Not to be confused with “Best Coffee”. This category is about the sort of place you go for brunch on a Sunday morning. Good coffee is important, but so is good food.
Blood may be thicker than water, but coffee is pretty much more important than blood. We pump our veins full at these places.
What’s happened to Offbeat Originals?
A sign has appeared on the door of the TAWA-nominated cafe advising the popular joint is "closed until further notice".
This news has thrown the Wellington beatnik and hipster community into a disarray. Where will we go for our toasties, tofu burgers and peanut butter and chocolate shakes? Where will we sit in the sun listening to bangin’ old punk?
A Facebook group called Save Offbeat Originals has been created, hinting that perhaps an evil corporation has something to do with it.
But at this stage, we still don’t know what’s behind Offbeat’s sudden closure. If you have any info, leave a comment.
Sometime last week I took my sister to lunch at Foxglove. We both started with the caramelised onion soup in a cob bowl with gruyere cheese and white truffle, which was less liquid than we expected, but it was delicious. Just look at it:
It was pretty filling just by itself, so I was anticipating a small portion for my main. Instead, I got two glorious bits of beer battered market fish with green pea gribiche (which is pretty much just tartar sauce) AND then they brought out fries and salad to go with it. Yum!
My sister, meanwhile, had confit chicken leg with crayfish ravioli and mushroom cream.
What I tried of it was tasty, with a surprise citrus zing. Our Magrain Sav was delicious as well, full size portions served in full size glasses (take note, Finc!). Service was great, until we tried to pay, and were left floundering for about ten minutes while we were also waiting for our coffees to go, because lunch had taken about an hour and twenty minutes. Others have complained that the ferns by the door are smelly, but we were on the other side of the restaurant so we didn’t notice. Based on the quality of the food, and the generous servings of it, I would definitely return to Foxglove, as long as I had plenty of time to spare.
On Monday night my sister and I went to our first Wellington on a Plate event – the way sold-out (they added a couple more sessions even) Cupcakes and Cocktails at Martha’s Pantry. Given that neither of us is a slouch in the kitchen or bar, we weren’t sure how much we’d actually learn from the event, but since cupcakes and cocktails are two of our favourite things, we thought we’d give it a go. And when we walked in the door and saw that the McKenzie brothers were doing the mixing, we knew we were in safe hands.
I figure I’ll do this post basically just a series of cupcake porn photos. You don’t mind, do you? Good.
This was what was waiting for each of us at the tables – sandwiches to nibble on, cupcakes, icing and the cupcake recipe. We were also given Winter Pimms Punch to drink.
We had a couple of demonstrations about different ways to pipe, and were let loose on our own cocktails.
You can see here that we had varying techniques and levels of success with that.
Then, before too much icing could accidently end up in our mouths, Justin McKenzie, wearing one blue glove that was kind of creepy let us in on the magic formula for cocktails: two parts strong, one part sweet, one part sour. It’s so simple, I wasted all that money in Hooch and Hawthorne and Cuckoo for nothing!
For my first Wellington on a Plate meal deal, I decided to go to Finc, with the delightful company of a friend I’d just seen killed twice on Saturday night. People have differing opinions about Finc, but for myself, I’ve always found it great in the evenings and very average at lunchtimes. For pork belly, I would take the plunge.
As my first taste of Burger Wellington, I decided to check out The Greenman because I had errands in the area, and their offering sounded quite delicious:
Whiskey and Maple Lamb Burger
Local lamb patty with lettuce, tomato and pineapple salsa on a shawarma bun, served with fries
I spent two weeks living on the 28th floor of a hotel in Tokyo when I was ten, and ever since then, I have been obsessed with hotels. As you probably know, here at the Wellingtonista, we’re also very fond of free food and drink, so when the Travelodge invited us to for Cocktails & Canapes, of course we responded enthusiastically.
The Travelodge is off Glimer Terrace, going up and down the Plimmer Steps. It used to be the Copthorne, but for the past year it’s been part of the (Australian) Toga Hospitality. The rooms have all been done up, and then their function areas, and finally Steps Restaurant, so they threw themselves a shindig to celebrate.
When we arrived, navigating a maze of escalators and lifts up from Lambton Quay, I was momentarily all atwitter with "Wine is NOT a cocktail, dammit!" but then I realised that we were drinking bubbly with strawberry liqueur in it, and that does indeed count, so I retract my tweet. The canapes, meanwhile, were delicious. Vegetable tempura was hot and amazingly crisp, lamb meatballs super flavoursome, the prawns looked good if you like that sort of thing, crostini were plentiful and the pork belly with apple sauce was a nice idea although it could have been a bit more crackled. And then after speeches, out came dessert canapes – fruit tarts, mini pavlovas and truly excellent brownies. It was a great range of food, and there was mountains of it, ferried around by lovely staff. Based on that, I would have no hesitation in recommending Steps Restaurant for a function if you are looking for a hotel environment.
So winter kinda sucks, and the economy sucks, and the government sucks, and everything pretty much sucks. Except oh wait, do you know what doesn’t suck? Tea and cakes and good company! So as the first of a series of posts of Cheering Upness, we’d like to recommend that you book yourself and an adored friend in for High Tea at Martha’s Pantry, a lovely little place at the top of Cuba Street that has oldschool tea cups and all kinds of girlie pretty stuff on display. You’ll need to give them 24 hours notice, but for $20 each, this is an aproximation of what you’ll get:
You also get to choose your tea from a range of like 20 varieties. I can recommend the Earl Grey, the South African Honey Chai, and Vanilla Roobios, but the mint and lemon kawa kawa weren’t as awesome as I had hoped they would be. While you eat and drink, we suggest that you discuss ways to save the world, and also just relax and enjoy yourselves. Lovely.