Nov 19, 2021 Metro Eats
Hey everyone,
Someone has to start a ranking of the best places in Auckland central city to eat your food outside without getting hounded by dumbass seagulls and pigeons. I’ll start your work for you: the last place on that list would absolutely be Chancery Square on High St, where I tried to sit down and eat siew yoke (crispy roast pork) on rice out of a container from BBQ Duck Cafe and was subsequently mobbed by them as they slowly descended in my personal bubble and inched closer and closer till they were within “stealing food” proximity. I had to scoff three bites, put the container lid on, wait two minutes for the birds’ attention to be distracted by another family eating McDonalds, and quickly snarf a few more bites. And so on and so on. They eventually ran me outta the Square. As you can tell, this has become a big event in my otherwise very uneventful life.
It has been a bit like that lately, which is why I’ve been known to skip a week sometimes on this newsletter (sorry). But things are, of course, always happening in Auckland. Restaurants will undoubtedly be preparing to open soon, with many already starting to take bookings from 1 December, in hopes that 29 November’s announcement will move us into Red on Tuesday midnight. (Remember that you’ll have to have your vaccine pass in order to dine in.) I have personal complicated feelings about dining in — I went to the mall the other day and the instinctual flinching away from being around other human beings is very real — and I think that’s okay, but I’ve also definitely missed it heaps and heaps, so I can understand the urge to get back into a restaurant. And no asshole seagulls either.
What’s Happening
Good Spirits Hospitality has aquired Nourish Group. Nourish owns places like Soul, Andiamo, Jervois Steak House and the now-closed Euro (though the space will undoubtedly transform into another hospo outfit). Good Spirits mostly has pubs like Danny Doolans and O’Hagans, and it’s the hope that a larger organisation will bring greater economy of scale.
The White Lady is open in St Kevin’s Arcade on Karangahape Rd now for your late-night burger and shake fix.
A new pizza spot, Fratteli’s, is open in Mt Albert. It does sourdough bases.
A pop-up project Sun/Day is popping up again this Monday (at Gemmayze St , St Kevin’s). It serves up delicious-looking chip butties sandwiched in soft bread, plus what looks like fish and/or steak sandwiches? I guess check back on its Instagram on Monday.
Forest (on Symonds St in Eden Terrace) is selling ice-cream again from 2-4pm this Saturday and Sunday, with four new flavours. This is the chocolate cherry blossom frozen yoghurt. Yum.
A new all-day eatery, Slow Lane, is opening at 604 Great South Rd in Greenlane soon, by And Sushi founder Jeff Kim and barista Isaac Yu.
Today’s the last day of Pickle Week, and it may just be too late for a Best Ugly Bagel or Hero Sandwich House , but hopefully you could slide into Lowbrow, Peach’s Hot Chicken or Winner Winner for their pickle special.
I am so curious about the place that seems to be under renovation across from Eden Noodles — it now as “Abalone Romen” on the door, which makes absolutely no sense to me. Anyone know anything about this? There’s also Chinese writing, which may say something different.
I got sent some of the new canned Honest Spirit Cocktails (#gifted) and they tasted dangerously low on the alcohol, with a ginger beer-based infused aromatically with their rum — you can clearly get notes of the spices (clove, cinnamon, nutmeg etc.). It’s a good change from other super-sweet or fruity ready-to-drink cans, very ginger beer forward, with enough citrus to still be light and summery.
Last thing — I got some reader feedback the other day that I don’t talk enough about the North Shore, which somewhat kills me because I’m very much, for better or for worse, a Shore Girl. (As in someone who lived on the Shore for, like, 20 years, not the other thing.) But it’s also more or less true, and is true of many suburbs, not just the North Shore. So if there’s ever anything going on in your part of town that you want me to mention, please just email me! I would love to know.
But talking about the Shore… I did visit my parents this week and saw there’s a new bakery open in Milford called Sabeno Pattisserie, at 70 East Coast Rd. Cakes looked great.
Hang in there,
Jean
