CLANCY OVERELL | Editor | Contact
The coastal beach town of Yabbie Lake is the ideal place to pull up for the Christmas holidays.
With locals who don’t seem too interested in bashing the fuck out of tourists for no reason, and picturesque beaches, it’s no wonder that this medium-sized regional epicentre is so popular with the city folk who know about it.
Surrounded by national parks and state forests, and a flavoured milk factory that keeps the vast majority of local residents employed throughout Winter.
It’s everyone’s little secret, including those blow-ins that only spend a couple weeks here a year.
But while Yabbie Lake has not yet endured the same soul-sucking transformations of Byron Bay and Noosa, it does still have a ‘tourism tax’ – this means that soliciting the services of a tradesmen will cost 15% more than they would in the city. When it comes to produce, a 20% tax is added to prawns, coffee and sausage rolls for some reason.
The town’s cafes and waterfront restaurants also charge a fair bit more than those in the hinterland would, as they should – given the amount of polo shirt fuckwits that find their way onto the esplanade.
However, the unwritten rule that sees the local small business owners overcharging is juxtaposed with another unwritten rule: The fact that none of these shops are open outside of midday to 1:30pm for lunch, and 5:30pm to 8pm for dinner.
The fact is, they just don’t care. Maybe the tourism tax means they make enough cash to not care about anyone who wants to eat out after the final ball of Sydney test, maybe they are just happy living within their means and not dedicating every waking minute to the hollow pursuit of more money.
Either way, if you’re looking for a feed outside of midday-to-8pm, the Lebanese lads out the front of the chase arcade will sort you. They have two menu items. Chicken or donor. Both of them come wrapped. There’s also some rubbery pizza slices in the bain marie but they don’t get much love until the surf club closes at midnight.
Don’t bother complaining. That’s jut how it is. If you don’t like it, you can fuck off back to the city.
