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.