Wander down Glebe Point Road from Broadway on a Saturday and you'll soon come to the Glebe Markets, one of the best, most bohemian of Sydney's Saturday markets. This is what we did on the 10th May, and having found ourselves 'marketed out', we did what anyone who's in the area should do.
We went to the Friend In Hand.
Just a short walk down Cowper Street from the markets themselves, The Friend in Hand looks from the outside like many other Art-Deco era pubs. Brick built, half tiles and wuith the ever-familiar Toohey's New branding running round the canopy. Step inside, though, and what you're confrionted with is something completely other.
Knick-Knacks and memoriabilia cram every available space through the front bar, from surf-skis to model aeroplanes and signs clearly lifted from medical establishments, photographs, oil paintings and oddments fill the entire bar. In the corner is a bird-cage normally occupied by Joe the Cockatoo, but he's not in evidence today. We follow the sign which says 'this way for Nuclear Medicine and X-Ray' and head upstairs, past the restaurant, to where the booths are.
Sophie grabs a board game while I grab the beers - James Squire on tap and a Hahn Premium - and we settle in for a great hour or two. There's a crowd round the pool table singing along to the jukebox, they're clearly locals, a fact which can confirm from checking out the photos on the staris on the way up.
It's a fascinating place, and I could have stayed for hours, just whiling time away, wandering round and looking at pictures and gewgaws, but we had things to do, but we're well up for coming back on one ofthe Friend's regular 'special' nights. There's a lot to choose from - crab racing, script readings, poetry nights, trivia. live music and raffle nights fill out the week here, and the restaurant looks great. We think a new additon to the 'recommended' list
review by: Jason