itself in the impressive Honeysuckle Development which meanders around the inner harbour shoreline but more importantly, through the passion of lifelong Novocastrians and returning locals coming home to clean air, beautiful beaches and a city excited by renewal.

And across the city like single roses rising out of cracked pavements, part of that renewal is a selection of local cafés and restaurants.

On the café front they can be well hidden such as the Wickham Motorcycle Co in Wickham set behind the roller doors of a working motorcycle repair shop with vintage bikes displayed around the oil-stained floors. The coffee is a special house blend and the café is imbued with the aroma of freshly baked cookies and machine oil, which is oddly pleasant.

Weave around a couple of corners but staying in Wickham, Dark Horse Espresso operates out of a hole in the wall serving Campos coffee and single origins as well as a range of rather tasty pick-me-ups for hungry bellies.

Back in the city, the retro shabbiness of Sprocket can be found in a corner building with its hotchpotch of furniture styles and coffee roasted on the premises. The blend is a pleasant nutty, caramel flavour and it makes for a fine start to the day.

My favourite was One Penny Black in the centre of the city’s pedestrian only Hunter Street Mall. Surrounded by discount stores, shuttered shopfronts and retailers selling brands you’ve never heard of, it’s not an illustrious setting but the café is well worth a stop for anyone touring the city streets.

Old style jazz pumps out into a small darkly wooded space exuding warmth. The coffee is either sourced from Blackstar in Queensland or Sydney’s Toby’s Estate and the single origin is a sweet coffee berry flavour – gorgeous to drink.

Away from the café scene and further down Hunter Street lies one of regional Australia’s currently unsung gems of dining. Subo lies behind a wood-patterned door that either looks like my Grandmother’s perfectly stacked timber shed or a stack of kiln-fired bricks.

Like its regional cousins such as Vulcan’s in Blackheath or Biota in Bowral, it comes with considerable pedigree with former Lexus Young Chef of the Year Beau Vincent behind the pans and his wife Suzie calmly leading the floor.

Inside the starkly lit space, the Vincents deliver wonderful comfort food finished with a flourish. Highlights for me included a 48-hour Gravalax served with beetroot, pink grapefruit, crème fraiche and mustard snow. A confit of chicken wings with blackened corn, crispy onions, sage and hay veloute also took me to my happy place, as did the Wagyu accompanied with delicious anchovy crumbs and a red wine sauce.

A smart wine list of quality mid-priced locals will hopefully ensure Subo becomes a fixture on Newcastle’s culinary scene and a must-visit for anyone in town. It’s just a short walk from the Crowne Plaza on the Honeysuckle Development waterfront. What this means is you can then finish the night off with a nightcap or seven at the Honeysuckle Hotel while being mesmerised by the lights flickering like lint on a dark watery blanket laid out across the harbour .

 

 

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