HELENE RAVLICH: LOCALS LOVING LOCAL

It’s been said before and it will most definitely be said again: the past year has been one that we could never have planned for - and the pandemic’s impact on the global hospitality scene has been monumental.

Favourite restaurants have been forced to close due to lost revenue, whilst others have pivoted (to use a well-worn cliché) to a whole new business model. Things have definitely changed, but hope is on the horizon with new openings a plenty and much deliciousness to be had.

In order to celebrate and highlight our own local hospitality heroes, we asked some of our favourite local people to name their top picks from around our inner central neighbourhood. Read on, take note, and get planning that next date now.

Chlöe Swarbrick, MP for Central Auckland and member of the Green Party of Aotearoa Conch has been a staple for me over the last few years: the staff are phenomenal and the food underrated. There’s good craft beer on tap and great outdoor cubbies in which to catch up with mates.

Allpress Espresso always nails the perfect cuppa. Pat and the team will always look after you!

Beau, one of the new kids on the block, has managed to weather the Covid storm and much-mythicized first year in hospo with a dedicated community of loyalists. Diva and the team offer quick wit with natural wine recommendations. Their space from the outdoor frontage on Ponsonby Road through to the minimalist indoors and sunny (and thankfully covered, given the weather changes coming) backyard is legendary for mini events.

OPEN café at the top of Karangahape Road, next to the petrol station has just debuted ‘mugly,’ to reduce single-use wastage from coffee cups, and have an awesome worker-ownership-stakeholder model. Also, their collaboration with the likes of Awhina Mai Tatou Katoa to provide a space to cook and bring together the community, including rough sleepers, for a classic boil-up is just so cool.

I also have to shout out the unapologetically staunch Coco’s Cantina sisters, Renee and Damaris, for the community they’ve built around beautiful pasta, pizza and Italian-inspired fare.

Melanie Roger, owner of Melanie Roger Gallery I love Postal Service Café. You’ll find me there most mornings getting my daily long black... or two.

Wise Boys craft the best vegan burgers in Ponsonby (possibly the world), whilst Megan May’s take on plant-based food that strips it right back to the raw ingredients at Little Bird is always inspiring. She doesn’t try to create meat alternatives, instead creates innovative flavour juxtapositions and freshness that leave you feeling healthy.

Ramen Takura is a favourite for its slurpy bowls of noodles and yummy sides. We always share, and they are happy to make small adjustments for vegetarians and vegans. Ask for a booth out the back if you can – the best seats in the house. Lokanta on Richmond Road is my favourite little ‘go-to’ local eatery - totally unpretentious and always delicious.

Further afield I love Cotto. Why make pasta when they do the most perfect version – and Gemmayze Street on Karangahape Road. The Jeeb menu at the latter is one of my favourite ways to eat, with the staff bringing plates of deliciousness to share. It’s a great way to try lots of flavours and without the need to even think about your order!

Wise Boys Little Bird

Odettes

Tāne Tomoana, super stylist and creative director for Dry & Tea One of the biggest positives of living in the greater Ponsonby area is the culinary fare on offer to suit all tastes and budgets. With trends lending themselves to more of a hustle and bustle, loud atmospheric dining setting with shared plates and large groups, Ponsonby is perfect for your next night out, and the options are endless.

For a special night, I absolutely love Sidart. Chef Sid has gone beyond art on a plate and creates food that is even more bold and colourful than before. A true dining experience!

For an easy casual evening out I can’t go past Lilian in West Lynn and Ada in The Convent Hotel. Both are new additions to the area but instant superstars! Breakfast and brunch is always at Ozone Coffee Roasters.

My go-to for cheap and cheerful eats is Uncle Man on Karangahape Road for amazing Malaysian and the best roti in town. And a lazy Sunday always lends itself to a pie or a roll - and a Powerade – from the iconic Busy Oven Bakery on Richmond Road.

The dishes that are rocking my world at the moment are the simple woodfired bread at Lilian (I usually order another) and the scampi, scallop, smoked eel, panipuri at Sidart - it is a vibe!

Poi Eruera who is a veteran of the Ponsonby food scene and currently at Odette’s Eatery is definitely my favourite hospo person, along with the fabulous Chand Sahrawat.

Kristine Crabb, designer, Gloria We don’t eat out that much as I love to cook, and the kids prefer staying in, but I also love an excuse to go out.

My favourite right now is Ockhee. The aesthetic is so fresh and clean, and the fare is unique and satisfying in a soul food kinda way. There is a real chic and welcoming energy there and everything I have tried is divine. I love that they add new dishes to the menu regularly, too. The

seaweed noodle salad is next level in texture and flavour, and the one dish I’m dying to try is Traditional Korean Royal Porridge, made with fresh handpicked chestnuts. It can’t get any better the that!

I love Prego too; it always feels great going there and I love the lowkey people watching. The cibo is always on point, as are the fabulous people who run the joint.

We also love Bestie Cafe in St Kevin’s Arcade on Karangahape Road, and we are so excited for its new Ponsonby cafe. I find their menu really fresh with inspiring takes on classic fare, always served with lovely hospitality and much deliciousness.

I’ve only been once to their first night, but I’m keen to hang more at Soap Dancehall in Beresford Square - cool music, dancing and cheap drinks, beautiful folks…

Kirsty Gregg, personal trainer at re:ab on Selbourne We live nearby and can’t get enough of Hidden Village in Ponsonby Central. Their tofu pancakes and coconut salad are amazing! Also at Ponsonby Central, MamaZing kombucha is out of this world!

I love Ockhee for the Chun Sa Chae noodle salad and zucchini chips, and always Orphan’s Kitchen for breakfast. It has great coffee, crazy cake-like crumpets served with their own roof top honey; and I have to mention the always awesome service.

Azabu is a favourite for the best cabbage in town and their legendary tuna tostada, whilst Andiamo’s mocktails are perfect on a sundrenched afternoon.

Orphan’s Kitchen

Prego

Azabu

Tom Sainsbury, actor and comedian I go to Josy Cafe on Williamson Avenue all the time. It’s just so wonderfully unpretentious. You go there and have a coffee and have a work meeting or a catch up with a friend, and then just chill with an avocado and tomato bagel. They also do an amazing vegan buddha bowl.

Khu Khu on Ponsonby Road is my restaurant (and Uber Eats venue) of choice. The staff are so sweet, and the plant-based food is amazing. I recommend the ‘oyster’ stir-fry. I don’t know what’s in that sauce but it’s out of control good.

Whenever I want to impress someone I take them to Est. 1901 for cocktails. It’s got really cute decor; you can sit in a little booth,

Khu Khu

order the full array of elegant drinks and then get down to some good conversation. We really enjoyed the ‘Empress’ cocktail last time we went.

Azabu Vicki Taylor, designer, Taylor and owner of The Shelter On a weekday morning - be it a work meeting or just a transition into a work headspace - a coffee (or and kawakawa tea) at Orphans Kitchen is the perfect way to greet the day.

My all-time dinner favourite has to be Azabu. I love sitting at the bar overlooking the kitchen with Mark and watching those amazing chefs create their magic.

Khu Khu

Farina is the only choice for when I need a taste of real Italian fare - especially as Italy itself has not been possible! I love the easy greeting you get as a local, and while all of the food is just amazing, the sardines are a must.

I love Ada at The Convent Hotel from the decor to the food, and although I haven’t been to Daphne’s Taverna as yet, it’s next on my list. I can’t wait to see what the amazing Clare and Joost have created this time.

We love weekend breakfasts at Buoy Cafe at Westhaven marina on a beautiful sunny morning – eating great food nestled amongst the boats is such a treat. Ginette really is a Ponsonby icon.

And for Sunday afternoon drinks with friends we meet at Annabel’s wine bar. It’s such a wonderful neighbourhood addition and an easy walking distance from home.

It sounds like I eat out far too much, which we probably do, but that’s why we love Ponsonby!

Ross M. Thorby, mayor of Franklin Road Well…where to start? My day, like most Ponsonbyites, revolves around my favourite cafes, and my breakfast coffee is always at Dizengoff. There are always plenty of papers to read.

My next morning coffee will be at Little Garden at the top of Franklin Road; Leila must be the most popular manager on the strip!

My afternoon coffee is always Foxtrot Parlour at Ponsonby Central - where everybody knows your name – and my regular go-to for dinner is Midnight Gardener for its superb dumplings and margaritas.

Kara Sweney, owner of Yoga Ground and PR consultant My go-to for catch ups after yoga or meetings with clients for my PR job is always Ozone. It’s such a lovely space and there is a really friendly atmosphere there. The real clincher though is the kahawai on toast. I literally order it 9/10 times I go there. I’ll diverge on the odd occasion to the banana bread, but as a savoury girl that deal is sealed by the salted butter.

I’m so delighted and excited about having Ada and The Convent Hotel in our neighbourhood. It is quite a unique addition to the Auckland scene and Ada is my absolute favourite destination now, for so many reasons: amazing building and fit-out, delicious menu, great service and an awesome evening vibe. The Endive with hazelnut brown butter is my top pick on the current menu. So yummy! I don’t want it to end. And I can never go past the pork belly.

Kathryn Wilson, shoe designer

We love Daphne’s Taverna, which is officially our new local as we can walk there from home. The taramasalata is a favourite.

Extra dirty martinis from Prego are a must, especially when it comes to getting us through an early kid’s dinner on a Sunday!

An early morning walk through nearby Western Park with our dog Toby Ray is usually followed by a takeaway coffee from Longshot. We get our fresh bread during the week from Daily Bread, and we often indulge in weekend baguettes from Hook.

SPQR is always the go-to for a girls long lunch in the sunshine, or earlier in the day when I’m feeling healthy, a breakfast date at Little Bird for the sprouted bread with mushrooms is essential. Yum! (HELENE RAVLICH)  PN

Dizengoff’s famous chicken salad

Little Garden

This month, I am looking at a selection of wines from Marlborough’s Astrolabe family winery. They are all available from Caro’s wines.

Maybe like me, you have seen the Astrolabe brand in the past. Their labels are exquisitely designed and convey a sense of elegance and quality. Shout out to the marketing team! (Well done. Ask for a wage rise). Now my first question is - what does Astrolabe mean? I tended to imagine an orbiting international space laboratory.

Well – here you go for the official version from their website: An astrolabe is an ancient astronomical instrument that was used to make a diverse range of calculations. Its name translates as ‘star-taker’. A mariner’s astrolabe, modified for use upon a ship, was used by early navigators to determine latitude by measuring the altitude of a celestial object. French explorer Dumont d’Urville charted the Marlborough coast in 1827 aboard a ship named L’Astrolabe. When career winemaker Simon Waghorn wanted to start his own label in 1996, he chose the name Astrolabe because of the historic ties with Marlborough, and he liked the connotations of exploration and discovery.

Astrolabe Kekerengu Coast Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc 2020 - $29.99 Grown south of Kaikoura near Clarence on the east coast of Marlborough. Suitably mineral and with a whiff of salty air. Intense burst of freshly squeezed black currant on the palate, with a bone-dry crisp finish. Goes with seafood or a creamy pasta with salty cheese.

Astrolabe Taihoa Vineyard Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc 2017 - $36.99 Softer than the Kekerengu Coast but grown on the same property. More gooseberry and grapefruit, with a hint of creaminess from barrel fermentation and lees stirring (yeast residue). A lovely wine by itself as an aperitif style. Lots going on to entertain the palate.

Astrolabe Wrekin Marlborough Chenin Blanc 2018 - $31.99 A classical take on chenin blanc, very much in the style of the Loire Valley French chenin wines. At 14% alcohol, it’s an elegant and restrained style, with Granny Smith apple, clover honey, green capsicum and a dry tangy finish.

Astrolabe Marlborough Chardonnay 2018 - $31.99 Pale gold, with a funky nose. Flavours of nectarine, peach and toasted hazelnut. Flinty and funky with heaps of complexity and a lengthy finish. Match with your best take on Mac ‘n’ Cheese.

Astrolabe Sleepers Vineyard Marlborough Albariño 2018 - $29.99 Flinty, mineral and bone dry. Subtle hints of apricot with a hint of salty Kekerengu Coast soils. Would appeal to those who love a crisp ‘wake up’ style sauvignon blanc. A great match for oysters.

Astrolabe Wrekin Vineyard Marlborough Pinot Noir 2019 - $64.99 From a hot vintage, this pinot is big and bold, with assertive tannins and a dry savoury palate of black tea, cigar smoke and dark chocolate. Would reward cellaring for 5 years at least. Match with rare eye fillet, slow-cooked lamb shanks or a rich ratatouille. (PHIL PARKER)  PN

www.finewinetours.co.nz

FINE WINE & FOOD TOURS

“No. 2 Auckland Wine Tour” – TripAdvisor

Your host, Phil Parker wine writer.

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E: phil.parker@xtra.co.nz www.finewinetours.co.nz

FACES AT GREY LYNN FARMERS MARKET

Urban beekeeper, Vicky Simonson, can be found selling her raw honey at our market on most Sundays.

Where did you grow up? I’m a real Westie - first in Huia, then we moved to Te Atatu when I was a teenager. I have been there ever since.

What do you love about West Auckland? The people of course. I love the community and have strong roots here. I love the beaches and spend a lot of time walking our dog, Indy, at Kakamatua Inlet, near Cornwallis. When I was younger the bush walks were big for me.

How did you get into keeping bees? We have one of the last quarter-acre sections in our area with lots of fruit trees. We started with a couple of hives to bring bees in for our trees and veggie garden.

How many hives do you have now? Seventy! Each spring there is the potential to make a new hive when they swarm, we split hives to try and prevent swarming, as part time beekeepers seventy is our manageable limit. We also get calls from people who spot swarms and they are always relieved when we re-home swarming bees.

Where are your hives? The first place we spread was a friend’s orchard in Oratia, and now we have also set up hives in backyards around West Auckland. People like having bees in their backyard pollinating their trees and gardens. And they get some honey without the hard work.

So honey is a highly seasonal business? Yes. Our lives are ruled by the bee seasons. At the moment we are wintering down the hives in preparation for the cooler season. When spring arrives they will start getting very buzzy; the new bees hatch and the whole season starts again.

How do you harvest the honey? It’s a labour-intensive process. The frames from the hives are spun in a honey extractor, then the honey is sieved before it goes into jars. We make sure that we leave plenty of honey for the bees to eat over winter. The bees work hard to produce the honey, and we reckon that they deserve to reap the benefits of their hard work. All our hives are numbered and we harvest each hive separately so that you can tell, from the number on the jar, which hive the honey comes from.

Wow - that is ultimate traceability. Do any customers ask for honey from specific hives? Actually a few do. There are a lot of anecdotal reports of hyperlocal raw honey helping hayfever sufferers. Some of our customers request honey from hives close to their home and they say it helps. I just wish someone would do formal research to confirm this.

How do you use honey? We use honey for everything. The kids have honey on their Weetbix. If they have a sore throat, I give them honey. I use it in baking. It makes a great face mask, and I usually have a honey, ginger and lemon drink on the go for most of the day. I make wax wraps and we use bees wax for coating the frames in the hive ready for a new colony.

How does the market fit into your business? It’s important for people to have a chance to taste the different honeys because they are all really different. I love being able to talk to people about what goes into producing the honey. And I really enjoy the vibe of the market. It’s a fun place to hang out on a Sunday morning.

You have five young children, a dog, and your husband is a builder - how do you fit this all in? Yes, we have five children aged 2 to 12 and they are all such individuals. It is super busy but I don’t sweat the small stuff and I enjoy the crazy fun of family life. And we get a lot of support from friends and family which makes it all possible.

Do you ever get a chance to have time off? Not much, but we like to go out fishing when we can, or visit the extended family’s bach. And we have a family trip planned to Queenstown at the end of the year.  PN tirimoanahoney.co.nz

GREY LYNN FARMERS MARKET @ the Grey Lynn Community Centre, 510 Richmond Road, www.glfm.co.nz

Framingham Band

CELEBRATING NZ MUSIC MONTH AT GLENGARRY

We’re joining in the celebration of New Zealand’s surging music scene, still alive and kicking despite everything 2020 threw at it.

We’re launching NZ Music Month at our Glengarry Victoria Park store on Tuesday 4 May from 4:40pm. There’ll be food and drink and all sorts of interesting people hanging about. Everybody’s favourite music store, the Rock Shop is, through their associate company KBB Music, putting a grand piano and someone to play it in our store for the event, where it will stay for the duration of NZ Music Month as various luminaries pop in to work the keys. Meanwhile, all of our Glengarry stores will be running nothing but Kiwi music for the whole of the month.

On Saturday 26 May from 4 pm there will be a free pop-up live event with a performance at Glengarry Victoria Park.

Starting from the 3 May, the champs at the Rock Shop are donating one instrument a week to be won, and we’re not talking tambourines! All you have to do to get into the draw is tell us via our Facebook page and Instagram your favourite New Zealand artist or band, and you’re in.

There’ll be a Vinyl Market at Glengarry Victoria Park on Saturday 26 May between 11am and 4pm, and we’ll be conducting video tastings combined with live music.

Two key partners behind all this are Framingham and Tito’s, both of whom have a long association with MusicHelps. This year is no different, with both companies donating a portion of the sale of each bottle to the charity. Through their grants programme MusicHelps have invested with partners in projects from Whangarei to Invercargill, all using the power of music to change the lives of tens of thousands of New Zealanders in need. They have provided emergency assistance to hundreds of Kiwi music people experiencing hardship and illness through their backline suite of services. This includes a professional online, on-the-phone, and face-to-face counselling service tailored to people who make live and recorded music possible.

Partnering with skilled clinicians, MusicHelps support projects in healthcare, including music therapy and initiatives that engage with youth from troubled backgrounds. They provide assistance through their benevolent fund and their professional wellbeing and counselling service to Kiwi music people from all parts of the music industry who are experiencing illness, distress and hardship. They need your support: musichelps.org.nz

Mark these dates in your calendar now; • Vinyl Market – come buy and sell at Glengarry Victoria Park,

Saturday 22 May 11am – 4pm.

• Live gig – FREE at Glengarry Victoria Park, Saturday 22 May from 4pm.

• Weekly from 3 May – join the conversation about NZ Music via

Glengarry’s social media and go in the draw to win epic instruments donated by the Rockshop.

Make the choice and tune into NZ music this month, all Glengarry stores will be.  PN

www.glengarrywines.co.nz

NZ MUSIC MONTH

SUPPORTING LOCAL