Herald rating: * * * 1/2
Address: 6-10 Roukai Lane, Britomart
Phone: (09) 309 5852
Open: Mon-Sat 11am-late
Cuisine: Brasserie
Vegetarian: Pastas, salads, sandwiches
Wine list: Top of the class
You know it's tough times when ... You ring a restaurant and, instead of the maitre d' telling you, "We can fit you in at 6 or at 8.30," she says, "Of course we have a table for two at 7.30," and "We'll be delighted to see you". And when
the bill is slightly less than next month's mortgage.
In London, Tom Aikens, Anthony Worrall Thompson and Jean Christophe-Novelli have turned off the stoves. Some 141 restaurants went under in the last quarter of 2008; in January alone, 108 crashed. In New York eating out's down 15 to 40 per cent: to combat the crisis, the 21 Club has abandoned its 75-year-old rule that men wear ties at dinner. Same from Hong Kong to Paris, Sydney to anywhere.
And in Auckland? One hears enough to think that anyone opening a new venture must be ... ah, brave.
Or from Christchurch. Johnny de Monchy, Dana Johnston and the other four owners run the tres hip Cartel down there, and last week revealed Racket, a late-night bar, and A&M, a lunchtime eatery and evening tapas-wine bar in Roukai Lane. You won't find it on the maps: this newly created alley, with immense outdoor fireplace, maples, tables and chairs at the Urban Loft end of Britomart, hasn't got a street sign yet.
The lady I am lunching with hails from points south. She recognises the waiter as we walk into A&M, for "Agents and Merchants", with restrained, old-world dark-wood decor and furniture, figured wine racks and heavy blinds (presumably so the boss can't time the length of the lunch from the office windows). It looks rather like a 19th century gentleman's office, or a flash pub from a similar era.
While they exchange "Where did you used to work?", "Did you go to Boys' High?" and "How 'bout them Crusaders?", I show considerably more interest in a voluminous and very well brought-up wine list. It contains 200 excellent examples of the craft from the Old and New Worlds.
We settle for a Pelorus bubbly, though the waiter brings his first customer something different but no less acceptable, and an adequate Bordeaux. The list is long on bottles but short on glasses and you may struggle to choose something under double figures. We may be recession-dining but not recession-drinking.
The menu reads very well, too. It reads very well because it's one of those where every ingredient comes with an adjective - aged cheese, wagyu beef, tender smoked salmon, you know the sort of thing. You may even believe some of it. Pastas and risottos, salads and sandwiches and grills.
Herself enjoyed a very nice salmon steak with dices of veges on top and a healthy salad ($18). In a shameless bid to attract Viva's metrosexual readership I tucked into a burger ($18) that had been deconstructed like the Jean Batten Building and happily re-constructed it with knife and fork into the usual sustenance. Beef, a powerful aioli, strips of extremely crispy bacon, what seemed to be ciabatta, mesclun and ... bugger, shoestring fries. I'm strictly a straight- cut man.
There were only two desserts ($10), cheesecake with blueberries and a brulee, so we were able to examine both and pronounce them ordinary.
A&M is so new that the blokes in too-short shorts and T-shirts were still drilling and screwing things, though that didn't distract as much as the music, too loud and jagged and drum'n'bassy for lunchtime chat.
Early days. Nice look, nice feel, very nice wines. Food? Like the decor, flash pub grub. Should go back for the tapas, and check out A&M in the p.m.