A couple of new(ish) bars

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 […]

Family-owned Naumi Hotels open Naumi Studio Hotel on Cuba Street

There’s been a hotel on Cuba Street for as long as I can remember.  In sixth form my very daring sex-having friend booked herself and her boyfriend a room at Trekkers Hotel for after our ball at Cuba Cuba (but she ended up getting too drunk to leave the room).  In the mid naughties, we […]

Drink beer, support the arts with Garage Project Ghost Light beer

Wellington based independent brewery Garage Project has released a new beer to support NZ theatres and live performing arts. Working in conjunction with Wellington’s BATS Theatre, Auckland’s Basement Theatre, Christchurch’s Little Andromeda and other independent theatres around the country, the Ghost Light beer has been designed to reference a tradition in the arts, and be […]

bring me the food

So it’s been a long four weeks or so at Level 4 and at 11:59pm tonight we’ll be going to Level 3. For some people this means they’ll be able to go back to work, with appropriate precautions. For some others, the lucky ones, who were able to work from home during this period, the […]

four women in a tattoo style label

Tasty tastings

Rules around advertising alcohol are pretty strict. That’s why Highball, Wellington’s first spirits & cocktail festival, was not able to tell you that for your $50 entry fee, you would absolutely be able to get your money’s worth of drunk in free samples. So instead it looked like you’d pay a lot of money to […]

Don’t feed dogs chocolate – put it in beer instead

Guest post by Krystle, thanks Krystle! Coffee, chocolate, and beer…these are a few of Wellingtonians’ favorite things – and thanks to a collab, you can now drink a fusion of all three. Local legends Black Dog Brewery and Wellington Chocolate Factory have teamed up to produce the Bean Me Up Mocha Stout. You may be […]

Review: Woop Balance meal

Remember when we reviewed My Food Bag a bunch of years ago? We got approached by another company, and offered one meal. Unfortunately, they sent us shrimp. Have I mentioned lately in every single food review that I’m allergic to shellfish? Luckily I found a taker to make the dinner instead. Thanks Megan, take it […]

Budburst is here to celebrate natural wines – win a double pass

I like any event centered around wine, so I’m really excited about Budburst, coming up on November 11 – the country’s only natural wine festival. Natural wines, you say? What exactly does that mean? Well let’s cut’n paste from the press release Historically, the term natural wine is without a single definition. For the Budburst […]

A sausagefest with Harrington’s at Logan Brown

As should be obvious by now, we love a free dinner here at the Wellingtonista. So when we were invited by Harrington’s Smallgoods to dinner at Logan Brown, of course we said yes. It ended up being one of the more interesting dinners I’ve been to in my life so this review is going to […]

Graze at the Portlander

A couple of weeks ago I was invited by the lovely people at the Portlander to head in one freezing evening, along with a number of Instagrammers, to feast on their new grazing concept. From our signature long bone OP rib-eye presented at your table, to our on the bone grass fed Sirloin dry aged in house […]