Sourdough has ruled our postcode for too long. While the development known as The Village Centre, encompassing Llankelly Place and Springfield Mall, has taken its sweet time finding tenants to occupy its lots, it now seems the dough is about to change.

Stopping for coffee at one of no less than five coffee spots, down on Llankelly Place earlier this week, I noticed a new bakery had moved in just down from the Bamboo dumpling place. It is simply called The Italian Bakery, and opened just over a week ago.

Just opposite is a little Greek patisserie-cum-coffee shop.

And the space that was vacated after “Elk” bar fizzled some time ago, has signage adorning the outer walls that Luneburger German Bakery is about to open.

With the abundance of French cafes and patisseries dotted through the area, it seems European bakeries are what we want.

Now how about a Bosnian Burek bar fitting in somewhere too?

This rat is riding a shopping trolley on a red wall on Llankelly Place, Potts Point.

A lot of glue has been spilled on walls since we last walked through.

It’s been quiet on the street art front lately. But there’s a wild amount of development happening on Llankelly Place at the moment, it seems like every second shop is a new cafe. End result, a heightened graffiti scene?

These paste ups by Loom have a heavy sea shanty vibe. Ink fading and dog-eared, despite being new, which seems appropriate to the subject. A bearded old man of the sea, a kindly Neptune?

And a lean pirate, twitchy for his next target.

On the other hand, here’s a robot and another wise old man.

It’s really interesting on Llankelly Place at the moment. A lot of development, but still a lot of empty retail space. We were impressed when it first reappeared, but it’s taken a while to pick up.

The guys at Concrete Playground asked us to dream up a perfect Darlinghurst Nights weekend, so we obliged – but thought we’d better cross-post here for you.

Spring has sprung: the flowers are blooming, the birds are singing and mating right outside your office window when you’re trying to concentrate on a spreadsheet. It’s time to fling off the knitwear and thermals and explore Sydney in the sun. Concrete Playground has collaborated with some of Sydney’s favourite bloggers to bring you the best picks of what our city has to offer in music, art, food, film and fashion this spring, as they describe their ideal spring weekend in Sydney.

This is Sydney By The Blog: Spring Fever.

Part Four: Matt and Polly from Darlinghurst Nights

Weekends are like gold for us. Wedged in busy weeks, we savour every free moment we get. We’re up at six on Saturday morning, and by seven we’re at Fratelli Paradiso on Challis Avenue, Potts Point, for sheep’s-milk yoghurt and granola. And coffee.

Then it’s up to the Sydney Sustainable Markets at Taylor Square to get apples, delicious East Sydney honey, and picnic goods. We have great plans of going to the pool, but actually wind up walking around the neighbourhood. Taking photos as we go. We might do some shopping at the brilliant One of a Kind on Darley Street or Blue Spinach down on the corner of Liverpool and Womerah Avenue.

We might stop and see new work by Matthys Gerber at Sarah Cottier Gallery, Matt Glenn’s show at James Dorahy, and the brilliant Turkish artist Ahmet Ögüt at Artspace – he took us on a very funny running lecture around Woolloomooloo and Darlinghurst last week.

By then, we’re shopped and gallery-ed out. Taking the papers and picnic goods we head to Beare Park, on the water at Elizabeth Bay. If we get through the papers, we have books: Isabel Wilkerson’s The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration, and Rebecca Skloot’s The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. This is where we’re likely to spend most of the afternoon. Lazing, hopefully in the sun.

We’re dying to see Trevor Jamieson in Namatjira, across town to Surry Hills. The play doesn’t start until eight, so we stop at our favourite Frenchie, Tabou. The cote de boeuf is spectacular – it has to be shared. After a cup of Mariage Fréres tea, we’re off to the Belvoir Street Theatre for Big Hart’s take on the Arrernte country artist’s life. Can’t wait.

You need a debrief after a play. So throwing around ideas, we walk briskly back to Tastevin, another favourite French restaurant, on Victoria Street, Darlinghurst. The food is perfect here, but we’re after a nightcap – and cheese and muscatels.

Sunday morning, we wake up bright and early, strap on running shoes and head out. We drop a couple of DVDs at Darlinghurst’s answer to Empire Records – Darlo DVD – and run down to Rushcutters Bay park. After working up a sweat, we go to Sel et Poivre on Victoria Street, Darlinghurst – of course – it’s a local favourite, and although the duck rilettes and country pate baguettes are staples, we’re there first thing. For $7.50, the special – bacon and egg baguette and coffee – is hard to beat.

Reading papers and magazines, breakfast turns into lunch, and pretty soon we’re walking the neighbourhood again, looking for interesting sights for the blog. You never know where you’ll find them. So we try to walk different streets and lanes every time, eyes peeled.

As the afternoon winds on, we stop for a boost at Gelato Messina on Victoria Street. We always try the new flavours, and although the Muum Maam (Thai green curry) is interesting, we’re not taken. Liquorice is a favourite, but it’s rarely available. Instead we opt for Number Two (peanut butter, caramel and chocolate fudge) and the Salted Caramel and White Choc-Chip – with an espresso – and sit on the footpath to do some people watching.

On the way home, we pick up a bottle of Montenegro from ABC Cellars on the corner of Farrell Avenue and Darlinghurst Road. Every week, we get a box of fresh produce from farms within five hours of Sydney from Food Connect (we pick it up at East Sydney Neighbourhood Association on Wednesdays) – and this week, we got Warrigal greens, kale, beetroot, watercress and coriander. Lining up a couple of records by John Fahey and Seaworthy, we set about finding a recipe that works. There’s not one, so Polly improvises and throws together a soup of kale, Warrigal greens, stock, egg and parmesan.

It’s hard to believe the weekend’s over. It’s Sunday night, we’re racing into summer – but after a dream weekend like this, we feel completely ready for the week.

Did you see the bright lights in Potts Point and Kings Cross over the past few months?

It was the tail end of a sustainable lighting trial by the council – they swapped 200 street lights to LEDs in Circular Quay, Martin Place, Alexandria Park, and on Darlinghurst Road between Bayswater Road and Macleay Street, plus another 50 street lights at Bourke Street, Surry Hills, with Energy Australia.

Energy savings of 30-40 per cent have been touted, which is a big deal considering the council reports spending a third of its electricity on street/public lighting. No results yet, but the council plans to install the energy efficient lights in all 8500 of its street and public domain lights over the next three years.

We’ve never had a short supply of loaves in the neighbourhood, but we finally have the fishes too!

As I was paying for my F and V at Harris Farm, I noticed a fishy smell.

Not that I was put off by it. On the contrary.

I was, however annoyed that I had already bought some prawns for dinner from somewhere I don’t even want to mention.

Nevermind, seafood could well be a more regular feature on the menu at Chateau Darlinghurst Nights.

We were lucky not to walk right into this fence at the corner of Macleay and Manning Streets, Potts Point.

Fortunately, RTA workers erected two signs directing pedestrians around the two metre high fences – “PEDESTRIAN” and “DETOUR”. Guys, I know stating the obvious is getting to be a fine art, but this taking it too far, right?

It’s Llankelly Place, in the heart of Kings Cross, and it’s about to seriously change.

Running between Darlinghurst Road and Orwell Street, Llankelly Place doesn’t yell hip inner city life. More cheap commercial real estate. It’s the sort of place where someone’s peeled back the security grill on a window, then the metal below, and then punched through the window – and the proprietors have just left it that way.

Jo Holder’s Cross Arts has opened a new project space on the place. The franchise-ready hot-dog/sausage emporium on the corner of Llankelly Place and Darlinghurst Road is gone, replaced by gelato shop (Stella) that seems to already be up for lease (with all equipment for sale). Down the other end is the Doma beer cafe.

Halfway down the place is a huge new $60m Frank Stanisic designed development, the Village Centre. It opens late January, 2010, though it’s tucked behind security fences for the moment. With a Harris Farm market and 16 other retailers, including the one providore missing in the neighbourhood, a fishmonger, it’s a potential catalyst for the place.

It’s the highest density urban neighbourhood in the country, and it’s loaded with a mixed residential, entertainment and increasingly business focus, so balancing competing demands must be challenging. But does the council even have the resources to support this kind of growth?

Llankelly Place features a series of striking light installations, designed by Peter McGregor (below pic taken from MW Architects‘s website) – the light screens shift slowly from red on Darlinghurst Road to green at the Springfield Gardens. But since installation, the light bulbs have rarely been replaced.

I know it’s probably quite, ahem, noughties to talk about laneway culture – and in Australia, it suggests a bit of a defensive Melbourne-Sydney thing. But really, laneway culture is part of high density city life, and that fine resolution street life is really missing in Sydney.

It’s the silly season in Darlinghurst, but that’s no reason to just throw your shoes off in the street.

That stylish kicker was on Macleay Street, outside the Potts Point Fratelli Fresh. But it’s by no means the only pair in town. Cast off shoes are reaching epidemic proportions.

There’s another pair just around the corner on Llankelly Place. Just over to the left there, it’s a pair of suede heels.

A fancy night out gone wrong (or right?) – it could have been a Take It Home And See If It Works, but this has the feel of something much bigger.

The Christmas tree in Fitzroy Gardens has borne fruit, well parsley.

It’s just common parsley – not the good Continental stuff – but when you’re short and the shops have closed, it’ll do at a pinch.

It reminds me of those weird planters the council put up at the intersection of Victoria and William Streets and Darlinghurst Road – they had strawberries, although none seemed to make it to fruiting. Still, I’m really into the concept of council decorations that are useful for the locals.

Snapped by a reader, Kerri, on her way to work this very morning was this latest instalment.

Ever heard of “The Snicket?”

Well I hadn’t, but colloquially, it is the name for the pedestrian pathway that leads down to Billyard Avenue from Macleay Street, and this is where the X-Ray Specs were found.

Thanks Kerri.