The Six Best New Bars to Enjoy This Autumn

Just because the weather doesn't know what it's doing doesn't mean that neither should you.
Stephen Heard
March 26, 2015

Summer is behind us and the prospect of sipping on an icy beverage, knees deep in salt water is fading on the horizon.

While the sun still has a feisty zing, there’s a cool breeze lingering. It’s called Autumn and it’s confusing. Should we be yearning for cool cocktails or warm spirits? Should we be wearing t-shirts or turtlenecks? Nobody knows.

From a nautically themed seafood shack with a five-star Mai Thai, to an exclusive club with sparkly views of the Auckland waterfront and tap-poured Negroni, here are the best new bars that have popped up across the city to help you forget about the climate confusion.

1. The Crab Shack

Through the combination of glass house sheltering, nautical decorations and the Waitemata Harbour lapping at your ankles, Simon Gault’s seafood eatery The Crab Shack on Princes Wharf is the perfect place to relax on a sunny/rainy day. The drinks menu looks like something from an island tiki bar: Caipirinha, Pina Colada, Daiquiriand Blue Lagoon and other mostly easily recognisable names form part of the set of beach classics. Apparently the recipe for their Mai Thai was stolen from a five-star hotel in Hawaii, which had laid claim to making the best in North America. The food is equally as brilliant and arrives when it pleases and leaves when you’re done with it, creating a nice grazing and communal atmosphere.

21 Princes Wharf, Viaduct Harbour

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2. Sweat Shop Brew Kitchen

Sweat Shop Brew Bar is the new handle of the roomy, much-loved bar/restaurant Sales Street. The building underwent a refit last year and has re-opened with a new menu, a new look, ping pong tables and a shiny new beer rig that is spitting out around four times more beer than before. The boutique in-house brewery serves house-brewed American pale ale and lager on tap, as well as some truly delicious-sounding cocktails. There's also a long wine list and the standard offering of mainstream drinks for the less adventurous. The Americana-inspired bar snacks, gourmet pizzas and burgers, and salads are anything but boring.

7 Sales Street, Freemans Bay

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3. Seafarers Club

You'll need a membership for this one. The Seafarers Club is the brainchild of creatives Shine Group and celebrity chef Josh Emmett (of Ebisu/Ostro/Masterchef fame), and was founded on the premise of stimulating, inspiring and connecting a certain breed of Auckland’s movers and shakers. Even with the exclusive access, the Club lacks the pretentiousness present in other Auckland establishments but still manages to evoke a level of sophistication on par with international members clubs. The top floor deck is the perfect spot to soak up sparkly views of the Auckland waterfront and to enjoy a tap-poured Negroni or something from the sharp wine list.

52 Tyler Street, Britomart

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4. Matterhorn

Named after the famous Swiss mountain, Matterhorn first opened as a Swiss coffee house in Wellington in 1963. The institution now finds itself in a historic building on Drake Street (the former location of Libertine). With the menu being  a near-carbon copy of the original, Matterhorn’s cocktail menu is its most impressive feature. There are things called Blackberry Death in the Afternoon, The Calm Before the Storm and Corpse Reviver #2. Don’t look past the Rum Blazer ($20) – a smokey, warm concoction of Matusalem 15 year old Reserva rum, cigar liqueur, cinnamon liqueur and Fee Brother’s Old Fashioned bitters. As we discovered, it tastes like a F. Scott Fitzgerald novel wrung out into a glass and gently heated.

47 Drake Street, Freemans Bay

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5. Woodpecker Hill

The names behind MooChowChow, The Blue Breeze Inn and Chop Chop Noodle House (Mark Wallbank and Che Barrington) have opened another venture across the other side of town. In the place of Parnell's Irish pub The Bog, Woodpecker Hill continues with the pair's successful fusion of East-meets-West, while adding in a new element of American-style barbecue with a smoker in the kitchen. The drinks menu is extensive and features decent sections dedicated to wine from Europe, America and New Zealand. The cosy interior is log cabin/skiing lodge chic with stacks of logs and sheepskin seat coverings that will never make you want to leave.

196 Parnell Road, Parnell

6. Neck Of The Woods

Neck Of The Woods pulled the plug on the former tenants who ran the basement space as a dimly lit gamers haven and internet cafe. The large and slick new entertainment hub offers several areas for friends to catch up and enjoy the diverse drinks list; you'll find eight varieties of craft beer, a cocktail using sea salt and toast crumbs and local wines in every colour. For those more focussed on cutting loose, a list of respected promoters run an above par schedule of events every week, and the sound system will keep you on your feet for hours.

155 Karangahape Road, Auckland CBD

Published on March 26, 2015 by Stephen Heard
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