JudyADenver

My husband and I have been noticing that women are wearing expensive,form fitting blue jeans with high heels to fine restaurants in the US, New York City included. Is this a world wide trend? Will we see jeans in Sydney restaurants?

Cilla_Tey

I have been living in Sydney for almost 20 years and jeans have always been acceptable in all the top restaurants.

JudyADenver

Cillla_Tey--Thanks for the confirmation. We will be in Sydney for 5 nights Oct 25-30. I will definitely pack my dress jeans. We returned from a weekend in a posh sea side community near San Diego yesterday. I wore dress slacks to dinner at a very trendy restaurant and felt out of place--EVERYONE was wearing designer jeans except me!

Cilla_Tey

Judy, don't specially pack your jeans if you prefer dress slacks. Sydney is pretty casual, some people dress up when going to the Opera House some don't. The fashion scene is generally wear what you think you look good in. But of course if you are going to mix in circles of a stratospheric level, then it's a different story.

lizF

I personally feel that anyone who wears a pair of jeans to a "fine" restaurant, whether or not they were expensive or designer jeans with high heals, is just trying to buck fashion do's and don't. Jeans of whatever design will never look as beautiful as a gorgeous dress or outfit and a woman will never look as stunning in them.

tropo

For what its worth....try wearing black jeans or white jeans, they just look a bit smarter, than ordinary blue jeans.

Neil_Oz

Judy, this is really an issue for women and perhaps males of the metrosexual persuasion, but I can tell you that most blokes in your chosen eatery won't give a toss what you wear, because unless it's unusually revealing they won't notice. Maybe this proves that women tend to dress to impress other women, a somewhat fruitless exercise on the face of it.

wally34949

Just be aware than the women wearing these jeans have a pretty good figure. If you need to loose 50 pounds, jeans in a high class restaurant may not catch you at your best.

cynstalker

We tried to go to a casino in Adelaide, Australia 13 years ago, and were not allowed in because my husband was wearing &quot;sand shoes&quot;. We were completely mystified as to what &quot;sand shoes&quot; were - they didn't look sandy to us. The host finally had to point to his sneakers and say, &quot;<b>these</b> are sand shoes&quot;. (He was wearing a dress shirt and dockers, but those sand shoes kept us out!) I wonder if it's still true! And jeans would not have been allowed.

We still get a giggle when we think of it.

<font color="green">Cyn</font>

lizF

About the same time ago as the above Poster my husband and I were in Hawaii and were wearing our Akubra hats. As we walked past the bus stop a couple of younger people commented &quot; weird hillbilly folk&quot; at us, presumably because of the hats. So it is not just our customs with clothing that is suspect, or perhaps it is!

fnarf999

Considering that &quot;blue jeans&quot; can now refer to a garment costing $250, $500 or more from the most exclusive shops in the world, I think the social ramifications have changed a bit since the days of plain Levi's.

lizF

I don't think the cost of an item denotes its worthiness for wearing to different functions or settings. You can get a bikini which is as small as they come and it still can cost a bomb - doesn't make it anything other than a bikini though even if it cost a lot, same goes for jeans. I for one would not know if a pair of jeans cost $20 or $2,000 - they still look like jeans. Most places in Australia are reasonably casual but dress pants would be a safer option and they are also lighter to pack. The other issue is that depending on the time of year Judy is coming jeans would not be a good option if it was warm weather.

Neil_Oz

Liz, surely the Hawaiians didn't have you tagged as a Queenslander?

Big hats: in Montana and Wyoming most of the people I saw wearing cowboy hats were German tourists. One guy took matters further by wearing cowboy boots and striding around with his thumbs stuck in his belt while Frau Cowgirl followed close behind carrying a handbag emblazoned with the Stars and Stripes. I don't know whether they thought that the cowboy suit would serve as protective camouflage, but the overall effect bordered on the surreal.

I agree re jeans - even for males there are much lighter and more comfortable options.

Hope Tassie is still treating you well.

lizF

Nice to see you back Neil we need your pithiness on the forum. Also I was hoping that you might clarify some points up for us re: food and its costs in Australia V US.
I did forget to let all and sundry know that the other day when at a food hall I saw McDonalds advertising a large coke, fries and a hamburger for $5 Australian - this works out to be $3.75 US. So to those who have been saying that food is expensive here you must not be looking around much.
Anyway having said that I think the Hawaiians might just have thought we were a bit strange and from Queensland more because of the chewing tobacco than the Akubra hats but we have given that up now - the hats that is, as its very hurtful.

lizF

PS: As for Tassie, yes I do love it here and I only wish I had come down 10 years ago when I could have bought a couple of Georgian sandstone mansions for what I could sell my house in Queensland for. Those days are over tho' but it still is cheaper than most anywhere else.

Neil_Oz

Liz, &quot;pithiness&quot;? When did you start to lithp?

This was a budget holiday, so I can't pretend to have done much of a survey of good restaurants. One that we did try was Le Chateaulin in Ashland, Oregon, which seems to have a pretty good reputation, and I'll pass on my observations for what they're worth.

The prix fixe special (our choice) was $35 pp, to which add say $8 each for aperitif and coffee, so with 15% tip about $50 a head. I should point that this was a nice 3-course meal with two glasses of wine per person included, so not bad value. The food, ambience and service were all of a high quality.

Ordering a la carte would have incurred a bill of about $80-100 pp including tip. That allows a modest $40 for a shared bottle of wine.

Some Americans may have tipped 20%, by the way. I can't follow the logic of tipping more in an upscale place, though. To my mind the staff are already doing relatively well, simply because the average bill is a good deal higher than in a lower-priced establishment. It may come down to not wanting to look &quot;cheap&quot; in more toney surroundings - not sure.

Anyway, $160-$200 for a meal for two is not exactly cheap, and of course even our more modest repast came in at about AU$130.

You could certainly find a meal of equivalent quality in Australia for say AU$100 a head, which for a visiting American would be a pretty good deal at US$75.

So, based on this narrowest of samples, I would say that there's little reason for visiting Americans to feel short-changed in upscale Australian restaurants.

I'll have to think about the situation at the more modest end, which is where we spent most of our time. I'll exclude Chez Safeway from that consideration though.

lizF

I don't lithp usually but the chewing tobacco got in the way again. I knew I should have knocked off that spit tin on the floor of the cinema in Oregon which said &quot;no chewing tobacco in this theatre&quot; but the thing was just too large for my pockets!! I see you had a great time around the North West and so I would have expected so too. Nice that you also caught up with some of the Fodorians around that part of the World and I trust you left a legacy of Canadian and American fans of vegemite. I think that perhaps we should get together on this forum to promote the benefits of iconic Aussie foods which would also have to include Waterberry's compound ( not sure of the spelling but cannot get past the taste of many years ago). I think that at least we could make a list of &quot; Things you must ingest before you Die&quot; Perhaps heading that list with Prairie Oysters just for our N.W. friends. What say you?