Hey, remem­ber when we used to be on top of all the open­ings and clos­ings in town and filled with reviews? Yeah me neither. The ‘ista is old and prop­erty-and-busi­ness own­ing now, and we have Twit­ter instead of our group mail­ing list. But we can still try!

So to that end, here’s a couple of bars I’ve been to lately that you might also like to know about.

Love Not Lost

From the makers of our beloved Hanging Ditch comes a bar in the Court­ney Quarter that’s actu­ally worth head­ing to that part of town for? Love Not Lost on Allan Street has been a mil­lion curry places and maybe also Muse and that truly truly awful Orph­eus. Now it’s bar with a sol­id food menu, full of fancy cock­tails and big com­fy couches. It opened at the end of last year so the space does­n’t feel quite as lived in as I’m sure it will, but it’s nice to have a bar that pri­or­it­ises loun­ging, along with a pool table and two-tops if you’re eat­ing. When we vis­ited a couple of weeks ago, the cock­tail menu was Meatloaf (the sing­er) themed, so they missed a trick not offer­ing a meatloaf bur­ger as well, but what they had on offer was deli­cious. the menu of love not lost
Obvi­ously I had to order a Dead Ringer For Love to get that pista­chio-infused bour­bon. I could have used a little more sweet­ness I think, but in their defense I’ve been drink­ing a lot of overly sweet drinks over sum­mer. Appar­ently the ‘I’d Do Any­thing For Love’ with its tequila, creme de menthe and car­a­mel is a top seller. I love that des­pite the com­pact­ness of the wine list they offer two rosés, which is very smart for sum­mer. My friend’s ‘Life is a Lem­on’ was deli­cious, the sweet­ness of the mel­on liqueur and marmalade per­fectly bal­anced with the lem­on

life is a lemon cocktail

The menu will be changed four times a year, FYI. I had a din­ner booked after­wards so we did­n’t try any of the food, but I’ll be back. They say they’re open from 12pm-3am every day so they might prove to be a good late night refuge from the messy throngs on the rest of Cour­tenay Place. I don’t know for cer­tain though cos we were there at 5pm on a Fri­day.

Yakisoda

Yakisoda is not actu­ally a new space – it’s the mask that BOL at 99 Vic­tor­ia Street puts on at night.  Although, I’m cur­rently try­ing to find any trace on the inter­net that BOL still exists and I’m fail­ing.  So maybe Yakisoda is becom­ing its per­man­ent skin? There goes what I’d planned to write about how I love popups bring­ing new things to exist­ing spaces and giv­ing people the chance to try some­thing new while mak­ing really effi­cient use of resources. This also explains why I could­n’t see a BOL sign under­neath the Yakisoda one. Ahh hav­ing all the know­ledge and full story and know­ing what we’re talk­ing about, that’s what you come to the Wel­ling­tonista for, right?

But any­way. The interi­or of Yakisoda is small, and very very simple. There’s a couple of coun­ters to sit at, and a couple of tables with stools, and that’s about it. They’ll bring out candles when it starts get­ting dark­er. This is def­in­itely a bar to go to with someone you’re very com­fort­able talk­ing to, because there aren’t a lot of dis­trac­tions. You’d also be fine in here by your­self with a book I reck­on. The staff are very know­ledge­able about their drinks menu and its Japanese/Peruvian inspir­a­tions. And the cock­tails – oh lorde are they gor­geous. I mean, look at this:

an ice cube at Yaki Soda with katakana burned into it

That’s the Mar­ti­nique Milk Punch, made with Agri­cole Rhum – Brown But­ter – Peach – Cla­ri­fied Milk. Appar­ently they make their ice cubes by heat­ing their katakana stamp and push­ing it into the ice cubes. On a hot Wel­ling­ton day, there is noth­ing more beau­ti­ful than the cold rising up off of this. And the drink! It’s so dreamy and smooth and fla­vour­ful. I could have had half a dozen of these and been very happy indeed. Maybe I will next time I’m feel­ing rich ( $16 is a per­fectly nor­mal price for a cock­tail, but six of them would not be in my budget). I also tried the ‘Midori?’ which was a per­fect tangy bal­ance, and it was very simple and pretty too.

a green tinged cocktail

 

Once again, I did­n’t try the food, but the next hot day may very well call for their Kakigori – shaved ice with yuzu and mak­rut lime.