PHOTOGRAPHY DAVID HAHN (ALAFACI & CHOKER) & SCOTT HAWKING (QUEEN CHOW) ILLUSTRATION LARA PORTER142 GOURMETTRAVELLER.COM.AU
HOT 100
TAXIS TAKING OFF Flying taxis could be in the air by the end of the year, according to Airbus
chief Tom Enders. The aircraft maker’s Urban Air Mobility unit hopes to start testing helicopter-
like taxis by late 2017, about three years sooner than ride-sharing app Uber expects to launch its
own airborne cabs. Uber, which this year hired veteran NASA engineer Mark Moore as its
“director of engineering for aviation”, hopes to get airborne by 2021.
IN THE CUP
You’ve custom-roasted your beans
sourced from origin? Check.
Hooked up your fancy coffee
machine? Check. Now the only
thing standing between you and
opening the doors on your café du
jour are the cups by Acme & Co
(no relation to the Sydney design
studio of the same name to the left
here). Jeff Kennedy, the godfather
of New Zealand espresso, designed
them from scratch to tick all the
boxes that he never managed to
find elsewhere all in one cup. He
must’ve done something right
because now they’re favoured by
coffee diehards the world over, and
Australia has by no means been
immune to their normcore charm.
What’s the hook? “Special coffee
deserves special cups,” says
Dominick Majdandzic, co-owner
of White Horse Coffee, a local
distributor of the brand, “and
nothing says special more than
Acme & Co.” acmecups.comJOINERS IN
Vince Alafaci and Caroline Choker have a thing
for wood. Their Sydney design studio, Acme & Co,
used joinery every which way to stunning effect at
Sydney hotspots Fred’s and Archie Rose Distilling
Co, picking up more than a dozen awards and
nominations along the way. The secret? “The
clincher was how well Vince and Caroline grasped
the production side of things,” says Will Edwards,
founder of Archie Rose. “I really wanted the bar to
be an extension of the distillery.” So the pair made
the bar and booths from American oak, the same
wood used in the distillery’s rye whiskey casks.
Neat. acme-co.com.au
Cool pure linen bathrobes are replacing thick towelling
versions in the wardrobes of fashion-forward hotels.
We’ve lazed about in the oversized linen robes
designed by Melbourne’s Elizabeth Pertile
for Hotel Hotel in Canberra and, more recently,
this graphic robe has been installed at The Johnson
in Brisbane. Art Series Hotel Group collaborated
with luxe sleepwear studio Masini & Chern on
robes featuring Michael Johnson’s artwork.GRAPHIC COVERAGE
VINCE ALAFACI AND
CAROLINE CHOKER