The Penny Black

Don't Tell Tom

Clem Bastow, Reviewer

Thursday, June 05, 2008

Tom is one of those institutions that is one man's breakfast joint to another man's late-night (ish) watering hole.

Using suburbs and cities adjectivally sometimes works, sometimes doesn't. It's a fair bet that if you said something was "totally Duluth" or "like, so Mooroopna", people probably wouldn't have a clue what you were on about - and, chances are, neither would you. But there are instances where it's easy to tell precisely what you are trying to get across, and in the case of Sydney Road venue Don't Tell Tom, "it's very Brunswick" is probably all that needs to be said. But then Barfly would come in with a severely undernourished word count, and that wouldn't do, since Tom - housed in a converted post office in the middle of the Sydney Road fabric-shops-'n'-bargain-basements drag - is charming and deserves more. Don't Tell Tom is known mostly for live comedy and music events, which generally happen on the raised stage in the main bar. At other times it's scattered with op-shop couches and armchairs upon which readers and drinkers enjoy the afternoon sun through the front windows.

Full review on The Age