Fitzroyalty

Hyperlocal news about Melbourne's first suburb: Fitzroy 3065

Archive for the category: St Kilda

social media mob rule and the Astor cinema building public relations war

17 May 2013 | 15 Comments

This post is about the circumstances that resulted in a school buying, then unexpectedly selling, a cinema building within a few years, with the sale apparently driven primarily by negative public opinion expressed through social media. Like my previous posts about the business and psychology of social media, this one examines the power of social media and the perils faced by those who ignore it.

As usual, there is a disclaimer. I was working at St Michael’s Grammar School when the Astor saga occurred, developing its new website, and it would have been a conflict of interest for me to write about it at the time. …

southside lunchings – best of

13 December 2012 | 0 comments

My time working southside is coming to an end and I’ve been revisiting favourites in my final days. These are the places that I enjoyed the most over the past six months.

The best coffee on Chapel St is to be found at Dukes, which is also the most consistent. The School of 7 Bells is as good when the right barista is in, but it is not as consistent overall. The Mission cafe is almost as good and so is Borscht Vodka and Tears when one particular barista is there.…

vintage

23 November 2012 | 2 Comments

Three paste-ups based on vintage photos around the intersection of Chapel St and Dandenong Rd on the boundary of Windsor and St Kilda.

windsor st kilda …

southside lunchings 12

22 October 2012 | 2 Comments

A new Thai restaurant, The Thai on Chapel, opened on Chapel St in Windsor (next door to Fat Helen’s secondhand shop) last week. They make a dish I’ve never had before, fried bread with pandan custard, which is an entree but it could just as well be a dessert. I loved it.

I also had the caramelised pork with purple rice, which was most satisfying. The Windsor strip has seen lots of new developments in recent weeks, with new cafe School of 7 Bells serving outstanding coffee and Parlour diner making great burgers.…

what do you do when you get food poisoning from a restaurant?

14 October 2012 | 5 Comments

Last Sunday night I cooked dinner for myself at home. On Monday morning I felt fine, ate my usual breakfast of juice, coffee and toast and went to work still feeling fine. I had lunch at a cafe in St Kilda, a place I had never heard of before and which I knew nothing about. At about 1.30pm I ordered the chorizo, feta and fennel salad, pictured below, and it was tasty.

st kilda food customer service business …

southside lunchings 11

8 October 2012 | 0 comments

It’s been a while since my last southside lunchings post. I’ve been mostly revisiting favourites in the area, but I’ve also tried some other places along Chapel St. Last week I had an excellent chicky chicky parm parm at The Wolf and I. It’s also been positively reviewed by Culinary pleasures.

It had previously been a mediocre pub and had one of the quickest makeovers I’ve ever seen. The chicken fillet was moist and tasty, the crumb crisp and thin and the tomato sauce and ham could all be individually tasted – it wasn’t the usual slab that tastes mainly like oil.…

southside lunchings 10

4 September 2012 | 0 comments

This is the low rent edition. You know how sometimes you are stuck doing stuff you don’t want to do and all you can think about is hot chips? Or you are out somewhere and want lunch, only to find you have no cash, there’s no ATM nearby and you have to buy lunch from the change in your pocket? Thankfully the invention of tiny $2 coins means that most of the time I have about $10 in my pocket.…

southside lunchings 8

13 August 2012 | 5 Comments

I’m sitting at a window table in a Chapel St cafe looking out onto the street. Two male hipsters, engrossed with their phones, walk towards each other. They collide, but not head on; it’s more like a lethargic hip and shoulder. They barely look up and continue on their way. Acknowledging other people around here is evidently a sign of weakness or politeness that is unworthy of the fashionable.

I watch anorexic orange painted women totter along the footpath on their stupid high heels.…