Review: Lagerfield
Last year, for the second time in a row, Team Wellingtonista won the Webstock Pub Quiz (we intend to win it this year too, by the way). Our prize was a $300 tab for Lagerfield at 21 Blair Street. Having been there late at night when it was full of munters, I was not overwhelmed with enthusiasm, but as it turns out, it was a lovely experience.
On a horribly rainy night, perching at a high banquette table under a heater was a good place to be, especially as the lovely staff told us to let them know if it got too hot. The circular booths that were a key feature of The Last Supper Club may be gone, but the wavey ceiling remains to make the space more interesting, with dark wood adding to the warmth. It’s a shame that there were TVs on, featuring polo, and the music was from the ’80s, but not unbearably so, especially after a little wine.
We started on a bottle of Akarua Rose ($40), and an OldRoaring Meg Pinot Noir ($55), we happily discovered an St. Hallet’s Gamekeeper’s Shiraz which at $35 was one of the cheapest on the list, but was fully flavoured and yum, and so we got through quite a few bottles after that. It made for very happy mouthfuls when paired with the blue cheese and crispy proscuitto entree ($12). Fries and gravy weren’t amazing, but the Drinkers’ Platter of dumplings, prawns, spring rolls, samosas, bread and four dips at $15 was exceptional value. The cheese gratin was a solid hotpot in which to dip crusty bread, and I’m told that the chicken liver parfait was very tasty too.
Lunchtime Willis Wander
If you are working near Willis Street today you could use your lunch hour to sample two very different exhibitions.
The Japanese Embassy on Level 18 and 19 of the Magestic Centre on 100 Willis Street is always worth a visit to give you that thrill of surveying the city from the floor to ceiling glass windows of a shiny tall building.
Today is the last day of the a photography exhibition at the Japanese embassy, Gazing at the Contemporary World: Japanese Photography from the 1970s to the Present.
Crossing the road you can visit a sound installation that has been set up in vacant commercial space at 141 Willis Street. Popular Archeology: A Sound Archive is one part of larger project called Letting Space that is looking pretty exciting.
Popular Archeology is focused on redundant technology and is constructed with a variety of tape decks playing tape loops of disintegrating fragments of New Zealand singles that made the top 10 between 1967 and 1994 in a wall of sound comprising over 30 tape players. You have until 9 May to catch this show but it would make a nice juxtaposition with the show across the road for today only.
When is a shop not a shop?
When it’s a Pop-Up Shop, of course.
Right now in Thorndon, Wellington’s first Handmade Pop-Up Shop has arrived. It opened on the 13th of April and closes again on the 1st of May. Each day the shop features a different artist or crafter showcasing all their lovely creations.
Pop-Up Shops are traditonally places where retailers offload sale or discounted stock, but this shop is pretty much the opposite. It’s about a home for beautifuly designed and handmade things, with a real focus on the person behind the product.
You can find the Pop-Up Shop at 302 Tinakori Road, Thorndon.
What’s the real reason the Miss Universe pageant has moved to Wellington?
Last year the Miss Universe New Zealand pageant was held in Levin. Which makes sense, because Levin is actually pretty much the centre of the universe, based on the laws of gravity and denseness and all that kind of sciencey stuff. And this kind of shocking behaviour happened at the event:
The beauty queens sashayed their way through Levin and Paraparaumu shopping malls last year, leaving elderly shoppers agog.
But this year, the pageant is moving to Wellington:
Event organiser Val Lott has instead opted to hold the final in Wellington after a "gorgeous" day out at the Wellington Cup. "The [Levin] event centre was not set up well enough. The catering was not up to standard. It cost a dreadful amount of money," Mrs Lott said.
But one commentator on the article suggests that there is a much deeper conspiracy going on:
I think this is all complete rubbish, and the organiser just wants to glam the thing up and get rid of the ruggeds that might otherwise have attended.
So what exactly is going on here? Are we through the looking glass? Do we even need to mention Terry Serepisos here, given that it’s Donald Trump who owns the Miss Universe franchise?
Answer the poll – The Miss Universe Pageant is moving to Wellington because:
And you thought we were joking about the Octopus threat?
Earlier this month we read about an octopus off the South Coast that mugged an innocent diver and took his valuable new camera. The news flashed around the world and everyone had a bit of a chuckle at the diver’s expense.
Not so fast, laughing boys (and girls).
It turns out that this is but the latest episode in a long history of criminal behaviour by the city’s cephalopod citizenry.
We need only look at another, earlier encounter between a Wellingtonian and a rogue octopus to prove the point. An encounter that, just like our earlier story made world headlines… but back in 1888.
Read on, after the jump.
I’m a Slave for you
[video:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=toWIjjTadB8]Anyone remember this guy? The self-same enterprising young man has been seen with an assortment of HI-VIZ clad worker types, some waiters and a guitar stumming up interest in an event rather shockingly entitled: "the Wellington Charity SLAVE AUCTION". Don’t worry folks, it is all above board and for a damn good cause. Tomorrow at Queens Wharf Square businesses will be donating services (and products) that will be auctioned off to benefit the Skylight Trust.
A sample of the services on offer:
- $1000 Pyrotechnics / fireworks display
- 6 hours of top-rate nanny services
- 2 x male waiters for 2 hours
- 16 hours building / landscape work
- $700 Beauty spa treatment
A sample of the products on offer (start from $5):
- $300 basket of GHD products
- $100 wine from Te Kairanga
- 3 month Dominion Post subscription
Entertainment will be provided by Sasha Vee so if you feel like opening your wallet for a good cause get on down from 11.00am until 1.30pm.
Check out the full list of what is on offer here.
Predictive Bussing
We’ve long dreamed of being able to time our morning cornflakes to the actual arrival time of our bus, rather than having to wait 20 minutes outside a jammed bus shelter during a howling southerly storm.
The dream goes a little like this. You’re having your coffee and your phone softly blips. You look down. A message says your bus is 3 minutes behind schedule and will be at your stop in exactly 8 minutes. You have time to finish your coffee before you grab your coat and go. And you arrive at the bus stop at exactly the right time.
Luckily for us this is, in time, becoming a reality.
Read on to to find out why…
Good bastards like you to drink vodka
42Below’s founder Geoff Ross has written a book with his wife Justine about the story behind the vodka called Every Bastard Says No. They’re having a book launch this Friday at the’Ho that’s supposedly invite-only but we bet you could sneak in if you were smart enough. In order to promote the book, I got to interview Geoff and Justine via email (my choice, things are crazy hectic this week at the Wellingtonista towers), but of course since it’s not released until April 30, I wasn’t sure what to ask. Various Wellingtonistas helpfully suggested I should enquire about the War Memorial Scandal – but that’s not related to the book – or the allegedly homophobic ad campaign in the USA, but I know nothing about that. And I don’t want to risk having my opportunities for free booze taken away from me. I’m a blogger, not a journalist, after all. So, after the jump, I lob some soft balls at them, and Justine in particular impresses me with her love for Wellington.
Questions and answers with Geoff
1. Why did you start with vodka? What is it about the spirit that drew you to it?
I drunk it. And actually more specially I saw more and more Vodka Cocktails emerging. Vodka is the Switzerland of Spirits – it goes with anything. And with the re birth of cocktails I could see it being the universal ingredient. Also New Zealand seemed it might have some cred with Vodka. We couldn’t do Tequila or Scotch because of Provence – but Vodka kind of fitted. (someone once told me New Zealand was the Sweden of the South pacific)
When are you people going to realise that the octopus threat is real?
We’ve all heard the stories about how there was a tank at Wellington Airport with an octopus in it and another tank with fishes in it, and the fish started disappearing and no one knew why until one night security cameras filmed the octopus climbing out of its tank and into the fish tank and eating the fish. Now we have yet more evidence shot off the South Coast that OCTOPUSES ARE EVIL AND THEY ARE GOING TO KILL US ALL IN OUR BEDS WHILE WE SLEEP. Consider yourself warned.
[video:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x5DyBkYKqnM]Help is Coming
