Best of Melbourne
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11 best bottles of bubbles for your buck
WHETHER you have $13 to spend or want to splash out up to $125, these top bubblies will ensure your party season gathering isn’t a fizzer.
Did you say garlic doughnut dessert?
DOWN by the Yarra in Warrandyte, this ambitious restaurant is serving a delicious celebration of Australian ingredients — including a surprising garlic doughnut dessert.
“That was a pool of my blood”
Rock City: Sugar Mountain bill & Moses Sumney interview, Golden Plains announcement, Rocket Science, Piknic Electronik & more, reports Mikey Cahill
Playful take on literary classic
DON’T expect grim imagery or an intensive or academic scrutiny of Leo Tolstoy from Gob Squad’s adaptation of War and Peace, because this production is playful and eccentric rather than confronting or impenetrable, writes reviewer Kate Herbert
VCE student first among equals
VCE student Elizabeth Vu is working to make the world a better place through her leadership on refugees, fair trade and social justice
Is Chin Chin still worth the wait?
IT’S five years since Chin Chin first introduced Melbourne to the reservation-free restaurant — and the queues that follow. But is it still any good?
Four stories, one narrative
In his new play Sunshine, four, unnamed characters’ monologues tell the tale of a damp and doomed night when a marriage ends, a dead husband is mourned, a man betrays his friend and two strangers’ lives collide.
Son’s battle to stop Melbourne’s Dr Death
A “deranged” 1920s doctor who owed thousands after a horse racing gambling spree injected his whole family and housekeeper with morphine, but his awful plan to kill did not go smoothly.
Digging Melbourne’s City Loop
MELBOURNE’S City Loop changed the face of the city. Hundreds of workers took 14 years to bring the project to life, which was finished by 1985. Take a look underground during the construction of the loop.
Classic TV ads of the ‘70s and ‘80s
LIFE in Melbourne in the 1970s and 1980s was a blast, if these classic local television advertisements are any guide. Tap here for some of the best.
Last chance to see a five-star production
Beg, borrow or steal to get a ticket to Robert Lepage’s remarkable Melbourne Festival show 887, in which Lepage blends personal storytelling about his childhood in Quebec City in the 1960s with the political struggles of French-speaking Canadians during that same period, writes reviewer Kate Herbert.
Tiny town, big impact
VCE student Georgia Lee works hard to make sure isolation and drought don’t deter students from reaping the benefits of living in a small town
Kinky Boots a perfect fit in Melbourne: Cyndi
CYNDI Lauper says Melbourne will most appreciate the message of Kinky Boots, as she prepares to walk the red carpet on Saturday for the hit show’s Aussie premiere.
Best-kept secrets of the west
WE’VE scoured Melbourne’s west to find it’s best-kept secrets. From a pirate tavern to high tea, these are the places to eat and explore you may never have heard of.
Sprawling saga hits a high note
THROUGH both song and story, the Melbourne stage production of The Color Purple captures the heartache and pain of Alice Walker’s 1982, Pulitzer Prize-winning novel on which the musical is based, writes reviewer Kate Herbert.
On ice
There’s an icy twist to the Melbourne Festival show Vertical Influences, which is performed by figure skaters who take their artistic impression within and beyond figure skating, writes reviewer Stephanie Glickman.
Williams sings with Willie
Rock City: Melbourne’s best gigs including Marlon Williams at Out On The Weekend, Julianna Barwick, The Jezabels, Painters & Dockers, chosen by Mikey Cahill
Where to get our best veggie burgers
MELBOURNE’S best veggie burgers are short on meat and big on deliciousness. Make every day meat-free Monday with our pick of the vegetarian buns about town.
Melb Food & Wine Festival
Wine myths 101
Sshould you drink red or white wine with cheese? Should you decant? And what the hell do ‘wine legs’ look like? Wine critic Nick Stock busts the most common wine myths. Cheers to that!
Melbourne favourites at starting line
IT’S win, win at the track with several of Melbourne’s favourite pastimes lining up at the starting gate.
The genius of ice cream doughnuts
WHAT could be better than a ball of sweet fluffy dough filled with a scoop of gelato or soft serve? Nothing, that’s what.