QSWWA Annual Dinner 2016

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The Queen Street West Woollahra Association's Annual Dinner was held at the Hotel Centennial, Woollahra on Monday 18^th July. As can be seen from the photos, it was a community get-together not to have been missed. Guests started arriving from 6.30 pm to be met with a welcoming glass of bubbly, oysters and tasteful canapes. It was a bustling start to the evening with everyone crammed into the front bar.

Name labels affixed, acquaintances re-established, we all sat down to eat at 7.30pm. A sumptuous three course meal awaited, commencing with a tasty lightly scorched tuna salad, charcuterie and pickled vegetables. The mains were absolutely delicious with a choice of Queensland black kingfish set on a bed of sautéed mushrooms or roasted slow cooked lamb shoulder with salads and chips as sides. Desserts were a choice of steamed ginger and date pudding with burnt caramel ice cream or rhubarb and vanilla panna cotta with a buttermilk and strawberry sorbet, delightful!

The sommelier made an excellent selection of fine wine from the cellar. After the hors d’oeuvres and bubbly we had the choice of a medium dry Kumeu River pinot gris, a French Rosé and a 2011 Schrell full bodied shiraz/grenache. At the culmination of the meal, a beautiful Barossa Laughing Jack desert wine that lingered long on the palate was served.

The president, Rosemary McDonald gave a brief run-down of the Association's activities over the past year. This included the Woollahra Council’s eventual agreement to set aside three hundred thousand dollars to begin implementing the Queen Street Master Plan.

Councillor Katherine O’Regan was in attendance, following what she termed as another stressful Council Meeting. She joined the Mitchelhill table with others from the Committee. Other notable group tables were put together by Giles Edmonds, Tony Sunman, Georgia Cleary, Chris Harvey, Mary Ann Buhagiar, Ian Mansell, Alan Smith (treasurer), Mary Read and Michelle Paterson from M. Contemporary Gallery.

The evening was a great success with a full house of 70 locals all chatting, exchanging banter and generally relaxing in the friendly ambience of the Centennial’s luxurious surrounds. Capping it all off was the presentation of lucky door prizes. These included a meal for two people at Hotel Centennial, a breakfast for two at Plane Tree Café in Queen Street and a signed copy of Justine North’s most recent cookery book.

A big thank you to all who attended, the excellent and attentive staff at the Centennial, to our photographer Eric Scott from Holdsworth Community Centre, Councillor O’Regan and all the QSWWA committee members.