Love Freo

I’m kicking myself that I haven’t been to this wonderful little eatery sooner: I was put off once by their specials board declaring some dish with peanuts, and peanuts have me running for the hills (a severe nut allergy rather than a legume phobia), and I didn’t make it back to  give them a second chance, more fool me.

I love curries, I love south-east Asian curries in particular and now I have finally been to this place I have a whole menu to explore. I was too busy chatting with Michelle – the Love Freo blog-reader who insisted I try this place out – to do anything useful, like write down what my dish was called, or make a note of their opening hours. But I did get this superbly average picture with the Love Freo phone-cam which doesn’t really come close to doing the food justice.

My lamb curry was delicious, rich in flavour, with good quality non-fatty lamb, and cost about 10 bucks, which for Freo is an absolute bargain. The blonde likes a good laksa too, so I’d say we’ll be fairly regular at this gaff.

Delicious food at Cafe 55. The fly on the papadum (not the Cafe's fault) was just an added bonus.

Thanks to Michelle for suggesting this place. People please feel free to suggest any other glaring omissions from the Love Freo food hall. Next week: Hungry Jack’s!

Café 55
55 High Street
Fremantle
WA 6160
(08) 9336 2604‎

Open from sometime in the morning until about 3pm (I think).

Having plain forgotten to offer any sort of guide to things going on over the holiday weekend, I hope this little round-up of this weekend’s activities will be handy for some, although not for the Blonde, who has been hanging out in Ibiza with Pete Tong and Eric Prydz

Friday night, 18th September

• Mojo’s – Fisherman’s Style. Not so fishy, more of the reggae beats from the likes of DJ Sorted and DJ Deruki. You know the ones. From 8pm. Tickets $10 on the door.
• Moondyne Joe’s - This place has changed a bit and some of their acts are brilliant. Tonight, the Gerard Maunick Trio.
• Little Creatures Loft – Ghost Hotel and Wolves At The Door. From 8pm.
• Seaview Tavern – Indie and Old School Rock, featuring DJ Samuels. Every week from 8pm. Click here for the poster.
• Newport Hotel – FELIX & DEGRAAF DJs play some rock and poptastic beats. From 8pm. Free.
• Clancy’s Fish Pub – Funkerellos. From 9pm.
• Fly By Night - CANCELLED.  Uh oh, The Jamie T gig has been cancelled for ‘medical reasons’. Speedy recovery please.

Saturday night, 19th September

• Mojos’s – the Stems! The first of their farewell shows, supported by The Early Hours (hooray) and others. Tix in advance from Heatseeker, may be some on the door.
• Clancy’s Fish Pub – Sneaky Weasel Gang. Blues, funk, reggae and rock combo. Super.  And they’re from sunny Mandurah. From 9pm.
• Kulcha – Comme Un Accord. An acoustic duo from some tiny island near Canada, folky music, meant to be v good. Tix $25 on the door. From 8pm.
• Norfolk Basement – Boom Bap Pow! Trashy doo-wop-pop is their mission. Sounds marvellous to me. 8pm, probably $10.
• Metropolis – Hi NRG. Of course what else. Don’t forget your kebab afterwards.
• Moondyne Joe’s - Murdermouse Blues

So I’m going to call a few of these places and get some more info if possible. Adios

info@lovefreo.com

Cocktail is one of my favourite words. Because I’m a child at heart really.

Anyway, while I’ve been drinking overpriced imported beer elsewhere in Fremantle, Emily Tchan checked out the cocktails at the new lounge above Maya Indian Restaurant on Market Street.  She had this to say about it:

It is a very small, simply decorated candlelit bar. We were surprised to find out that the prices are extremely reasonable, compared to some of the inflated prices of Fremantle. The cocktails are fantastic, the (only) waiter is great (think there may have been a few return visitors for him). They also have bottled beer and a good wine list. I recommend trying the Goa Sunrise (not the full name, a mature sex on the beach) with fresh pineapple, truly to die for. Very exciting for Freo.

Thanks for sending that to us Emily. Exciting indeed, hopefully this will be start the start of the Fremantle cocktail revolution. BTW, their food is great too.

Maya,
75-77 Market St,
Fremantle,
WA 6160.

Phone: (08) 9335 2796‎

Cocktail lounge open Thursday to Sunday from 6pm.

Maya Indian Restaurant

Wandering down High Street we passed, once again, The Buffalo Club, wondering where it got its name from. I mean, the origin and purpose of a Navy, Workers, Sailing, Italian, Bocce or other clubs is clear, but why Buffalo? So the Melbourne Man and I went in to check it out. What we discovered is an uncomplicated bar, harsh but fair, a place for workers, wharfies and just everyone who fancies an honest drink. The lady behind the bar knew her crowd and it was great watching her chatting away while doing her work with simple grace. While there was no trace of buffaloes we came across a talking deer head.

Fremantle Buffalo Club
54 High Street
Fremantle WA 6160

Yesterday I had the good fortune to be quite hungry as I was walking past Breaks, so I popped in there with the blonde’s bro for a bite to eat.  As this place used to be Soho Soho burger bar, we decided to have a ‘Moo’ burger each…

I like my burgers, and this was an excellent one. The mince was juicy and full of flavour, obviously from a nice piece of beef, the bun was fresh, fluffy and just a bit crispy and the chips were covered in some sort of magic salt that prompted us to go for an extra portion. A great value meal, v v tasty. The flat white was good too.

If you’ve walked past this place and though it looks small, think again, behind the large counter area is a full dining area. Next time you fancy a burger, you could do much worse than go here. You can also pick up one of our new and free LOVE FREO promo postcards that the friendly manager/owner(?) let us put on the counter. Bon apetit. One more thing, Breaks doesn’t have a licence, but you can BYO.

Breaks Fremantle
85 High Street,
Fremantle,
WA 6160.

These plaques on the pavement cheered me up today when I was walking down High Street.

Douglas Firth, Proprietor

Biblio Folio in the West End of Fremantle is closing its doors after 25 years.  The area’s increasing high rents make it impossible for this unique business to continue operating in Fremantle. It’s quite sad that a conservation specialist like Doug Firth has to move shop, especially, from a city that places so much value on the preservation of heritage.

Doug has bound books for HM the Queen and been involved in the conservation of many books from the State Library State Archives of WA. A lot of talent will be leaving Fremantle in July.

Biblio Folio,
15 High Street,
Fremantle,
WA 6160.

Opening Hours:
Wednesday – Friday: 9am – 3pm
Saturday by appointment only.

Biblio Folio will be relocating after July 2009.

I went in to Fremantle to day to check out the Fremantle on the Edge Exhibition that fellow blogger Izzy talked about in a previous post. It’s not a bad effort overall and I really liked some of the market designs done by the Interior Architecture students featured in the facades on High Street. These were mostly drawings behind glass so they didn’t lend themselves to being photographed but there was a larger exhibit in the old fishmonger shop in Fremantle markets called Intertidal which did.

Intertidal was also designed by the Interior Architecture students, I didn’t quite understand what was going on but I liked the tissue paper covered Ikea lights on the celling. (Izzy incidentally has one of the same lamps in her sitting room minus the tissue paper and it also looks nice.)

One of my favorite bits of stencil art around Fremantle has been painted over. I don’t understand why since it was on the side wall of The Record Finder on High Street and it seemed appropriate. It has now been replaced by some random horrible scrawly tags.

Gramophone Gone

I was really quite pleased that we decided to include it in one of our Fremantle postcards so it has a bit of permanency now: