Overview
Blink and you'll miss it— Ghuznee's most exciting new edible venture is tucked in down an alleyway. Thank god the alley is lit up like a runway with fairylights, to guide your path into HUSK.
The new adventure, spearheaded by Choice Bros' Kerry Gray and Karamu Coffee's Mike Pullin, blends two of Wellington's favourite things: coffee and beer. I know, right— why hasn't this been done before? The pair confess, "People have been saying it's the best parts of Wellington, but our influence has really been international. Stuff like this is happening in New York and Copenhagen." The space will house both a brewery and a coffee roastery, alongside the eatery and bar: the best of both worlds.
HUSK is an all-day show, opening in the morning for breakfast and serving until late. The brunch menu looks rad, and the bar food is a fresh selection of sharing plates designed to go with the beers. Plates such as southern fried chicken, roast cauliflower salad, onion bhajis and catalan pizzas compliment Kerry's wildly interesting selection of beers (some made by him, some by friends, some by guest brewers), and are the perfect flavours to socialise over after work or casual drinks with friends. "Mike's a lover of food and basically created this menu with the chef to be a sharing menu, so we've got these hipster paddle board things (basically if they're on there people will share them around). So it's kind of bar food, but things like the ceviche go so well with beers."
When we met to check out HUSK, Kerry had just come back from unpacking his brewery's new stainless steel fermenters. He's shattered. Earthquake delays and port complications mean the fermenters needed to be freighted down from Auckland. "But they're here now, and that's all that matters." Both the guys had been pulling 70-hour weeks in order to realise the dream. The space is a former boxing gym, but the bones are perfect for what they're trying to do. By integrating a brewery and a roastery on the same premises, Kerry and Mike are opening up their café and eatery-goers to a whole new, immersive experience. "You can sit there, have a coffee or a beer, and see it being made before you. You can even yell out and ask a question, and I'll answer if I'm not too busy! People know where the things they're consuming come from too."
Sounds pretty brilliant to us.
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