Tapas and Jazz

Last night we went out for a celebration- the end of another quarter in grad school and the beginning of summer break! We found this delightful tapas place which just opened this year on Little Collins Street and enjoyed trying Pacific oysters, yellowtail Kingfish pancetta, roasted mushrooms and garlic cream, morcilla and 'green egg' tortilla, and churros and dulce de leche for dessert! I passed up the 'twice cooked octopus and pickled cucumber' after having flashbacks to the squid salad in Williamstown. Everything we consumed was delicious and I'm hoping we'll be back sometime in the near future. After our meal, we found a jazz club, Paris Cat, where an American singer named Alison Wedding was performing a final gig before moving to New York. The Paris Cat is located in a small alleyway called Goldie Place off a main street and only visible by a metal cat sign above the entryway. It is a small, new basement jazz club here and has a great ambiance, with crushed deep brown velvet curtains hanging on the walls and intimate clusters of tables and chairs. The show was fabulous- Alison performed with a bassist and pianist and sang a mix of original compositions and jazz standards, including one of my favorites, "Willow Weep for Me". She is one of the happiest looking jazz vocalists I've ever seen; it was really obvious she loves what she does, appreciates the musicians she's performing with, and that made the show especially great. She had another talented Melbourne vocalist, Gian Slater, perform on one tune- so now I have another local musician to follow.