the Social Shuttle

Images

Showing posts with label Leon Fink. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Leon Fink. Show all posts

Wednesday, October 2, 2013

Foodie News

In the 1960s in Sydney, Windsor Street in Paddington was the place to be. The Windsor Castle pub was packed nightly with it's many bars and live music in the beer garden. Gays & lesbians, heterosexuals, the legendary Push (Germaine Greer etc) all made their way there. Paddington was a working class suburb with a mix of immigrants who flocked to the cheap housing.
Lucio (right) celebrates with pals.
These days those once affordable terrace houses with their exotic French lace ironwork sell for over a million dollars. The Windsor Castle has become a vast private home and each house seems to boast a BMW or Mercedes.
Maria Venuti partied with Mickey Robbins
One establishment opposite the Castle that has lasted : Lucio's Restaurant serving classic Italian food. It stared life as the Hungry Horse art gallery before being taken over by Lucio in 1983. In it's early days it was a hangout for artists like John Olsen and Tim Storrier who sometimes paid their bills with works of art. Lucio probably has a small fortune hanging on his walls. These days Lucio Galletto OAM hosts all manner of guests from movie stars like Nicole Kidman and Daniel Craig with celebs like Ricky Martin and Giorgio Armani dining there. And thirty successful years was a good enough excuse to hold a party.
                                               ********************************
One guest at Lucio's party was Leon Fink who owns the world famous Quay Restaurant , seen her in our snap deep in conversation with News Ltd honcho Piers Ackermann (left).

Leon is behind the push to takeover the most visable dining spot in Sydney- Bennelong at the Sydney Opera House.
With the lease up on the top restaurant and chef Guillaume Brahimi throwing in the dish cloth, Fink has a plan to instal top chef Bill Granger who is cutting up a storm in the UK.

Wednesday, October 13, 2010

Photo Finish !


Gai & Robbie Waterhouse, Hoda Vakili and Tom Waterhouse

Too many parties, too much champagne !.

Our discovery of the week : a travelling cocktail cabinet filled with Pommery Champagne. This we like.



The gorgeous Racheal Finch

It was at the  hot young bookmaker Tom Waterhouse's launch of his betting website at the Beach Haus nightclub in Kings Cross : http://www.tomwaterhouse.com/ : online betting.
Tom's family has been in the horse racing game for over 100 years. His mum Gai Waterhouse is Australia's (and one of the world's) top trainers who has trained so many winners she has billionaires and Middle East potentates battering down her door to have her train their stallions at her stud.



Terri Biviano & Tim Holmes a` Court
His dad is Robbie Waterhouse who had a slight mis-hap with a nag named Fine Cotton. Something about daubing it with paint and a substitution  horse. A few million bucks was won on the betting tote. The whole scheme came crashing down and Robbie was 'warned off' the course for awhile but he's back in business.


a Pommery cabinet !

But it's young Tom who has taken over the family mantle and he gave me a few tips for the track :

"it's always easier to back winners in the first half of a race meeting"-"if the track is heavy and the favourite is odds on, get on"- "if you like a horse and you are surprised the odds are longer than you expected, don't alter your bet, bet the amount you intended. Value is king"
So there it is, straight from the horse's mouth as they say.
                                             


 ***********************************


OK, enough already !. We've had a few dozen emails demanding to see our snaps of gal about town Sharon Sargeant who took the ritzy Black and White Ball crowd by storm in her glittering red outfit.


Here are 2 to go on with.  Sharon is launching her own website soon so check back for the address. She promises us you won't be disappointed.



The Parliamentarian who makes grown men tremble-Bronwyn Bishop MP & B&W president Sue Diver
# A special mention must go to Tamburlaine Organic Wines (alcoholic !) from the Hunter Valley who supplied their superb tipple at the Black & White Ball. Visit their website :  http://www.mywinery.com/. Not only  a very nice drop, healthy to boot !
                                     *******************************************
The Quay Restaurant is world famous. This year it was voted Number 27 on the coveted S.Pellegrino World’s 50 Best Restaurant’s list, to become the highest ranked Australian restaurant in the world, as well as rewriting Australian restaurant award history by scoring a “double double” win, having been named Restaurant of The Year for the second consecutive year in the industry’s two top awards, the Australian Gourmet Traveller Restaurant Awards 2010 and The Sydney Morning Herald Good Food Guide 2010.


Leon & Margaret Fink

Chef Peter Gilmore & John Fink

So of course you would be stark raving mad to miss a book launch there especially when it's a recipe book by the famed head chef at the Quay, Peter Gilmore.

You know the nibbles will be superb, the Bollinger chilled to perfection and the crowd friendly. The only thing missing were some of the restaurant's regular clients when in town-David Bowie, Gordon Ramsay, Mick Jagger and King Constantine II of Greece.

our favourite Murdoch family member-Matt Handbury and partner Clare




The Quay is owned by Leon Fink and run by his son John. John's mum is the film producer Margaret Fink who produced Candy with Heath Ledger and My Brilliant Career (for which she won an Academy Award )and which launched the careers of Judy Davis and Sam Neil.

The view from The Quay Restaurant