Aussie restaurant tops in Manhattan

Noffs with Julia Gillard & Matty Bennett

Former Sydneysiders Rupert Noffs and his partner Matty Bennett are cleaning up in New York with the success of their restaurant The Lucky Bee . The pair have received rave reviews in US publications for their trendy Soho eatery which is attracting the likes of locals and celebrities from Martha Stewart, fashion designer Valentino, LL Cool J to former Australian prime minister Julia Gillard.
Noffs is the grandson of Wayside Chapel founder the Rev Tedd Noffs and moved to New York  four years ago to promote his unique brand of Gideon Shoes, Bennett was the sous chef at Sydney's Longrain restaurant. The pair married late last year in a  civil ceremony.

Apart from New York A-listers it's  the food media the pair have won over including positive reviews in the Manhattan's lifestyle bible The Village Voice with the influential New York Eater website naming The Lucky Bee as the best new comer on the block :
"The Lucky Bee is the new farm-to-table Southeast Asian cafe from restaurateur Rupert Noffs and former Fat Radish sous chef Matty Bennett. The menu includes coconut-braised short ribs, grilled whole shrimp, salt & pepper wings, and green curry with vegetables. The dining room has a kooky vibe, with 60s-style lamps, hanging ferns, and pink & black stripes all over the place."

The Lucky Bee which also sells NYC-produced honey from rooftop hives is located at 252 Broome Street in lower Manhattan. Whispers many moons ago lived for 2 years in a Broome Street loft almost opposite where The Lucky Bee is now located. At the time the area was only warehouses, deserted at night, and even lofts were illegal dwellings. They now sell for many millions of dollars. How times change.

Martha Stewart is a fan of The Lucky Bee

                                        *******************************


Whisper's best wishes go out to two of our favourite locals Kerri-Anne Kennerley and her husband John Kennerley after John's recent tragic accident when he broke his neck after a balcony fall.

We've encountered the pair numerous times over the years and a more loving couple is hard to find. The pair are devoted to each other and this must be particularly trying time for Kerri-Anne.

 The last time we saw them at a party John told us about his favourite hobby - he has constructed a fantastic miniature train system that snakes throughout the pair's living room. John constructs everything himself including building a miniature model the magnificent Shrewbury train station in Shropshire

Rupert & Matty Take Manhattan

There's more than one Aussie Rupert wielding power in New York. Whilst Rupert Murdoch oversees a global media empire from his NYC base, fashion entrepreneur Rupert Noffs is carving out his own successful career with his unique Gideon Shoes that are fast becoming the favourite footwear of young celebrities and popping up for sale in more and more US fashion stores.

Rupert Noffs (left) and Matty Bennett

Just last September we reported on the wedding of Noffs, grandson of Sydney's Wayside Chapel founder Rev Ted Noffs, when  Rupert married his long time partner Matty Bennett.
Now Bennett, known affectionately as Matty Bee is opening a restaurant with Noffs on Broome Street (where Whispers lived for 2 years in a loft) on the fashionable Lower East Side.

 To be called The Lucky Bee, food will be South East Asian inspired "from farm to table" and will join the small number of popular cafes and eateries run by Aussie ex-pats such as The Fashionable Cow and former model & photographer Lincoln Pilcher's Kingswood.
# When Whispers lived in Broome Street we were advised by the local plod to avoid walking home late at night. How times change.  Below : the location for The Lucky Bee

Ethical Shoes- No Sweat !

Rupert & Matt Noffs at the opening of Gideon Shoes

As long ago as 1991 the writer and 'futurist' Faith Popcorn predicted that ethical manufacturing businesses were the coming wave of the future. Now a new 'ethical' shoe store has opened in Bondi Beach -Gideon Shoes, the brainchild of brothers Matt and Rupert Noffs. They threw a small party to celebrate.

Chrissy Pisotto & Tali Jatali

The Noff brothers come from a family with a history in charitable works.

Their grandfather was the much loved Rev Ted Noffs who opened the Wayside Chapel in Kings Cross in 1964. The Wayside was a drop in centre for down and outs, drug addicts , prostitutes in fact just about anyone who needed to a friendly shoulder to lean on. Ted was famous for his non-judgemental acceptance of anyone no matter what their circumstances were.

Ted had a stroke in 1987 and sunk into a coma where he lingered, finally passing away in 1995. At his funeral in the city the streets where packed with an assortment of people-Hells Angels, schoolkids, captains of industry, powerful politicians, policemen and society figures.
                                                              

musician Damian Downey

When Matt and Rupert decided to start manufacturing their own shoe designs they headed of to Asia but were horrified by the conditions of factory workers there so decided to have them made back home where they are now hand produced. Not only do they refuse to support sweat shops they have a long history of supporting the disadvantaged.

Operating out of the Ted Noffs Foundation run by Ted's son Wesley, Matt and his wife Naomi  started the Street University a retreat for Western Sydney street kids. Rupert opened a unique thrift shop-One Noffs in Randwick where donated clothes are re-styled by fashion students into entirely new garments.

Rupert Noffs, Prince William & Kevin Rudd

The seal of approval was put on the Noff's charity works last year when former PM Kevin Rudd visited them with HRH Prince William.

So forget about your overpriced N*kes run up by Vietnamese kids  (send them some money direct instead) and check out Gideon Shoes which really are fantastic and made of the finest Kangaroo and Cane Toad leather.

You can even have them tweaked to your own design. And they're mighty comfortable.

## over 2300 people have clicked onto our Gideon Shoes report with over 400 from the USA while 4 have emailed to ask if Gideon Shoes are available in the US. That we do not know although there are rumours they may be opening a shop in New York (where I'm sure they'd 'walk' out of the store).
Go to the Gideon website here for the latest news and email them direct-they're a friendly bunch ! :

Boomerang, A Swell Party and the Guantanamo Bay Inmate

"The Worst of The Worst" was how the former Foreign Minster Alexander Downer described him.



Alexander ' worst of the worst' Downer

The  pillar of the Adelaide Establishment who once famously posed on a TV chat show in stilettos and net stockings was speaking of the hapless David Hicks who spent years incarcerated at Guantanamo Bay  after the Northern Alliance pounced upon him in 2001 at a bus stop in Afghanistan and handed him over to the CIA for a $1000 bounty.

 In the hysteria following 9/11 Hicks spent the next 6 years at Gitmo chained to the floor of a cell for 22 hours at a time under fluorescent lights before finally being sent back to Australia after pleading guilty to the trumped up charge of "providing material support for terrorism".

The US chief army prosecutor later claimed Hicks should never have been charged and said the whole case was dominated by political interference from George W.Bush and PM John Howard.

 




David Hicks and wife Aloysia

  Hick's autobiography Guantanamo: My Journey is a harrowing read in which Hicks describes being tortured and beaten while blindfolded and handcuffed, forced to take unidentified medication, regularly forced to run in leg shackles causing ankle injury and being waterboarded by US agents.

Boomerang the amazing Spanish style mansion nestled by the harbour in Elizabeth Bay is far cry from Cuba.

It's owned by the billionaire trucking magnate Lindsay Fox who threw the doors open for a party last night.  Hicks and his wife Aloysia were guests for the launch of the book Stories from the Wayside.

The Wayside Chapel in Kings Cross is a ministry that was begun by the saintly late Reverend Ted Noffs in 1964 and continues to assist the down and outs of the Cross, drug addicts and anyone else in crisis.



Boomerang beauties: Samantha Harris & Jessica Gomes



Current minister Rev Graham Long has gathered together some amazing sucess stories from over the years along with some brilliant photographs by four leading fashion and advertising photographers.

 The concept of Sydney art director Andrew Henderson, Stories from the Wayside celebrates the chapel, the people who work within its walls and the visitors for whom the Wayside is a welcome support system, as well as as a place where all are welcome 'just to be'.



Boomerang



Built in 1928 at a cost of $28000 for music publisher Frank Albert, Lindsay Fox purchased the Hollywood style Boomerang in 2009 for $21M from society hostess Julie Schaeffer who had paid $20M for the house from the Shuttle's favourite former Hong Kong banker Duncan Mount and his wife Sally.

The house featured in Mission Impossible 2 and the film's star Tom Cruise tried to buy the house as an Aussie base for he and then wife Nicole Kidman.

David Hicks is about 5'5", shy and well mannered. He says he met Osama Bin Laden twice but he was in the wrong place at the wrong time. He also fought for the Kosova Liberation Army.

Hicks chats to NSW Governor Marie Bashir

 Alexander Downer comes from a wealthy and privileged South Australian political family. His father Sir Alec Downer was High Commissioner to the UK, his grandfather Sir John Downer state premier twice. When he was Opposition Leader Alexander Downer dropped a clunker in a speech when he guffawingly referred to domestic violence as "the things that batter". When he took the Foreign Ministry he declared the UN an "out of date" body although that was forgotten when he beat the war drums for the disastrous Iraq Invasion. He was positive that WMD would be found.

I think we'd rather share a drink with David Hicks.