More new stuff…

It must be spring.

Some new places to tempt your pal­ate:

• Bur­eau (the former Liquid­ate folks) at 120 The Ter­race.  The quint­es­sen­tial wine and tapas bar with excel­lent food and ser­vice (would we expect any­thing less?) – a selec­tion of tasty tapas and a few mains and black­board desserts (slow roas­ted tangy pork cro­quettes with aioli, melt-in-the-mouth pork on couscous any­one?).  Even a couple of loc­al beers on tap (Pan­head for one). Monday to Fri­day lunches and even­ings.

• The Leed Street Bakery and Red Rab­bit Roast­ery (the Ti Kouka folks) now in busi­ness Monday to Sat­urday.  And yes, the famed salted car­a­mel cook­ies are to die for.  Smooth fla­vour­ful cof­fee along the lines of Baba Broth­er Boud­in in Mel­bourne (no dark roast­ing here) and unique Intel­li­gent­sia cof­fee cups.  Fun­nily enough in Leeds Street, near Pomodoro Pizza and Gold­ings Dive Bar.

• Zaida (the former Brook­lyn Bagels on Col­lege Street) – same deli­cious cab­in­et and menu food (and breads), but a pale green décor with light col­oured tables and a much light­er bright­er sun­ni­er feel. Sev­en days.

• Boat Café now at the Top of the Cable Car also – only through sum­mer pre­dom­in­antly to offer some­thing to the cruise vis­it­ors until the whole build­ing is ren­ov­ated next winter.  Cab­in­et food from the Ori­ent­al Boat Café kit­chen.  From 9am week­days and 9.30am week­ends (although those open­ing hours may stretch a little earli­er yet).  Plus loc­al art and craft up there fairly reg­u­larly through the next few months  – Nov 26, 28, 29, Dec 3, 7, 9, 10, 11, 14, 15, 24, 28, 31 (9am-2pm – sus­pect cruise boat dates/times)…

• Laun­dry bar on Cuba (corner of Cuba and Abel Smith in an old laun­dry) – laid back beachy-style fun.  Be pre­pared to eat with your fin­gers (basic bur­gers, tacos or toasties) and no cred­it cards.  Check out the stor­age cup­board at the top of the lad­der, the $5 dia de los muer­tos skel­et­on cook­ies and music most even­ings. Sur­pris­ingly few­er hip­sters than ima­gined. Wed­nes­day to Sunday (from 4pm Wed­nes­days, 10am oth­er days).

• Uncorked Wine­bar and Tast­ing Room (upper Cuba in the former Char­lotte Steak­house and once-upon-a-time Orsini’s) – effect­ively the tast­ing room for Akaroa wines.  With a hand­ful of oth­er European wines, tast­ing flights, cheese plat­ters and flat­breads (more like a full on pizza than a flat­bread), one could almost feel a bit vine­yardy.  A few sunny seats on the front pad and open Wed­nes­day through Sunday (from mid-after­noon week­days and late morn­ing week­ends).

• The George (on Wil­lis Street near Boul­cott where there’s also been a revolving iter­a­tion of busi­nesses includ­ing Cadillac in more recent times) – haven’t been inside yet, but a look through the win­dow made me think a little of Ban­galore’s dark fur­niture and décor.  From 4pm Tues­day to Sat­urday appar­ently.  Even Mr Google could­n’t uncov­er any more (but Sea­Mon­key Mad­ness did – here’s their FB link).

And a new craft mar­ket in the space between Wil­lis Street and Meow in Edward Street – Cap­it­al Mar­ket.  Brought to you by the Chow Broth­ers (love them or not), and so far star­ted with qual­ity stall­hold­ers in about half of the approx 40-odd per­man­ent mini shops.  Names like Good Score, Pony Lane, KCT Street Wear, Dynamo Kids Wear, Cat­walk Vin­tage, KD One Skin­care, Bears with Atti­tude, etc.  No food in there yet, but we watch with interest.  Tues­day to Sat­urday.

Happy sampling.