By Peter Barrett When random breath tests for alcohol were introduced in Victoria in the late 1970s one astute property owner read the writing on the wall. He sold up his old place and bought […]
Peter Barrett
Freelance journalist
Discovering Filipino food: six dishes you must eat in the Philippines
Dee Jae, ‘the Starving Artist’. Photo: Peter Barrett. It was to the strains of Celine Dion’s The Power of Love and a plate of deep-fried pork bits that I finally “got” Filipino food. I’d been in the […]
Curtis Stone’s guide to eating and drinking in Los Angeles
Curtis Stone at Maude in Los Angeles. Photo: Ray Kachatorian. Peter Barrett quizzes Curtis Stone on the best LA has to offer in food, wine and farmers markets. Melbourne-born chef Curtis Stone landed in Los Angeles […]
A potted history of Melbourne warehouse conversions
Fitzroy, Richmond and Collingwood have been hot spots for warehouse conversions since the 1990s. Photo: Jessica Shapiro JLS. By Peter Barrett Remember cringing at those real estate ads spruiking “New York-style” apartments in inner Melbourne? The […]
Rebooting Picnic at Hanging rock is a missed opportunity
If, like me, you marvelled while your school bus rolled the wrong way up a hill and you then spent the day exploring the spooky, 6.25-million-year-old lava terrain of Hanging Rock in Victoria’s Macedon Ranges, […]
Ho Chi Minh hipsters
Bikes outside the entrance of Saigon hipster shopping haunt, 14 Ton That Dam in District 1, HCMC. Photo: Emma Byrnes. Our trip to Vietnam just keeps giving. Here’s the latest story we had published in Fairfax Media’s […]
Coffee Economics: the symbiotic story of coffee and real estate in Melbourne
Carnegie locals are getting used to something new: queuing for their coffee. Photo: Scott Barbour. By Peter Barrett On a previously sleepy corner of Koornang Road in Carnegie, locals are getting used to something new: queuing […]
