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Have Your Say On Knox Street Pedestrian Plaza

Locals are being invited to have their say regarding plans to transform a part of Knox Street, Double Bay into a permanent pedestrian plaza.

Read: New Public Plaza to Open on Knox Street, Double Bay

A short survey will run until Wednesday, 23 February 2022 to ask residents for their opinions about the released concept designs for the project.

In September 2021, Woollahra Council held an initial consultation, which revealed that 91 per cent of respondents prefer to see outdoor dining in this space whilst 86 per cent would like to see the space have a ‘spacious and leafy’ feel.

Following a consultation with the community, Council designated architects from Aspect Studios to come up with architectural plans for the site.

The council is seeking to pedestrianise a section of Knox Street (between the Bay Street intersection and Goldman Lane), adding new lighting, plantings, public art and seating for the community.

“The new plaza will provide extra space for people to gather, rest and relax in a leafy and welcoming environment. It will also create potential for new events, markets, activations and outdoor dining experiences in an already well-loved and inviting part of Double Bay,” Woollahra Council stated.

The proposed Knox Street pedestrian plaza is part of the NSW Public Spaces Legacy Program and estimated to cost around $4.75 million. If approved, Council will start construction in mid 2022 and will open the plaza by January 2023.

Read: Melbourne’s Favourite Bakery Opening New Location In Double Bay

Mixed Reactions

Whilst the plans have received many positive responses from locals living nearby, there are a few residents who oppose the new pedestrianised public plaza.

A few business owners from Knox St and residents from Cosmo Centre hope the council will reconsider their plans and tweak certain aspects of the proposal.

Locals wanted to see street parking retained but they also want to widen pedestrian paths by reducing traffic lanes from three to one. There are also a few who suggested temporary bollards which could be erected to close the street during events.

Melbourne’s Favourite Bakery Opening New Location In Double Bay

Photo credit: @bakerbleu/Instagram

Melbourne’s popular bakery Baker Bleu, known for supplying bread to top restaurants across the city, is opening its first Sydney store in Double Bay in early 2022.

Read: New Public Plaza to Open on Knox Street, Double Bay

Similar to the original location in Melbourne, Baker Bleu Sydney will offer sourdough, bagels, baguettes, and white and rye loaves. Customers can also grab pizza slices and grocery items such as spreads, jams, and honey from the store.

What’s special about Baker Bleu’s breads is they have a longer shelf life compared to most commercial breads, since they don’t contain preservatives or additives. The loaves are made with wild yeast and are naturally leavened. They ferment for at least 18 hours, so you’ll get that dense bread with caramel-hued crusts.

The venue will be managed alongside veteran chef Neil Perry, who also owns the newly opened Margaret which is just a stone’s throw away. Baker Bleu will also supply bread to Chef Perry’s restaurant.

Baker Bleu has supplied bread to Melbourne’s renowned restaurants such as Attica and Cumulus Inc. They first opened in 2016 in Caulfield then in May 2021, they launched a location at Hawksburn Village in Prahran, just off Malvern Road.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Neil Perry (@chefneilperry)

Baker Bleu Sydney will occupy one of the retail spaces at Fortis at 2 Guilfoyle Ave, Double Bay. To stay updated with the bakery’s opening, follow them on Instagram @bakerbleu.

Japanese Restaurant In Double Bay Now Offers Takeaway And Delivery

Photo credit: Saké Restaurant & Bar Double Bay

Saké Restaurant & Bar Double Bay is now offering pickup and delivery of their famous sushi and sashimi, alongside their bestselling Hiramasa kingfish and popcorn shrimp, and other classic Japanese staples.

Read: Double Bay Tops ATO’s List for Highest-Paid Earners

The wide menu includes the restaurant’s miso glazed toothfish, vegetarian fried rice, edamame, house salad, and miso soup. Those who want to taste all these can simply order “The Sake Classics” from the special menu, as well as cocktails, beers, and ciders to go with their delectable Japanese dishes.

sake-double-bay — *Photo credit: Saké Restaurant & Bar Double Bay/Facebook*

Situated in the Intercontinental Hotel at Cross Street, Saké Restaurant & Bar in Double Bay is a contemporary sushi restaurant serving up innovative Japanese food. It’s the fourth location of the award-winning restaurant, which has outlets across Sydney, Melbourne, and Brisbane.

The restaurant boasts a stunning bar, indoor seating for up to 120 guests, and an outdoor terrace that can accommodate around 30 guests.

Photo credit: Saké Restaurant & Bar Double Bay/Facebook

Whilst the restaurant remains open, it has introduced Saké @ Home to accommodate customers during the pandemic. To place your order, go directly to Saké Restaurant’s website or order via Uber Eats.

Pickup is also allowed from 6:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. Wednesday to Saturday. In addition to ready-to-eat meals, Saké Restaurant also lets customers buy chilled and ready to finish dishes through Providoor.

Saké Restaurant & Bar Double Bay

Phone: 02 8017 3104

Facebook: www.facebook.com/SakeRestaurantDoubleBay

Instagram: @sakerestaurant

New Public Plaza to Open on Knox Street, Double Bay

Plans are in the works to create a public plaza on Knox Street, as part of upgrades to eco-friendly public places of a new, $250-million state program called the Public Spaces Legacy Program.

According to Treasurer Dominic Perrottet, the funding has managed to support 60 successful council proposals for over a hundred projects — one of which calls for the creation of an all-new public plaza in Knox Street, Double Bay.

The Woollahra Municipal Council’s proposal, titled Enhancing and Revitalising Woollahra’s Iconic Spaces Project, aims to create a pedestrianised public plaza in Knox Street that comes complete with new plantings, lighting, public art and seating areas. In order to construct the plaza, the local council has received a $4.75 million grant.

Photo credit: CC BY/J Bar/Wikimedia Commons

“This pandemic has reminded us of the immense value we all place on our public spaces – our parks, streets, plazas, cycleways, foreshores, bushland and walking trails,” said Mr Perrottet. “This program and the funding behind it will not only lead to better public spaces, but the work to construct them will boost local economies through the creation of more jobs.”

The new plaza is estimated to be complete and open to the public by the end of 2022. To learn more about the Public Spaces Legacy Program, read about it on New South Wales Government’s website here.

Double Bay Tops ATO’s List for Highest-Paid Earners

Double Bay has emerged as the suburb with the highest-paid earners in the latest report from the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) whilst seven of the top 10 postcodes with high-income earners come from Sydney.

The statistical data are from ATO’s 2018-19 financial year, which reveals that surgeons, anaesthesiologists and internal medicine specialists are some of the highest-earning rate payers. These professions made an average of $300,000 to $400,000 in the covered period.

Financial dealers, psychiatrists and those in the legal profession are lucrative occupations as well. However, even before COVID-19 and the lockdowns, hospitality workers, such as waiters and fast-food cooks, earned the lowest average taxable incomes.

Across Australia, 66 people who earned above one million and 156 individuals with a reported income of $500,000 or above paid no taxes for 2018-2019 due to a loophole in the country’s complex tax system, according to Richard Denniss, the chief economist at the Australia Institute.

The group with the most number of taxpayers are those who earned between $37,001 and $90,000, or about 41.7 percent of the working population.

Here are the suburbs of the top 10 of highest-paid earners for 2018-2019:

Suburb	Taxpayer’s Earnings
1 Double Bay, Sydney	$202,541
2 Toorak and Hawksburn, Melbourne	$201,926
3 Darling Point and Point Piper, Sydney	$199,813
4 Dover Heights and Vaucluse, Sydney	$197,886
5 Woollahra, Sydney	$183,418
6 Cottesloe and Peppermint Grove, Perth	$179,376
7 Portsea, Victoria	$175,356
8 Bellevue Hill, Sydney	$173,278
9 Mosman, Sydney	$171,135
10 Northbridge, Sydney	$168,891

In contrast, the lowest income earners are from regional New South Wales and regional Queensland, who made less than $10,000 during the said financial year.

New Fort Denison Dining to Revitalise Historical Port Jackson Site

Exciting changes are about to happen at the Port Jackson Island garrison as grand plans to revive Fort Denison into a new dining destination have been unveiled.

The Point, the famous hospitality group behind The Dolphin and Hotel Harry, has secured the lease to transform and revamp the site into the new Fort Denison Dining. The group plans to take back the site’s crown as the jewel of the Sydney Harbour by offering a range of dining experiences in a casual or fine dining setting.

Aside from the dining rooms, including an alfresco section, Fort Denison Dining will have three exhibition rooms for events like weddings and a dedicated wine room with a bar for guests to leisurely drink and unwind with the best views of Sydney as the backdrop.

Visitors can expect champagne breakfast, tours and live music events to take place as well. On a busy day, the dining site could cater to up to 400 guests.

“The proposal put forward by the Fort Denison Dining team delivers on all of those fronts, and I look forward to seeing Fort Denison reach its potential and become a must-see attraction for locals and visitors alike,” said NSW Environment Minister Matt Kean.

The hospitality group has also secured the necessary environmental and heritage approvals before the redevelopment starts, whilst National Parks and Wildlife Services will work on improving accessibility on the island, including setting up a new wharf for the visitors.

Once used as a penal colony, Fort Denison became a military fortification and defence ground in the 1840s. The guns at the barrack still work and have sometimes been fired for ceremonial events.

In 1992, the National Parks and Wildlife Service took control of the barracks and leased the space for hospitality operators, with the last restaurant shutting down in 2017.

Fort Denison Dining is earmarked to open in late 2022.

New $6.5 Million Redevelopment Plan for Heritage-Listed Gaden House Unveiled

A new plan to redevelop the heritage-listed Gaden House in Double Bay has been unveiled after boutique developer Fortis bought the building from AMA Property.

Fortis director Charles Mellick, who has been a resident of Double Bay for more than 50 years, is confident that their proposal, which has yet to be lodged with Woollahra Council, will have no objections as they have been careful to take into account all of the concerns of the community.

Previous development applications to revitalise the iconic building were opposed and rejected as the plans would completely alter the original building’s mid-century design, courtesy of prominent Sydney architect Neville Gruzman. The public outcry prompted Council to enlist the building as a heritage property.

Mr Mellick said that Fortis, who bought the building in 2020, has some ideas to expand Gaden House while retaining its fundamental design, with respect to Gruzman. The director said that he doesn’t want this heritage-listed site to have a nightclub but will consider a high-end food and drink area on the street level.

To ensure that this redevelopment won’t be rejected, Fortis signed up architect Peter Hurley and a few heritage designers to go over the plans before submitting the application.

Fortis is also nearly done with securing tenancies for the new building whilst Gaden House’s redevelopment is still in the planning stages.

“With significant community interest and heritage sensitivities, Fortis has assembled a project team of the highest calibre,” Fortis said.

“Paying utmost respect to Gruzman’s original designs, the creative vision is to enhance the existing building by restoring key structural and aesthetic elements including the façade, concrete staircase, metal-clad louvres, terrazzo podium and feature lighting circles. Carefully preserving its past, whilst bringing ultra-contemporary new levels of amenity, Gaden House will be re-established as a Double Bay for generations to come.”

Sinaloa: The Latest Mexican Restaurant in Double Bay

Would you like to try your hand at do-it-yourself tacos? Sinaloa, the newest addition to the restaurant in Double Bay is serving up some authentic Mexican cuisine with share plates and some DIY action for people who want to personally assemble their own tacos.

Opened in early March 2021, Sinaloa is managed by a full Mexican team. The head chef, Axell Torres Villa, is a veteran in the culinary industry and has worked in numerous high-end restaurants all around the globe, such as MeroToro in Mexico and Noma Kitchen in Denmark.

With the team’s expertise, Sinaloa offers its customers authentic Mexican share plates such as Wagyu Birria or Market Fish Al Ajillo, as well as the opportunity to assemble their own tacos. Starters and sides are also available such as Guacamole and their Stone Baked Quesadillas.

Sinaloa consists of four unique spaces designed for birthdays, corporate lunches, and group gatherings: the Hacienda, the Cahita Bar, the lounge area, and the restaurant proper.

The Hacienda, an open-air courtyard that features a large selection of Mexican liquor and cocktails, serves as the bar area which occasionally features music from local DJs. Also available for booking is the lounge area which comes with a DJ booth and access to their private courtyard.

The Hacienda at Sinaloa
Photo credit: Instagram/Sinaloa Sydney

On the other hand, the Cahita Bar offers a more corporate appeal, available for events, celebrations, and meetings. Last but not least is the Sinaloa restaurant proper, which offers chef Axell’s carefully curated modern Mexican menu.

The Cahita Bar at Sinaloa
Photo credit: Instagram/Sinaloa Sydney

Every weekend, Sinaloa hosts Bottomless Brunch: a set brunch menu with unlimited drinks available for four people or more. On Fridays, the Hacienda courtyard and lounge area will offer disco and house music from DJs, as well as cocktails and the restaurant’s food menu.

Sinaloa can be found at 37 Bay St, Double Bay, open from Wednesday to Sunday from noon till late. For more information, visit their website. Follow their social media accounts on Facebook and Instagram for the latest updates on meals, deals, and other special announcements.

Famous Chef Neil Perry to Open New Restaurant at Pallas House in Double Bay

Australia’s famous chef and restaurateur, Neil Perry, is back from his brief retirement and has announced plans to open a new restaurant in an upcoming commercial and lifestyle precinct, the Pallas House in Double Bay.

After stepping back from his role as the Rockpool Dining Group’s culinary director in mid-2020, the chef revealed that his new and still-unnamed restaurant will serve as the anchor tenant of the low-rise building that will be constructed on 30 to 36 Bay Street in the leafy eastern Sydney suburb.

His lease at Pallas House is good for 10 years.

In an feature with the project developer, Fortis, Mr Perry said that he wants to “create one of the world’s best neighbourhood dining experiences,” where locals would love to hang out or meet as often as they’d like.

Mr Perry envisions a simple but high-quality fit-out, with about 178 seats, and has enlisted Caon Studios and ACME for the design and development. Longterm, the experienced restaurateur won’t just open a new restaurant but a “Double Bay institution” loved by locals and visitors from all over the world.

This will be Mr Perry’s solo venture after 40 years. Post-COVID, Fortis believes that his venue will help Double Bay’s resurgence.

Meanwhile, Pallas House is set for completion in April 2021 and has also secured chef Damien Monley, who will open an all-day dining eatery. Much of the building will be rented out to commercial establishments, with Pallas Capital occupying the top two floors.

Dog Lovers Could Find Their Forever Partner at Dating With Dogs in Double Bay

Are you a single dog owner in search of a human partner in life? Is your dog in need of company, too? Dating with Dogs might help you find a kindred spirit whilst your precious pup makes friends.

Organised by The Social Dog Company, Dating with Dogs will take place on Sunday, the 23rd of June 2019, from 2:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. at The Golden Sheaf on New South Head Road.

Meet people whom you already have something in common with — a love for dogs — and spend an afternoon hanging out with like-minded individuals, whilst your dogs play with each other. If you currently don’t have a pup but you love to be around dogs and humans, you’re free to come to this social event, too!

*Photo Credit: The Social Dog Company/Facebook*

Tickets to this dating event are at $39. You can also book in advance for the Dating with Dogs meet up in July at the same place and time.

Dating can be quite a challenge in today’s digital-centric world where dating sites are littered with fake profiles. At this event, dog lovers will be assured of a great time even before they go. Because who can resist those charming pups, right?