Sunday, November 06, 2005

Bring Your Own

An aspect of Aussie life that is quite unique is the lack of fully licensed restaurants. We're not sure what the terms for jurisdiction in having a liquor license are, but many places avoid it. In some ways, it presents an opportunity to have a fairly cheap night out.

More so the ethnic restaurants that do business during the daytime, then convert from take away to sit-down dining at night. Bottle shops are a common sight in most neighborhoods, as are people trudging from place to place with large quantities of booze in their hand. Never any corkage fees, either. Restaurants seem to be quite comfortable with the concept. I guess they figure the drunker people are, the more they order.

We went to a neighborhood around Stanley Street last weekend, to a place called Bill and Toni's, a very authentic Italian place. We first welcomed by a horde of bats, making their nightly exodus from the nearby botanical gardens. They filled the skies and were pretty demonic in presence. Back to the dining angle, Bill and Toni's menu could be best described using the V-word. You know what I'm talking about ladies... that's right, veal. Veal, and lots of it at this place. Veal schnitzel, veal pizza, veal knuckles. If someone can point out where the knuckles on a baby cow are, please let me know.

Also worth noting, not only could you bring your own (which we did), but they served you orange cordial (reminiscent to Tang) in a gallon jug. Now that's amore!

posted by ncawthon at 8:45 AM