QSWWA Annual Dinner 2017

Click here to go straight to photos.

The Queen Street and West Woollahra Association Annual Dinner was held on Monday, 17 July at the Hotel Centennial. Woollahra. This was the fifth year that the association has held the dinner at Hotel Centennial and, once again, Justin North and his team made it a magnificent occasion. Over 80 members attended the dinner and, as can be seen from the photographs on the cover, everyone had a most enjoyable evening.

The evening started in the bar area with a glass of bubbles and very tasty canapes, as locals caught up with each other and new faces introduced themselves and were made welcome. This was followed by a delicious three-course meal in the dining room, as seen in the menu here. The meal was complimented by a selection of fine wines from around the globe, including a 2014 Kumeu River Pino Gris from New Zealand, a 2015 Terrazas Reserva Malbec from Argentina, and a 2014 Mitchell Noble Semillon from the Clare Valley in South Australia.

The President, Ken Gresham, spoke on the Association’s activities over the past year, including the unfortunate cancellation of the Christmas Carols due to bad weather (the first time this has ever happened) and the culmination of the Association’s efforts to ensure that Council funding was allocated to start implementing the Queen Street Master Plan with the recent work on upgrading the tree pits along the length of Queen Street and installing planter boxes.

Cooper Ward councillors Katherine O’Regan and Louise Elsing were able to attend the dinner, due to the Council meeting that evening only taking 45 minutes – was that a record? Other members putting together tables included Ken Gresham, Giles Edmonds, Ray White Woollahra, Bradfield Cleary Realty, Di Jones Real Estate, Dizzie and Mike Robinson, Mary Read, Rosemary McDonald, Jim Kavanagh and Bal Bahra,, John Knott, Irene and Alan Smith, Victoria and Michael Greene, Suzie and Geoff Willmott and Phillip and Suzie Mitchelhill.

The evening was rounded out by the presentation of the lucky door prize, Justin North’s new book, Family Cooking, to Lisa Brender. In addition, there were 4 raffles prizes, including a dinner for two at the Centennial won by Mary Read, a travel bag from Classic Safari, won by Jeanette Knox, a meal at Plane Tree Café won by Katherine O’Regan and a meal voucher for KukThai. In additional, courtesy of the ever generous Centennial, all attendees who hadn’t already received one were able to take home a copy of the Centennial’s latest book, Food + Drink + Art.

Many thanks to all who could join us, to Justin North, Carla Rae and all the staff at the Centennial for the great food, wine and service, to Eric Scott for his photography and to John Knott and Alan Smith on the QSWWA Committee for organising it.

Susie Willmot, QSWWA Committee