Until earlier today I thought I was still reasonably hip and groovy. When it came to restaurants and bars I thought I knew all the “hot spots” of Sydney. But when we arrived at Alexandria for workplace Christmas Lunch, I knew instantly there was a “blindspot” in my knowledge. I had no idea there was a restaurant, shopping, farm thing going on in the area.

We’d booked in for lunch at The Pottery which we all realised pretty quickly was hipster heaven. In short that meant lots of waiters with bears and armpit hair. “In another environment, James and I would think this was okay, I’m just not sure about it for lunch”, a colleague joked.

The food was okay, though the chips accompanying my cheeseburger were a little salty for my liking. Everyone else seemed to enjoy their choices, which included prawns, schnitzel, and pulled pork. Accompanying the meals were a few jugs of fruit-flavoured beverages. “Is there alcohol in this?”, a colleague asked. “Oh no, I’m sure there isn’t”, I told her referencing the large amounts of ice and fruit. Working in middle-management these days, we all kept ourselves nice, returning to work after only a couple of hours.

The environment was quite nice with all of the plants, and especially with the cooling effect of the light sprays. The only negative, we all agreed, was the music was probably a little too loud.

Also, I’m not so sure about the “caged” animals, including a pig called Kevin Bacon.

It was incredibly busy, though, for a lunchtime on Monday, even in the run up to Christmas.