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Surrounded by the retail and tree-lined streets of Double Bay is the InterContinental hotel, a charming destination whose marble and gold interiors house a restaurant and cocktail lounge that any passer-by can experience. Enter the hotel via the regal, winding marble staircase and try the gin-focused menu at the sophisticated Stillery lounge. Or sidle into Stockroom Restaurant for a seasonally-inspired menu utilising the best of local produce, and a casual atmosphere. With more than 100 varieties of rare, vintage and limited-edition gin and an innovative menu of aromatic G&Ts, Stillery is your place to start. Each of their unique G&Ts is elaborately garnished with botanicals matched to the base gin's flavour profile. A Gin Mare, for example, is a savoury Mediterranean sipper that arrives crowned by ripe basil leaves, rosemary twigs and a juicy cherry tomato with fever tree tonic, adding botanical-enhancing flavour and aromas. You can settle in here with a long list of gin cocktails and accompanying tasting plates or head to the adjoining dining room for more. Stockroom Restaurant is offering a three-course menu paired with a Stillery G&T for $69 per person this autumn. Stockroom Restaurant’s Executive Chef, Alex Vilches, has designed the menu to pair nicely with the flavours of gin. Dishes are made with floral elements in mind, like the glistening kingfish carpaccio which arrives dotted with crunchy black sesame and delicate edible flower petals, the fresh and light bites

Two hours north of Sydney, the Hunter Valley’s Lovedale is a community well known for its produce and wineries (among them Wandin Valley Estate). It’s also the home of the Lovedale Long Lunch, where the region’s leading chefs and winemakers come together and work together once a year, sharing a table and freezer space. And it’s in Lovedale you’ll find the Crowne Plaza Hunter Valley, home to Redsalt – a restaurant showcasing the best of local produce all year round.  Redsalt’s menu is under the direction of executive chef James Ashton, taking his lead from the seasons and sourcing local ingredients. Free-range poultry hails from a farm across in Thirlmere, while leaves of red elk, rocket and spinach come, we’re told, “from Gloria” – a grower whose property you pass on the way in.  Among the starters, go for fois gras parfait, spread, country-style, across the sweet and soft brioche, which is baked in-house. Prawns grilled à la grecque come stacked over a cocktail sauce in the American Floridian style – a tomato base with horseradish, tarragon and a touch of mayo. Shrimp share the plate with softly charred cos lettuce that gives the dish smokiness, while pickled watermelon rind teases out the sweetness of the sauce.  Mains are built around a grill concept, with a feature dish by Ross Lusted from much-awarded Sydney restaurant the Bridge Room – a grilled Wagyu loin with spinach butter, bone marrow, heirloom carrots, dried morels and a stick veal jus. But today, it’s the dry-a