Christmas dollars make as much sense to Darlinghurst shops as anywhere else. But there’s a different vibe here. So when decorations go up, they’re generally on a different tip.

A dishevelled looking Santa Claus appeared hanging from the roof outside the Darlo Bar on Darlinghurst Road this week. There’s a moulded plastic Santa in the window at hip second hand shop Blue Spinach. And at the cafe named for its location at the corner of Forbes and Burton Streets, a very rock’n'roll Santa Claus is tearing across the outside wall, propelled by a giant shark.

It’s well into the Christmas drinks season in the neighbourhood, so the streets are permeated with a generally relaxed vibe. Which is great, unless you’re still hard at work, of course.

The cafe at No. 9 Ward Avenue, Potts Point, has closed in mysterious circumstances.

Jess noticed it yesterday (her pic’s on the left), though the details are obscured behind the door. By the time we went by today, under a dusty orange sky, even those had been folded away.

Our post about No. 9 was the busiest and most commented since we started Darlinghurst Nights almost a year ago. It opened in July and seems to have burned bright, but fast.

UPDATE (25/9/09): There’s a new sign in the window at No. 9 (first noticed by Lisa in the comments below), that says the cafe is just closed for renovations.

The latest issue of Delicious magazine (October 09) says No. 9 breaks the Sydney cafe mould. It quotes Lane Finlayson (operator of the cafe, formerly of Bills, Darlinghurst).

We didn’t want it to have that ‘Sydney look’ of clean lines and white walls. We wanted something a little more European. It could be a very small corner of a grand country house.

The article says a liquor licence is in the works, with plans to open for dinner, which could explain the temporary closure – though with a great review in Delicious, they must be disappointed to be shut for business.

A month ago we blogged about our favourite local French cafes serving takeaway coffees in styrofoam cups.

At Strawberry Cream, on Victoria Street, today – looks like the message got through!

Cafe 9, sorry, No. 9, at 9 Ward Av, Potts Point/Kings Cross opened its doors a couple of weeks ago.

Already, I can’t remember what used to occupy the spot, just up from the corner at Roslyn Street.

It is tiny inside but makes excellent use of the space with a mezzanine level.

It is intimate and feels like you are in someone’s fancy sitting room, with elaborately framed landscape and portrait artworks, a fire, a chandelier, an antique clock.

We just stopped in for (Genovese) coffee.

But I do like the look of the simple breakfast menu.

We love having a coffee at the local Frenchie, Strawberry Cream, on Victoria Street. It’s a perfect spot to sit and watch the crowd stream by.

But the $2.70 takeaway coffees from Strawberry Cream come in styrofoam cups. Besides any environmental considerations, styrofoam cups don’t work with coffee. It just doesn’t taste as good.

Same at Le Petit Creme, just around the corner on Darlinghurst Road, where a takeaway coffee is $3.00.

Fortunately, Sel & Poivre on Victoria Street has excellent takeaway coffee. In paper cups. And at $2.50 it’s the cheapest of the three.

Plus Sel & Poivre’s country pate baguettes and rillettes are fantastic.

As the sign in the window says, Pelagio has been closed now since 11th March.

I get an occasional glimpse inside, when I’m walking past, and it looks as though it is being completely re-fit.

But when are you going to re-open? Anyone?