This Is Canberra

The new Fricken store at the Canberra Centre is designed to be a space for people to linger. Photo: Fricken. Fricken is on the move with its biggest-ever flagship store opening soon in the Canberra Centre. Fricken is closing its Braddon location to upsize and bring its chicken to a wider audience. Brothers Mo and Marwan Saad wanted to share their Mum’s fried chicken with Canberra, so with their partners Heather and Manal, they started small, but had big ambitions.

The iconic moon installation at Questacon has been replaced with new inflatable depictions of quantum technology. Photo: Jarryd Rowley. Visitors to Questacon may have noticed something rather huge missing from its main auditorium lately. The iconic moon installation, which hung from its ceiling for over seven years, has been removed to make way for the science centre’s newest exhibition, Quantum Tomorrow: Imagined Futures.

Christophe Gregoire receiving one of the oldest awards in the French Republic – the National Order of Agricultural Merit, or l’Ordre du Mérite Agricole. Photo: Christophe Gregoire. Bastille Day commemorates the storming of the Bastille and the founding of the French Republic on 14 July. And what better way to celebrate than to eat and drink up? Just like the French! Renowned local chef Christophe Gregoire is teaming up with esteemed winemaker Céline Rousseau for a Bastille Day celebratory dinner.

Did you know the Kransky sausage originated from Slovenia? Photo: Sophia Brady. There is a spot on Irving Street in Phillip that is easy to miss unless you are looking for it. Among new apartment buildings, busy eateries, and the Phillip Swimming and Ice-Skating Centre, a modest building sits unassumingly: the Slovenian Club Canberra. With its 1970s architecture and unmistakable homely charm, it’s been a gathering place for Canberra’s Slovenian community for over half a century.

The stuffed red snapper was a beautiful main dish. Photo: Lucy Ridge. Kingston’s newest belle is a charming little venue by the same team behind corner-bar Queenies. Eve has recently opened just a few doors down from her big sister, and while Queenies is big and boisterous, Eve is cosy and elegant. Chef Adi Davos has been given full creative licence and is wielding her powers well.

Giancarlo Savaris, AUKUS-POKUS – Pear-shaped!, 2026, screenprint, 500 x 360 mm, 1 of 6. Photo: ANCA. While we have all heard of the Five Eyes Anglosphere Intelligence Alliance, FiveInk is a Canberra-based alliance of printmakers who have set themselves the task of saving the world from apocalyptic threats.

Mawsons Under Bakery quickly became a cult classic, with its cardamom buns a fave. Photo: Tenele Conway. The mission of finding a damn good pie or an incredible loaf of bread should always be approached with the fervour of Arnie hunting down Sarah Connor to save the future, and I’d like to think I’ve done the legwork here.

Pink Tennis Canberra founder Geoff Dudley often collaborates with Underground Spirits for events – including Floriade 2026. Photo: James Coleman. Canberra’s biggest spring event is set to get even bigger, with new budget funding paving the way for an expanded Floriade from next year. The ACT Government has committed $749,000 over two years to grow the festival from 2027, coinciding with Floriade’s 40th anniversary.

Co-curators Isobel Parker Philip and Dr Emma Kindred in John Brack x Noel McKenna: A face in the mirror exhibition. Photos: NPG. A subconscious kinship between two Australian artists practising 50 years apart is explored in the National Portrait Gallery (NPG) exhibition John Brack x Noel McKenna: A face in the mirror. The exhibition sets aside the traditional, chronological model for a dialogue across time between two singular artists who, half a century apart, appear to share a connection.

The weather’s getting colder … all the more reason to gather your friends and participate in some good old-fashioned revelry. Photo: Capital Brewing. Yes, it’s expensive to go out these days. But life is all about the simple pleasures and there are few pastimes more pleasurable than burgers and beers with mates. The trick is to make it worth your money.