I hope you all had won­der­ful long week­ends (or at least parts of it if hav­ing to work).

So many mem­o­rable eats and drinks this week, I’ll try and be suc­cinct. But what a won­der­ful reminder of the diver­si­ty and oppor­tu­ni­ties in Welling­ton City.

Matterhorn roastMat­ter­horn are hav­ing their 50th birth­day cel­e­bra­tions over the next month, cul­mi­nat­ing with a (prob­a­bly closed) VIP par­ty on 30 Novem­ber.  No mean feat in today’s fick­le hospo world to sur­vive that long (albeit in slight­ly dif­fer­ent guis­es), and I rec­ol­lect a com­ment by a recent own­er that there comes quite some respon­si­bil­i­ty when buy­ing into some­thing with such a long his­to­ry.  I bet. Check out their birth­day cock­tails, and if you’ve nev­er done their Sun­day roast, be in. This Sun­day just gone: roast­ed meri­no lamb neck (fall-apart, melt-in-your-mouth del­ish) with wagyu fat pota­toes, crispy spice cau­li­flower, hon­ey glazed car­rots and whipped coconut cream.  A dif­fer­ent roast every Sun­day for $25, but beware there’s often only a lim­it­ed num­ber of por­tions (from 5.30pm).

The Pacif­ic Beer Expo was a fine Sun­day after­noon with friends, some tasty nib­bles by Ruth Pret­ty Cater­ing, and some eclec­tic and inter­est­ing beers.  My favourite — the Welling­ton Par­rot­Dog Bar­rel Aged Sleuth­Hound, 6.6%ABV Bar­rel Aged Scotch Ale (a pre­view beer, so hope­ful­ly it’ll live a good long time).  The odd­est — Funk Estate Pinky and the Grain, 8.8% ABV Pink Pep­per Sai­son (kava inspired this one I reck­on!). Thanks Hashigoza­ke.

Mid-week saw burg­ers at Joe’s Garage, with the lamb and halou­mi sur­pris­ing with gen­er­ous pieces of ten­der lamb, and the beef get­ting the thumbs up as well.  Every night is burg­er and BYO bot­tled wine (no cork­age) from 5pm.  As long as you spend $15 (which the burg­ers start at) all good.  They have oth­er menu options for non-burg­er­ers, but were doing a rather fine burg­er trade, so clear­ly the word is out.…

Dough MommaThe City Mar­ket high­light this week was the abil­i­ty to sam­ple Dough Mom­ma’s pies.  OMG the key lime pie, so good a mini one fell into my hand­bag.  Fol­low Dough Mama on Face­book to see what her week­ly pie cook-up is (usu­al­ly list­ed Tuesday/Wednesday) and email or text your order by 6pm Wednes­day for a Fri­day morn­ing deliv­ery.  Yum­mo!

And for those Ernesto’s fans of days gone by, a pop-up Ernesto’s brunch is avail­able inside El Mata­dor for Sat­ur­days and Sun­days through to 4 Novem­ber.  And yes, the icon­ic car­rot and fen­nel toast was on the menu. You still have time…

And last­ly, but cer­tain­ly not least, the stum­ble across the Aeroshop Cre­ative Allies cof­fee bar (Flight cof­fee) in the front cor­ner of their graph­ic design stu­dio at 80b Wal­lace Street (in half of the Supreme Dairy up past Welling­ton High and Massey) proved to be a rather fine stum­ble.  Seri­ous buck­ets of cool here, includ­ing the col­lec­tables and graph­ics to view while await­ing one’s potion, and offer­ings of hemp, almond or oat milk for the non-dairy among us.  Superb.

Have a hap­py (hope­ful­ly) short week.