Some of Watt Street’s buildings are being used in the City Evolutions installation as canvases for projected images.
Once maligned as an after-dark trouble spot, Australia's 'Steel City' has reinvented itself as a minor capital of cool, writes Rosemarie Milsom.
I am standing where the Awabakal people once made their way from the tranquil waters of what is now the world's busiest coal port, along a track, to the top of a steep hill.
The sun has set, leaving behind a darkening velvet sky streaked with orange.
Cocktails on a girls' night out.
That sandy track is in the heart of Newcastle's central business district and is known as Watt Street, the oldest street in Australia's second-oldest city. Tonight, it has been transformed by an ambitious year-long digital-art project using film and photography to convey the city's story.
Some of the street's diverse buildings are being used in the City Evolutions installation as canvases for an array of projected images. Large vibrant butterflies flit across the facade of a restored church, while opposite, black-and-white film footage of long-decommissioned trams, as well as historical portraits of residents from all walks of life - former mayors in suits and thick-rimmed glasses, smiling barmaids, soldiers and seafarers - cover the United Services Club's 1884 building.
A block closer to the inky harbour, high above a bank, colour film of sweaty, muscled BHP workers shovelling coal is juxtaposed by black-and-white footage of a scrawny boy attempting to ride a thick foam surfboard in the whitewash at one of the city's beaches.
Dining by the water at Silo.
Vivid it isn't, but the recently launched project is providing a creative and colourful boost to Newcastle's burgeoning nightlife, which has tended to capture headlines for all the wrong reasons - mainly alcohol-fuelled violence. Change is well and truly afoot, though. A couple of years ago, if you were seeking a sophisticated night out on the town, you travelled to Sydney. Venues in Newcastle were then limited to licensed restaurants, beer barns and a couple of nightclubs. It was as though the city's after-dark scene was stuck in a perpetual state of late adolescence.
By the end of this year, two former sandstone banks will reopen as wine bars in the CBD - Le Passe Temps is French-inspired and the other, Reserve Wine Bar, will join the growing list of stylish yet relaxed establishments popping up throughout the city.
And food is in fine form, too. From fish tacos and tequila cocktails at the jaunty Newcastle East Mexican-inspired bar and restaurant Casa de Loco, to confit-duck sliders and a Hunter Valley shiraz at the elegant Longworth House - and many drinks and delicious titbits in between - I spent the weekend exploring the city's lively night-time precincts.
NEWCASTLE EAST AND CITY
The once-stagnant and downright scary after-dark scene in the city has evolved in recent years as adventurous restaurateurs and bar owners snap up interesting spaces. Unlike the capital cities, there is an unwavering commitment to being laid-back and unpretentious. If Novocastrians take anything too seriously, it's their passion for craft beer (there is even an annual Newcastle Craft Beer Week).
The Grain Store Craft Beer Cafe has opened in a Brooklyn-like warehouse in the city's historical east end, about 300 metres from Newcastle Beach. With an ever-changing selection of 20 beers on tap - a vintage railway arrivals board displays the menu - the leather booths and tables are almost impossible to nab on a Friday or Saturday night. The Hunter Valley-dominated wine list isn't bad either, and includes Lake's Folly, Margan, Bimbadgen and Tulloch.
A 10-minute stroll west is the CBD, which has become a dining hot spot and includes not only Casa de Loco and Longworth House, but also Restaurant Mason and Bacchus, both recipients of toques from The Sydney Morning Herald Good Food Guide.
In the thick of the City Evolutions project on Watt Street is Bocados, which is in a majestic, chocolate-brown, two-storey building dimly lit with ambient tea lights.
Raul Cabrera turns out tried-and-true Spanish dishes such as boquerones (marinated white anchovies), very good jamon serrano and the ever-popular house-made paella with plump prawns and chorizo.
The small bar area is ideal for tapas and house-made sangria and, if you are extremely lucky, you can snaffle a stool without a booking, but it probably isn't worth the risk.
If you miss out, don't despair as nearby Bar Petite, which is on the ground floor of the Novotel Newcastle Beach, has more than 30 wines by the glass as well as an eclectic food menu. True to its name, it is a cosy space filled with grandma-chic lounges and pictures. Perfect for a pre-dinner drink, or the whole shebang.
DARBY STREET, COOKS HILL
Stepping out of the recently opened Crown on Darby apartments onto this bustling strip recalls Sydney's Surry Hills with its terraces, parking issues, eclectic shops and eateries.
A new arrival is 5 Sawyers, a ''bar with food'', which takes its cocktails seriously, though the setting is relaxed and the staff even more so. Chris Mills infuses his own vodka - the jersey caramel is lovely on a wintry night - and offers the classics with a twist, as well as more adventurous concoctions (their witty names are a bonus). The moist pulled-pork-and-slaw sliders are to die for.
Nearby is The Depot on Darby, an industrial-inspired restaurant and bar serving meals and tapas with a fruit-dominated cocktail menu and a wine list full of Hunter Valley labels. It is one of the few places in town that keep the kitchen open late: if you fancy pea-and-haloumi fritters or ceviche of scallop and salmon with a margarita at 11pm, this is the place. You can nurse your hangover here the next morning as it also opens every day for breakfast and lunch.
NEWCASTLE HARBOUR FORESHORE
Ten minutes' walk to the northern end of Darby Street and across the inner-city train line, which is to be controversially replaced with light rail, is the harbour-side Honeysuckle development. There can't be many places in the world where you can linger over a glass of wine while watching a bulk carrier glide into port 300 metres away.
There is a concentration of restaurants and bars - all with outdoor areas - at the water's edge, including the Honeysuckle Hotel, a pub that's in a renovated wharf and has a new rum bar upstairs, as well as the long-established Silo bar and lounge with its roster of DJs and attentive, knowledgeable staff. The charred-jalapeno margarita goes down well with some freshly shucked Port Stephens oysters.
The timber-paling ceiling and polished-concrete floor at The Landing Bar & Kitchen hint at its industrial surrounds. A collaboration between Hunter Valley winemakers Andrew and Lisa Margan and pub owners Julianne and Ty Burford, there is a large dining area and indoor-outdoor bar. The substantial wine and cocktail list is a drawcard, as is the view.
A short stroll east to the city along the wide, well-lit paved path that hugs the harbour all the way to picturesque Nobbys Beach is the laid-back Craft & Co. Burgers. There are 25 different beers and an array of interesting burgers, including panko snapper and wagyu beef, but the chunky sweet-potato wedges are worth the walk alone. Watch the trawlers head out to sea, and although Newcastle has shed its ''Steel City'' moniker, the lights of industry across the harbour at Kooragang Island offer a unique night-time view.
Trip notes
GETTING THERE Newcastle is about 160 kilometres or a two-hour drive from the Sydney city centre. Trains between the two cities run regularly from Central Station (2hr 40min). See sydneytrains.info for timetables and trackwork updates.
STAYING THERE The Crown on Darby apartments are at 101 Darby Street, Cooks Hill. A one-bedroom apartment is $220 a night. (02) 4941 6777, crownondarby.com.au.
SEE + DO View the City Evolutions project after 6pm, cityevolutions.com.au.
MORE INFORMATION visitnewcastle.com.au.
The writer was a guest of the city of Newcastle.
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