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.