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GOD BLESS YOU
MR VONNEGUTHe was a hero of the 1960s counter-
culture, celebrated for his subversive
yet optimistic fiction. It’s a decade
since legendary novelist Kurt
Vonnegut died, and in his birthplace
of Indianapolis they’re marking the
occasion with a year of events and
the opening of the Kurt Vonnegut
Museum and Library. Fans can make
a pilgrimage to landmarks such as the
massive Vonnegut mural overlooking
one of Indy’s hip cultural districts, and
dine at Bluebeard, named after his
1987 novel. Thirsty for more? Eleven
city bars have created Vonnegut-
inspired cocktails full of references
to dark characters and Vonnegutian
plots.vonnegutlibrary.org PHOTOGRAPHY LARRY LADIG/RAIDIOUS (VONNEGUT)ESTER: MORE OF THE BESTIt doesn’t have a name. It doesn’t open till the spring.
But there’s nowhere we’re more excited to see opening in Sydney than the new Ester.
The Chippendale restaurant has grown to be one of the city’s most consistently impressive
and best-liked eateries, and now it’s taking the show to Surry Hills, expanding with a new
wine-bar eatery at the hotel development opposite Longrain on Campbell Street. With
sous-chef Isabel Caulfield heading the kitchen and sommelier Julien Dromgool turning things
up on the wine list, it’s looking mighty promising.ester-restaurant.com.au
VONNEGUT MURAL,
INDIANAPOLISTHE NED, LONDON
IN BED WITH THE NED
London’s besuited Square Mile will never be the same
now The Ned has moved in. After a £200 million
heritage restoration by London’s Soho House and
America’s Sydell Group, the disused Midland Bank
opened last month as a sumptuous 252-room hotel,
members’ club and restaurant hub, with a dramatic
late-night bar called The Vault and a spectacular
rooftop complex with views stretching from St Paul’s to
the Gherkin. The opening of The Ned has set Soho
House on a roll, with plans on track to open clubs in
New York’s Dumbo neighbourhood later this year, and
a downtown Los Angeles property next year. Founder
Nick Jones will reopen his original club in Soho
followed by another London club, White City House
(in the converted BBC Television Centre),
next year, and promises another “three or
four a year” thereafter.sohohouse.com