Last Fri­day’s TGIF wander reminded me of some of the char­ac­ter­ful, fun and tasty small ven­ues we have around the city (in this case the Cour­tenay quarter).

Vinyl u sexy thingFirstly a ‘You Sexy Thing’ mock­tail at Vinyl bar.  A creamy chai and car­a­mel cre­ation which hit the spot nicely on a warm sum­mer­’s even­ing. There’s some­thing about all the lp’s around the walls and the 70’s and 80’s music that appeals (maybe due to being a child of the 70’s!), and I do enjoy that the ban­quettes are warmed in winter. I’m also going back soon for some of their inter­est­ing bar snacks (fairy bread and deep fried mars bars). Just because. The only fly in the oint­ment here, like many places these days, is that the out­door court­yard is full of smokers, so those of us who don’t smoke struggle to enjoy the open air too.

TGIF BasqueYou Sexy Thing was fol­lowed by very tender and tasty tender chick­en bom­bas (paprika battered chick­en bites with tangy mayo) and crispy, fla­vour­ful grilled auber­gine with ses­ame, honey and smoked yoghurt at Basque . And tasty pintxos from the bar of stuffed mush­rooms and Span­ish meat­balls. Much improved from the last time I was there.  All washed down with a jug of San­gria of course. These guys are head­ing towards open­ing a roof-top bar shortly which will add fur­ther to Wel­ling­ton’s land­scape (you can read more about that on the Idea­log blog).

TGIF SMKAnd then finally across to Sweet Moth­ers Kit­chen for pie.  Bour­bon and pecan. Mmmm.  I enjoy that one might be tucked into a space at the bar or on a com­mun­al table, and that all the pies are clearly hand­made.  There’s usu­ally a good array of Amer­ic­an-lean­ing pie includ­ing key lime, apple, pecan, pea­nut but­ter and any­thing, etc.

What more could a girl ask for TGIF?