Canberra foodie favourites feature in local art

Canberra duo Elly Freer and Patrick Galvin are the creative team behind Gold St Press, which does everything from birthday cards to horror-themed movie nights. But it’s their latest creation that has Canberra foodies excited.

Elly and Patrick grew up in Canberra but met while living in Melbourne. After a decade down south, they started thinking about coming home.

“We made a pros and cons list about moving back to Canberra,” Patrick explained, “and in the end, most of the pros were food!”

The pair were delighted to see that the capital of uncool had spawned a thriving creative hub in the decade they’d been away.

“There’s really been a cultural boom here in the last 10 years,” Elly said.

“It used to be really uncool to love Canberra, but I think that’s turning around.”

Elly is a photographer by trade, and Patrick is a graphic designer. Gold St Press is their passion project where they design and make their own art that appeals to their crossover interests: vintage films, nature, community and (of course) food.

Previous works display their off-beat sense of humour, like their vintage-style tourism poster that reads ‘See you in hell’, complete with a cheerful air hostess and the River Styx.

Their latest piece is a poster featuring their favourite Canberra foods. From a Noodle House laksa to an Under Bakery cardamom bullar bun, Patrick says he really just wanted to include foods that he loved, but he’s pleased that other people seem to have jumped on board.

“It really just took off on social media,” he said.

“We did a market on the weekend and we had a lot of people who came especially to buy the poster.”

Elly explained that they wanted the poster to be a celebration of Canberra and maybe help to shout out some lesser-known cult favourites.

“A lot of Canberra’s culture and food scene can be a little bit secret. People don’t always know about the great stuff that’s happening, so we always want to hype things up!”

People have commented that the poster would make a great food tour of Canberra restaurants and cafes, and there’s been plenty of interest in a second edition with lots of suggestions for other great options. There was even a shout-out for the hash brown and tomato sauce roll from the Narrabundah College canteen, although Patrick admits that may be a little too niche.

The decision about what went on the poster was a tricky one. The cheeseburger spring rolls from Lazy Su juuust missed out and, despite being closed, the Burmese Curry House was still included as Patrick is holding out hope that they will reopen in the future.

The pair plans to give a poster to each of the featured businesses, and they’ll make individual stickers of the different meals. Their garage studio will be working overtime to print more stock for the upcoming Handmade market.

Gold St Press is also branching out into painting murals (a local Canberra cafe may soon feature their work!), and they also run movie events around town.

Follow Gold St Press on Instagram or Facebook, or visit their online store to purchase art.