The little known story of Black Toast founder, Jean Blacstoste
Born in the middle of the 20th century, Jean McMillan Blacoste fled France for Australia by stowing away on a merchant ship shortly after refusing the inheritance of his father's vast quail estate. Upon arriving in Sydney, he won this building in a famous game of checkers which came to be known as ‘Blactoste’s Escape’. Facing certain defeat and greatly outnumbered, he produced 5 stunning moves to leave his opponent shellshocked.
At first Blactoste’ used the building to sell his great grandfather’s famed overcooked bread but when it failed to catch on he invented a strawberry flavoured coffee drink. When that too failed, in despair he turned to generous, quality breakfast and lunch meals. In honour of Black Toast’s founder, please order a strictly off-menu ‘strawberry mocha’. It will be greeted with a knowing grin.
The little known story of Herbert Klinok
Around the turn of the century, mysteriously reclusive Sir Herbert Klinok built an ambitious and highly secretive series of tunnels connecting the city of Sydney to enable movement of important goods and people without arousing attention.
Unbeknown to the public, his project twice helped avert nuclear war, secured the 2000 Olympic Games and determined the past eight Archibald Prize winners amongst many other achievements. Increasingly paranoid about who may have discovered his secret labyrinth, Klinok established a lookout post on Clarence St under the guise of a cafe.
Calling it Klink, the expansive view provided the perfect foil to keep a watchful eye on three of the disguised tunnel entrances. While rarely seen, Klinok is known to walk his pet pheasant on a lead at night and uses squid ink to authenticate the authorship of his letters.
