Darlinghurst and a tavola
Jan 23rd, 2008 by Nick
A couple of weeks ago, when I was leaving the emergency room, I walked out to the street to hail a cab. I looked around, and thought “hey, that looks like a nice neighborhood.” At the time, I didn’t quite realize that I was in the Darlinghurst neighborhood, and I certainly didn’t realize that last night’s dinner destination was in that nice neighborhood.
I had read about a tavola in multiple locations, including a couple of discussion boards and the Qantas in-flight magazine. I was warned that there would be a bit of a wait as it is a small place, (erroneously) that there were no reservations, and that it would be worth it. So after a small appetizer in the Hilton executive lounge, I set off for Darlinghurst.
Normally, this would be a long but reasonable walk, but I’m still not quite 100% healthy, so I popped for the A$3.60 for a round trip subway ride two stops from Town Hall to Kings Cross. It turns out that where I stopped at Kings Cross the last time I was in Sydney, if I had kept on walking, I would have discovered Darlinghurst. The restaurant was a few blocks down, and as expected, they were full up. But the hostess was very nice about it, and offered to either seat me immediately if I was willing to leave promptly in a half hour, or take my mobile number and call me when a table was ready in about fifty minutes. Since I was not in any kind of hurry, I gave her my mobile number and went for a walk. One goal of my meanderings was to find the restaurant bills, my breakfast stop for Thursday.
After about a half hour, I stopped at the Green Park hotel/bar at the light just down the street, and had a half-pint of Victoria Bitter beer. I like this half-pint thing, as well as Australian “bitter” beers such as Victoria and Cascade.
By the time I finished my beer, the phone rang, and I walked over to the restaurant. Most of the seating is at a very long table with french doors opening to the street, and I was given the seat closest to the front.
My meal was very good: arrancilli risotto balls plated with a spicy tomato-based sauce in a martini glass, a pasta dish with veal meatballs and a thin red sauce that reminded me of a Greek sauce from lamb that goes over spaghetti, a very good Italian wine that was a sangiovese/merlot blend, and some delicious bread with red pepper infused olive oil. The only fault was that the veal was very lean and thus a little dry, and it could have used more of the sauce.
The total bill came out to A$60 all-in, which I thought was very reasonable and consistent with what I’d pay in the Lincoln Park section of Chicago, or the Dupont Circle section of Washington. It was a beautiful night, and I contemplated forgoing the return subway ticket and walking back as it was downhill, but I came to my senses and took the quick subway ride back to the hotel and called it a night.
Glad to hear you liked Darlinghurst. I also ate breakfast at bills in 2000 and it was superb.
Also glad you like a half-pint of VB. Although given your historical dislike of beer, I almost fell over when I read that …
Just remember — I don’t live too far away so if you ever find yourself with a pint of bitter — and only want a half — I’m just down the street.
(OKAY — not exactly “just down the street” but close enough to share a pint)