Item! The next Cellar-vate dinner, which we have drooled about before is on July 9, featuring Ngawaka wines, and it costs $40. Give the lovely Rebecca a call to reserve your tickets.

Item! The supercute Green Land Cafe under the Ministry for the Environment on Kate Sheppard Place is running a competition to win a bottle of the famous olive oil grown on Mt. Vic. Buy a coffee, pick an number and go into the draw. Actually, don't, because it's a gorgeous green virgin, and I wants it. So back off! Also, how lovely are the staff there? They totally buttered my scone for me, if you know what I mean. And of course what I mean is I think it's part of their waste reduction responsibilities.

Item! It's not near Molesworth Street, but it's just as bleak - Stanley Road on the corner of Victoria Street and Willeston is running Happy Hour from 4pm-6pm, with all kinds of beers (Corona etc) for just $3.50. It's not a particularly cosy spot, but hey, given how dry this part of town is, consider it a good oasis to stop at while you cross the desert of Willis Quarter.

An order of 15 coffees is a lot. I know that. But when I go into a cafe, such as Espressoholic on Courtenay Place, this is not the exchange I expect.

Me: ...long list of coffees...
Espressoholic Person: That's a lot, that'll take [the two baristas] ages to do.
Me: (in my head) Yes but I will pay you money in exchange for these good and services.
Me: (in reality) Oh well I can go to another place if it's a problem...
E-hole: No. It's just...(mutter mutter)

As time goes by a queue forms behind me, because it does take a long time to make 15 coffees (a fact which I aware of before making my order). Do the staff maybe take orders so that these poor folk don't have to stand and wait? Nope. Obviously I'm the asshole holding up the line with my unreasonable demands for coffee in a coffee shop.

So the order was completed and the various coffee types pointed out.

E-Hole: ...and that's the long black
Me: Sorry, I ordered two long blacks
E-Hole: No I just made one.
Me: (pause for thought) ok.

I paid and left.

And finally E-holic, I can do without the sneering too, thanks.

Yes, I know it's an old concept, but I couldn't resist. Also, this isn't so much a bar as a café, though it does sell wine. And it feels more like being in a friend's living room, if you had a friend with lots of sexy mid-Twentieth-Century furniture and nice views.

Rather a nice place to sit in the sunshine (presuming you can do so without freezing your antennae off) at the weekend and watch the world go by. But where is it?

We like CaféNet at the Wellingtonista, yes we do. But it's not always an unqualified feeling. Mostly it works well once you find a hotspot - and more arrive all the time. But sometimes, and with some devices, things aren't so rosy.

At this Wellingtonista's risk of sounding like a spoiled geek whose new toy won't do what it says on the box, it seems that iPods Touch and iPhones don't always have an easy time connecting to CaféNet. And it's not just this writer's experience - others have noticed it too.

More after the jump...

The DomPost reports that Eva Dixon's Cafe is being given the old heave-ho from Wellington Zoo. The contract for the running of the Zoo's cafe came up last October, and, as co-owner John Heald said...

We were under the impression it wouldn't have been a problem and were waiting for the paperwork to come through ...

But no! The Zoo weighed up their options, and have decided to go with faceless, characterless corporate catering outfit Spotless.

Says Karen Fifield, chief executive of the Zoo...

We wanted to make a commercial decision which was going to result in value for the zoo.

Given that Eva's is 'predominantly family-run and locally owned', and Spotless, well, aren't (and hardly have a, err, 'spotless' reputation with regards to treating their staff well), it might be argued that the Zoo is flying in the face of one of their own stated goals, which is to "generate lasting community support by raising the profile of the Zoo and making the Zoo relevant to all Wellingtonians." (Admittedly, it does fulfill their goal of increasing "...financial sustainability by increasing revenue...").

Whatever the case, if you'd like to vent your opinion on this particular issue to someone who has some sway in the Zoo's affairs, drop Celia Wade-Brown a line - she's the WCC Councillor in charge of the Zoo Trust.

Yep, I'm stealing using Jo's idea. Roxy Cafe is in The Book on a coupon, dig it out now and put it in your wallet.

Usually when I talk to people about Roxy Cafe the first thing they ask is "Where's that?". The answer is "Where the Purple Onion and that Argentinian Cafe used to be, just past the new gay bar".

You probably don't know it because it just looks like like any old generic cafe that you find up and down this country selling watery lattes and stale carrot cake, meaning you've just walked on by.

However, it seems that you would be wrong to think that. Read on after the jump.

Once again, I had left my book at home somewhere, so it was another gold card restaurant that was needed. Since my other sister decided to gatecrash our party, a total discount venue, rather than a two-for-one mains was desireable. And because it was cold and I was lazy and didn't feel like walking anywhere, somewhere on the bus route home was needed - preferably somewhere that I could get a big plate of heartiness at. Medina was decided upon, as it seems to have beaten the curse that made other restaurants in its location at 18 Cambridge Terrace close down very rapidly. The review is after the jump.

From "Lunch at Parsons"

A frustrated waiter: "I've lost my long black man"

A white man puts up his hand.

Waiter: "You're not long black. And if you do that again you will be flat white"

Ah, coffee humour

Recently we asked you where the best places to eat on Lambton Quay are, and naturally, the internet word-of-mouth answered: Kapai Salads in Lambton Square.

There's plenty of reasons to love Kapai, including:

• Whānau: Everyone knows someone who knows the owners, hence the mass emails and bulletin board postings about the shop.
  
• Mata: Your salad will be freshly made right in front of you, and you will get to choose the ingrediants yourself. No droopy lettuce and skankyass grated cheese here, no no.
  
• Taiao: The soup is served in bowls made out of bread, while salads are served in potatopaks (which you probably wouldn't want to eat, although technically they're safe enough to), minimising environmental damage. Plus, the coffee's fair trade.
  

We'd like them to offer lists of available ingrediants and make it a little clearer which are the gourmet ones that'll set you back an extra $1.50, but when you can get a rocquette, falafel and feta salad with aioli in less than five minutes and feel good about doing it, you'll definitely be going back.

Everyone knows that large corporations eat puppies, but what do the people who work for large corporations eat for lunch?

The Wellingtonista is closing down its Courtenay Place branch on Friday and is opening up in mid Lambton Quay instead. After a year and a half down this way, we'd just finally got the good people at Sahara Kebabs to know that we like just a few onions and garlic yoghurt, tahini and hot chilli on our (mixed vegetarian, mujaver and falafel only) kebabs. Where are we going to eat now?

Oscar is a hotshot young actor in the bustling Elizabethan Wellington theatre scene, loved by the Publick, but resented by the authorities. When he is kicked out of his theatre company for ‘improvising’, he must fight, not only to get his job back, but also to stop the Queen from pushing the country into all-out war...

What if Wellington were the centre of the Elizabethan world, pioneering an explosion in theatre, fashion, new music and coffeehouses at the birth of the modern age?

Awesome. The short pitch is 'Whale Rider meets Shakespeare in Love', but the above is the longer synopsis of the plot for The Player and the Advocate - a new film being written by Wellingtonian John Parker.

John's having a public reading of the feature film treatment on...

Sunday 1st October, 4:00pm
@ Katipo Café, 76 Willis Street, Wellington
Duration: 1 hour (45 minutes for reading, 15 minutes feedback session)
Cost: free!
Featuring: Erin Banks and James Stewart, two of Wellington's finest theatrical talent

...so feel free to head along and help shape what will hopefully be one of the next great pieces of Wellington film-making at its earliest stages.

More info at the official website.

For those Wellingtonistas who might be coming to London sometime in the near future. I can recommend the Sacred Cafe. It's owned by a kiwi, it has good coffee (which is rare in London) and free wifi.

I currently posting LIVE from Sacred, listening to a selecion of Wellington Dub/Soul and enjoying their latest art exhibition, Pasifika Styles.

To get there: Just off Carnaby St in Soho.

Alan a while back suggested a quest to find the best bacon sandwich in Wellington (at least I think it was Alan. UPDATE it was actually llew). This, of course, would be to match Tom's gallant mission to visit every Wellington bar in a year.

Well I tried to do a "Big Breakfast" review but was beaten back by the cholesterol in my veins (I'll post the results here soon). Bacon Sandwiches and Martinis are not my areas of expertise but there is one type of food that I can give an expert opinion on: Pies. That's right, I ate all the pies (in Wellington) and reviewed them for you, the people.
(You might notice a theme when it comes to flavours)

Steak & Cheese from Bon Mange, 110 Lambton Quay.
Bon Mange means Good Eats in French and if you don't have the pies, then that is really correct. The pie crust is flakey and the top separates from the base with alarming regularity causing "steak" and ooze to, well, ooze in your paper bag, revealing a large "window to weight gain". Also I never could stand yellow pastry.
4/10

Mrs Macs Steak & Cheese, most dairies.
Never before has mankind crafted a cheesier pie. A pie from "across the ditch", made with Australia's latest infusion de fromage technology, a Mrs Macs pie is a spectacle of flavour. If you are a Pie-and-a-coke kind of person, then this is the pinacle of lunches. Unfortunately, while the pastry is filled to overflowing with yellow gold*, it is a little lacking in solid meat. Teh more Bohemian amongst you may balk at the fact that these pies can also be found in frozen form at your local supermarket.

The little side street at the Taranaki Street end of Courtenay Place has been due for big changes for a while, and now it all looks like it's finally happening. In June, work will start on closing the street and turning it into a pocket park: more details will be released by the council in a couple of weeks. Also, the long-abandoned toilet block which has been the subject of various suggestions over the years (including, hilariously, wetarium and sexual health museum), will undergo a more predictable but nonetheless welcome transformation. Ian "Ferg" Ferguson will convert it into a wine bar by doubling the underground space, lining the walls with wine racks and adding an outdoor drinking area on the roof. This work will also start in June and is expected to open by Christmas under the name "Wine Cellar" (WC for short, of course). If only the walls could speak!

But the first change that we'll see here is the opening of the first downtown Wellington branch of Burger Fuel. That explains the loud drooling noises emanating from Wellingtonista towers. There's no official word on the opening date, but construction work looks well advanced, so I'd guess that it's just a few weeks away. Mmm, booze, burgers and a sunny park: that's got to be better than a turning lane and a handful of car parks.

Have you ever wanted to just eat your way around a suburb? No? Well, we here at Wellingtonista have, and we figured it would make sense to start with Hataitai. After all, who doesn't love Hataitai? So here's what you can get to eat: