There have been a few recent (re)openings on the hospo scene recent­ly, and a few more are either immi­nent or rumoured. A quick round-up of drinkie and food­ie news, includ­ing drunk­en pigs, an Ital­ian inva­sion and a touch of cin­na­mon, after the jump.

- The for­mer Tupe­lo is set to reopen as a restaurant/bar called “The Watusi”. The menu looks very retro, in a way that may or may not be iron­ic, and the cock­tail menu looks to have been nicked from the not-quite-lament­ed Pod.

- The long-run­ning Cal­zone final­ly closed a lit­tle while back, and is under­go­ing a trans­for­ma­tion into a restau­rant and bar called “The Crafts­man”. From the sound of things, this could be very steak­housey.

- The old Hong Kong Café in Tarana­ki St is now a Caribbean restau­rant called “Calyp­so”. Deli­cious food (Drunk­en Pig, any­one?), pleas­ant enough cock­tails, but seri­ous­ly lack­ing in atmos­phere. Appar­ent­ly more décor is on the way, and the bam­boo-clad bar at the back is just scream­ing out to for Tik­i­fi­ca­tion.

- The vacant retail unit in Bond St looks to be open­ing as a licensed café called “Mon Ami”. Tres frog.

- The Cuba St build­ing that once housed Our Bar, Neat, Mon­telupo, … Orsini’s is now an Indonesian/Malaysian restau­rant called “Kayu Man­is”. The menu looks slight­ly broad­er than the stan­dard Welling­ton Malaysian cui­sine, and the décor’s a touch more upmar­ket. Has any­one tried it yet?

- Part of the retail space under the NZX build­ing on the water­front is on its way to becom­ing a gelato/café place. Insert “frozen assets” joke here.

- The ground floor of Wildlife House (on the cor­ner of Tory & Hol­land streets) is rumoured to be the loca­tion for “Oste­ria del Toro”, a large pizze­ria and “pan-Mediter­ranean” restau­rant. An oste­ria is sup­posed to be “a tav­ern or hum­ble restau­rant where wine is served as the main attrac­tion and tasty food is pre­pared to wash it down”, which sounds fine by me, but the job ad’s men­tion of “a con­cept that com­bines fun, funk, and inno­va­tion” sounds dire.

- The ill-fat­ed (and frankly bizarre) Viet­namese Gallery/Deli/Café on The Ter­race should be reopen­ing this month as La Bel­la Italia, bring­ing a taste of Petone Italy to down­town Welling­ton. Ciao Bel­la!