Google turned up some interesting Australia Day activities in NYC this week, including a reunion of Adelaide University Alumni at the Yale Club, a BBQ at the Sunburnt Cow downtown ( or the Sunburnt Calf uptown ), a sidewalk sausage sizzle at Betel in the West Village, and a black tie G’Day USA dinner on Wall Street hosted by Jamie Durie and with entertainment by Guy Sebastian and the Qantas choir. I wonder what the Greek inspired Cipriani looks like now!

Meanwhile the Times announced the opening of ‘the first American outpost of a down-under takeout chain’ in time for Australia Day. With some excellent Aussie pies already available locally, this could be the beginning of a pie war in New York. Bring your own tomato sauce. Pie Face may have a prime spot on Broadway, but The Tuckshop has the east Village and Chelsea Markets covered.

In the end Sean & I decided to go local for our celebrations, and joined the crowd at The Australian on West 38th Street for a Coopers and pie. Green and yellow balloons were in abundance and BMX Bandits with a young curly haired Nicole Kidman replaced the usual sports reportage on the bar flatscreens. This encouraged me to go modern, so when fish & chips were off the menu I went for a couple of lamb chops with a delicious glass of wine from WA. The Australian is a very friendly pub. We rarely go there but on every occasion the owner has been there to greet us, and the waiting service is cheerful. Only thing is that the beer and cider was a bit flat, which makes me wonder if they strangely mistook us for pommies…. In this case it is definitely time for me to head home and polish up my accent. See you there soon!