There have been a few recent (re)openings on the hospo scene recently, and a few more are either immin­ent or rumoured. A quick round-up of drinkie and food­ie news, includ­ing drunk­en pigs, an Itali­an inva­sion and a touch of cin­na­mon, after the jump.

- The former Tupelo is set to reopen as a restaurant/bar called “The Watusi”. The menu looks very retro, in a way that may or may not be iron­ic, and the cock­tail menu looks to have been nicked from the not-quite-lamen­ted Pod.

- The long-run­ning Calzone finally closed a little while back, and is under­go­ing a trans­form­a­tion into a res­taur­ant and bar called “The Crafts­man”. From the sound of things, this could be very steak­hou­sey.

- The old Hong Kong Café in Tarana­ki St is now a Carib­bean res­taur­ant called “Calypso”. Deli­cious food (Drunk­en Pig, any­one?), pleas­ant enough cock­tails, but ser­i­ously lack­ing in atmo­sphere. Appar­ently more décor is on the way, and the bam­boo-clad bar at the back is just scream­ing out to for Tiki­fic­a­tion.

- The vacant retail unit in Bond St looks to be open­ing as a licensed café called “Mon Ami”. Tres frog.

- The Cuba St build­ing that once housed Our Bar, Neat, Mon­te­lupo, … Orsin­i’s is now an Indonesian/Malaysian res­taur­ant called “Kayu Manis”. The menu looks slightly broad­er than the stand­ard Wel­ling­ton Malay­si­an cuisine, and the décor’s a touch more upmar­ket. Has any­one tried it yet?

- Part of the retail space under the NZX build­ing on the water­front is on its way to becom­ing a gelato/café place. Insert “frozen assets” joke here.

- The ground floor of Wild­life House (on the corner of Tory & Hol­land streets) is rumoured to be the loc­a­tion for “Osteria del Toro”, a large pizzer­ia and “pan-Medi­ter­ranean” res­taur­ant. An osteria is sup­posed to be “a tav­ern or humble res­taur­ant where wine is served as the main attrac­tion and tasty food is pre­pared to wash it down”, which sounds fine by me, but the job ad’s men­tion of “a concept that com­bines fun, funk, and innov­a­tion” sounds dire.

- The ill-fated (and frankly bizarre) Viet­namese Gallery/Deli/Café on The Ter­race should be reopen­ing this month as La Bella Italia, bring­ing a taste of Petone Italy to down­town Wel­ling­ton. Ciao Bella!