The dish: One for the record

Conch in Ponsonby adds coffee to the music. Picture / Glenn Jeffrey

We've had cafes sprout up in garden centres, fashion boutiques and now - best of all - in a record store.

When Conch music store moved from High St to Ponsonby Rd it decided to branch out. Rather than selling just vinyl, it has added a chic coffee bar.

Co-owner Brent Hollands says the former Conch store "was such a small boutique shop which catered for DJs, radio show hosts and vinyl lovers. People were a bit intimidated by it I think."

The appeal of the Ponsonby store has been broadened with more of a lifestyle concept. There is Huffer clothing, New York T-shirts, ipods, toys, jewellery and knick-knacks. Plus great coffee and gourmet goodies supplied by specialists Savour and Devour.

Hollands is trialling the stand-up style of coffee bar popular in Italy but he says there will be tables and chairs in about a month for those who prefer them.

There are plans to turn a courtyard area at the rear of the store into a cafe area, hopefully by next summer.

Conch is at 115a Ponsonby Rd, ph (09) 360 1999.

Maximum impact

Those out west may already be on to this one, but for the rest of us here is a great new find - Maxim cafe in New Lynn.

Just because it's next door to Les Mills gym doesn't mean the menu is mainly mung-bean stirfries and fruit smoothies. It has one of the most extensive breakfast and lunch menus we've seen. We can highly recommend the enormous vegetarian breakfast as well as the salmon salad.

Extra-friendly waiters pay attention to the finer points - a bottle of sparkling water comes with a lovely stemmed glass full of ice and lemon wedges. Oh, and the coffee - Maxim's own blend - is terrific.

There are other Maxim cafes at Newmarket and Takapuna.

Chefs strike gold

The New Zealand culinary team is celebrating after winning gold and bronze medals at the FHA Culinary Championships in Singapore, part of Asia's biggest international food and hospitality event. The team came fourth overall.

More than 600 chefs from 21 countries took part and it was the first time New Zealand was among them. The gold medal was for the team's "live hot cooking" and the bronze for its "cold table display".

The team includes chefs from Auckland, Christchurch, Queenstown, Timaru and Palmerston North. They trained for four years for their first world competition in 20 years.

An epic debut

A beer which has been on the market just over a week has won top prize at the New Zealand International Beer Awards.

Epic Pale Ale beat 198 other beers from 40 breweries from throughout the world to be judged the supreme champion.

At the awards in Nelson last week, Epic also won a gold medal in the new world pale ale style and the best in class for all pale ales.

The beer was launched only last month and head brewer Luke Nicholas says it is an amazing debut.