27 January 2007

Alfresco Dining for Queanbeyan

| Deano
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The Canberra Times today reports that the Queanbeyan Council’s new General Manager, Gary Chapman, is hoping to bring alfresco dining to the town.

“Council is wanting to embark on upon restaurant culture alfresco-style dining – and there has been a lot of interest with people wanting to redevelop the CBD” he said.

Queanbeyan is better known for the Central Cafe’s ‘a meal’s not a meal unless you can’t eat all of it’ type dining experience than anything more cultured. Even the local Italian restaurant has to add notes to its menu to explain regular Italian dishes.

Besides, doesn’t McDonalds already have an outdoor eating area.

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We sailed on with Happy Hearts

The Harbor wind’s played on in our hearts
As we bobbed in our baby dinghy in the blue bay.
All sea sun long we sailed on with happy hearts.

Sporadic clouds peeled shadows off dockhand carts:
We thrilled in trills of gulls and terns above the bay.
The harbor wind’s song played on in our hearts.

Cool breezes blew our dinghy to coves across the charts;
We sifted winded sails, sipped wine all winsome day.
All sea sun long we sailed on with happy hearts.

The sun tumbled: we tacked for clubs past marts
And feasted on mariners’ tales of a bygone day.
The harbor wind’s song played on in our hearts.

We reveled in rhythmic peals of mast slapping halyards
And lapping ripples mooring mirrored lights in the bay.
All misted moon long we sailed on with happy hearts.

We were skippers of our dinghy, sporting our parts.
Tack port! No, starboard! Buoy, port side bow! Oy vey!
The harbor wind’s song played on in our hearts;
All sea sun long we sailed on with happy hearts.

Richard Deets
Dark Land of Light

Andalucia, land of lucid light
Painters dream you
See in your rugged scapes
Al-Andaluz’s moonwashed cities rising from the plains
guarded by keyhole studded fierce yellow walls
Bastions of that glorious heathen past

Dali’s bonebleached deserts

Picasso’s motherland.
We sailed on with Happy Hearts

The Harbor wind’s played on in our hearts
As we bobbed in our baby dinghy in the blue bay.
All sea sun long we sailed on with happy hearts.

Sporadic clouds peeled shadows off dockhand carts:
We thrilled in trills of gulls and terns above the bay.
The harbor wind’s song played on in our hearts.

Cool breezes blew our dinghy to coves across the charts;
We sifted winded sails, sipped wine all winsome day.
All sea sun long we sailed on with happy hearts.

The sun tumbled: we tacked for clubs past marts
And feasted on mariners’ tales of a bygone day.
The harbor wind’s song played on in our hearts.

We reveled in rhythmic peals of mast slapping halyards
And lapping ripples mooring mirrored lights in the bay.
All misted moon long we sailed on with happy hearts.

We were skippers of our dinghy, sporting our parts.
Tack port! No, starboard! Buoy, port side bow! Oy vey!
The harbor wind’s song played on in our hearts;
All sea sun long we sailed on with happy hearts.

Richard Deets
Dark Land of Light

Andalucia, land of lucid light
Painters dream you
See in your rugged scapes
Al-Andaluz’s moonwashed cities rising from the plains
guarded by keyhole studded fierce yellow walls
Bastions of that glorious heathen past

Dali’s bonebleached deserts

Picasso’s motherland.
We sailed on with Happy Hearts

The Harbor wind’s played on in our hearts
As we bobbed in our baby dinghy in the blue bay.
All sea sun long we sailed on with happy hearts.

Sporadic clouds peeled shadows off dockhand carts:
We thrilled in trills of gulls and terns above the bay.
The harbor wind’s song played on in our hearts.

Cool breezes blew our dinghy to coves across the charts;
We sifted winded sails, sipped wine all winsome day.
All sea sun long we sailed on with happy hearts.

The sun tumbled: we tacked for clubs past marts
And feasted on mariners’ tales of a bygone day.
The harbor wind’s song played on in our hearts.

We reveled in rhythmic peals of mast slapping halyards
And lapping ripples mooring mirrored lights in the bay.
All misted moon long we sailed on with happy hearts.

We were skippers of our dinghy, sporting our parts.
Tack port! No, starboard! Buoy, port side bow! Oy vey!
The harbor wind’s song played on in our hearts;
All sea sun long we sailed on with happy hearts.

Richard Deets
Dark Land of Light

Andalucia, land of lucid light
Painters dream you
See in your rugged scapes
Al-Andaluz’s moonwashed cities rising from the plains
guarded by keyhole studded fierce yellow walls
Bastions of that glorious heathen past

Dali’s bonebleached deserts

Picasso’s motherland.

In the hot velvet night
when sleep is hounded by heat
thick enough to cut
your bittersweet song
drifts from the hill like perfume on the breeze

Echoes of Moorish yesteryears float in flamencos’ mournful wails
Mingle the mullah’s call to prayer
with the sound of tragedy and love
Dark gypsies staccato heels chase rhythms of steel guitars

Brave bulls fight lusty men
whose flaming capes
mock and madden
Till — on their knees —
they take the final cut.
Bloodroses weep in the dust

Your duende seduces
Lovers of death
Drawn to your bloody history
riddled with bullets of freedom
Cold priests extortions
Inquisitors pitiless tools

Yet still you survive
The pains of broken brotherhood
soothed by the scent of or

Kathleen Roberts

Hey Garry your work colleague couldnt take over CC quick enough… I live in Queanbeyan and have refused to eat there for a long time, the food isnt always the best and yes the service is woeful, well woeful is certainly putting it nicely… it certainly could do with more variety and specials board.

There has been a proposal for a bypass for a number of years. Yass Rd essentially continues south (from the intersection of Yass Rd/Kings Hwy), curves around to the east, crosses the river, travels south of Cook’s Estate and connects with Edwin Land Drv in Jerrabomberra, which connects with Lanyon drive and the Monaro Hwy. Unsure what the RTA funding situation on this is though.
http://www.qcc.nsw.gov.au/Documents/FPUMQYABREL.pdf

Well I have been speaking with a work colleague of mine and he is currently negotiating with the owner to buy Central Café, and if everything goes well he plans to be in there by April. He was telling me he plans to give the place a (much needed) facelift and improve the service which in his own words is ‘woeful’. He is even talking about getting permission to put tables and chairs outside (which council would now approve given the article we are talking about) and putting on a daily specials board. He spoke about making the meals more quality while keeping the large servings that CC is famous for. Sounds like an improvement to me.

neanderthalsis11:56 am 29 Jan 07

I think the first step would be to close of the main street and divert traffic through somewhere else (not a lot of alternatives though). No-one wants to be gormandising al fresco with logging trucks roaring past.

As for Queanbeyans image, it seems to suffer the same fate as my previous place of dwelling, Ipswich in QLD. Great advances were made when much of the public housing was sold off to private buyers and many of the rugged and buggered moved to Logan. It still struggles as a working class town, but now fits more into aspirational class as opposed to being the home of the “unemployed and the mongoliod” it used to be.

I have heard on the grapevine there is talk of a side street, off the main street (monaro) being partially blocked off (like pitt st in Sydney) to allow such dining and cafes, but it is only a rumour, I have no hard proof of this.

Well if businesses are prepared to give it a go, councils backing and community support it could very well be acheived and look forward to seeing the outcomes of it all!

Ingeegoodbee11:35 am 29 Jan 07

I suspect that the heavy traffic down Queanbeyans main street would be a big hand-brake on the development of a streetside cafe culture. Volume of traffic is not the issue (think Lygon Street in Melboure) but the trucks and semis and the like are,but I guess that would need a bypass with all the problems associated with such an approach.

VYBerlinaV8_now with_added_grunt10:41 am 29 Jan 07

I grew up in Queanbo, and I think that the place has come a long way from what it was in the late 80’s and early 90’s. It still has its undesirables, but it doesn’t have the same level of pretentiousness than a lot of Canberra does. Queanbeyan is very much what you see is what you get – a large country town with attitudes to match. It doesn’t have the highs of Canberra’s best, but neither does it plumb the same depths and Canberra’s worst.

I don’t live in the main part of Queanbo anymore, but I do visit it regularly. It won’t be a classy alfresco type place for a while yet, but it has come a long way in the last 15 years. During the same time, I would say Canberra has probably not improved. Basically, Queanbo has struggled to shed it (well deserved) reputation of being a shithole during the recession 15 years ago.

hmm good point dusty…
but the main street could certainly do with some sort of makeover, its long over due 🙁

As much as I love QBN, I would not pay to have truck exhaust particles sprayed over my yummy Star Q Deli Pizza.

Good on you Gary Chapman, you have my supoort! Queanbyean certainly does need a make over!

I think the 1000 (approx) new Defence HQJOC jobs located at the about to be constructed new headquarters between Queanbeyan and Bungendore are going to end up changing the character of Qbn over time. Think of the change in traffic flow, housing usage

Think Singleton.

OpenYourMind5:15 pm 28 Jan 07

I’ve tried the Central Cafe BIG meals a few times. To me, the whole emphasis seemed to be on the size of the meal, rather than the quality.

And on a slightly related topic, I think the 1000 (approx) new Defence HQJOC jobs located at the about to be constructed new headquarters between Queanbeyan and Bungendore are going to end up changing the character of Qbn over time. Think of the change in traffic flow, housing usage, not to mention all the start up businesses that will want to be close to the HQ. Canberra/Qbn will start sprawling that direction.

I’m sorry if my original post was a bit aggressive. Touched a raw nerve, yes. If you rub at something long enough your finally break through the barrier. Having gone to school in Canberra, I’ve coped crap from deadbeats from Canberra all my life for coming from Queanbeyan. The hypocrisy of Canberra is that some crack hoare dead beat can go home to his housing commission flat in red Hill, beat the bejesus out of his partner/cousin and then sell drugs to school children, but consider himself superior to decent folk from Queanbeyan because he lives in Red Hill. Please. Queanbeyan is mostly full of decent, hardworking people. Yes it has its share of drop kicks, but so does Canberra and pretty much everywhere. Those in glass houses… Back on the original topic, I think the idea was to expand the sidewalk in sections of the main street (starting where the Star Q Deli is) to allow room for Al Freso dining. The main problem I actually see is the traffic, which doesn’t lend for a peaceful dining experience. There had been talk of a by-pass, but I’m unsure of the funding situation from Sydney.

Queanbeyan and surrounds has far more millionaires per capita than the ACT. Canberra is chock full of bogans, we have nothing to skite about (other than higher rates, car rego, government fees et al).

Take a drive through the Causeway, the ABC flats in the City, or the lower part of Charnwood. They make Queanbeyan look like Double Bay

Qbn’s friendly – Jerrabomberra on the other hand is more of a problem, there are some massively pretentious McMansion-dwelling NIMBYs there.

Saw tables and chairs out the front of Star-Q some time ago and it looked cramped and uncomfortable. Without weighing into the whole “Queanbeyan-is-a-hole” debate I reckon in order to have a thriving al fresco dining industry you need the location. Most places I have been and seen in Queanbeyan will struggle.

In my opinion the The Central Cafe is way over rated. Its noisy the service is very slow and it looks and feels a little dirty. That was the one and only time I went there over a year ago. In the end we walked out because it was just taking way to long to get served.

Used to live in Queanbeyan, there was definitely an element of “down and out, hard done by, my face would crack if I smiled” which is not seen as readily in Canberra. Daughter refers to it affectionately as Queanbeyhole – a common appendage?

The Central Cafe will always be famous as Queanbeyan’s version of the “Australian Country Town Cafe”, also variously known as the Acropolis, Athenium, Pompeii, etc. Main claim to fame, good basic tucker and lots of it. Where country folk and truckies used to eat before roadhouses and bypasses. and they’re supposed to look ugly!!!

I think Canberrans have quietly got a complex cause Queanbeyan is where the real people live.

Well I have been working in Queanbo for nearly two years. I really have to agree with the first comment, even being Canberra born and bred. The Central Cafe is no longer any kind of bench mark of queanbee dining. Thats like using the canberra Centre food court as a bench mark for the ACT. Check out Melitas for fab Coffee, StarQ Deli for wood fired pizza and the new Turkish take away does a pide that I drive all the way from Reid to have for lunch. Queanbee, your alright I say, and ya run rings round the skanky outa burbs of my town for sure.

I would suggest that the
lack of fine dining establishments
in Queanbeyan has little to do with the lack of a few tables and chairs outside.

Is there really enough demand to support 6 Chinese restaurants?

Alfresco dining won’t turn Monaro Street into Lygon Street, just as it didn’t turn Civic into Manuka. The Queanbeyan Council would be better off concentrating on higher priorities if it really wants to lift the status of the place.

and old men with fat bellies

OpenYourMind7:49 pm 27 Jan 07

I don’t think it’s an inferiority thing about Qbn. We dump on Charny just as much.

hmmm.. that looks like a raw nerve…

Woody Mann-Caruso7:41 pm 27 Jan 07

After living in Canberra for ten years I finally went to the Central Cafe last year. Sure enough, the meal was twice as large as one might find in a seedier Canberra cafe, but it was also twice as much, and half of it was chips. I looked around the room at kids eating enormous plates of bland lasagna and spag bol (again, with chips), their parents forking out twice as much for a meal that was left half uneaten – and they seemed really, really happy about it. What do people see in this place? The blue decor out back was like living in Ken Done’s worst nightmare.

I reckon they should kick those crafty folk out of Benedict House and turn it into a brewpub and bistro.

And Canberrans are so cultured and sophisticated. You only have to travel to parts of Belco and Tuggers to know that that is not true. Seriously, why do Canberrans feel so insecure about their city that they constantly have to dump on Queanbeyan and surrounds? Does it make you fell like a big man? If you think you’re so superior, hang out in Civic on a Friday night or by one of the Hospital’s emergency departments and watch the dregs of society pass you by.

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