The Stokehouse

Last night our group piled into a bus and drove down the shoreline to St. Kilda, to a glorious restaurant overlooking Port Phillip Bay. We dined at the Stokehouse, pictures above, an institution and what the web tells me is a definitive Australian restaurant. It was a FANTASTIC meal. Had a piece of tenderloin, a piece of steak so delectable that my friend Abesan from Tokyo declared it made him "think of steak different from now on." True words, and I washed it down with some good Aussie wine and a few bottles of Cooper's beer, which I've been asking for over the last few days but haven't actually found. It's a good brew. The whole night pretty much redeemed what has been a rough couple work days, with not much good work to see. I was carrying around a lot of bad energy, but upon arrival at the restaurant, the cloud around me blew away at my first glimpse of the endless water on the southern horizon... what a place... we learn profound lessons from vistas we canvass...