Herald rating: * * * *
Address: Hotel DeBrett, 3B O'Connell St CBD
Ph: (09) 969 1545
www.hoteldebrett.com/kitchen/
Open: 7 days breakfast, lunch, dinner
Cuisine: Modern NZ
From the menu: Zucchini and feta fritter, green grapes, spiced almonds, rocket salad $18; Grilled john dory, shichimi spiced kumara, broccolini, purslane, red pepper pesto $36; Valrhona chocolate cake, dawson cherry, vanilla cream, peppermint $15
Vegetarian: Dishes on menu
Wine list: Quality not quantity
Oooh, this is nice. They've spent millions making over the grubby, grimy DeBrett's pub into the ritzy, art-deco Hotel DeBrett, and it's really, really nice.
Which is something I never thought I'd see myself type. The place opened as the Commercial Hotel, allegedly Auckland's first hostelry, in 1841 and survived 118 years and two fires before Dominion Breweries refurbished it as Hotel DeBrett in 1959.
The official history says it was a turning-point for New Zealand's tourism industry, which may be true: it would be correct to chronicle that it served as breakfast, lunch, dinner and next day's breakfast bar for several generations of Auckland Star journos.
Sometime last year the "DB" fell into the hands of John Courtney and his wife Michelle Deery. Courtney, a member of Heart of the City's board, is an investment banker whose Shortland Management property group focuses on CBD Auckland. With Arnauld Kindt and his wife Sue, who own the Duke of Marlborough Hotel in Russell, they set out to create a 25-bedroom boutique hotel inside what had sunk to an inner-city backpacker's.
They've ripped out a roof to make a light-filled atrium. They've laid one-off carpets, hung Judy Darragh's chandeliers and installed Jeff Thomson's corrugated-iron water sculpture. Mosaics, floors, retro furniture bring the place into the moderne, or the 50s or 60s.
Pity is, no one seems to know about it. Four weeks after opening, Jude and I are the only diners in Kitchen. Some guests wander in and out again. Three women, likely lawyers, sip pink champagne until the tales run out.
My sense is the service is a little stiff because the staff haven't had too much practise yet.
Management has resisted the temptation to stock every wine in creation: the list concentrates on Kiwi quality, arranged under headings like "Rich, velvety and fruity" or "Rustic and aromatic" or "Clean and crisp". Helpful. Jude is happy with my choice of Stonecroft gewurz; I enjoy Van Asch, then our waiter's recommendation of Tewaiwaka pinots.
Fraser Slack is head chef. O'Connell St Bistro, dine, Sydney's Quay and Tetsuya's are on his CV.
Jude begins with seared scallops and is enchanted with the seafood's succulence and fresh flavours and textures from slivers of granny smith, sorrel, lemon.
My slow-roast tomato and rosemary tart introduces the first interesting touch: its salad is Russian kale and hemp oil. Tuna comes with sumac; john dory with shichimi-spiced kumara and purslane. There's a clarity of flavours: each ingredient knows its place.
The tart, though, is a mite heavy of pastry, watery of tomato. By the next course Slack has hit his stride. And it's quite a step up. My lamb rack has attained a state of bliss, roasted in red wine; but it's the aniseed-steeped baby carrots, baby beets and broad beans that lift the dish.
Jude's tempura'd tofu is silken, fragrant against coconut and lemongrass sauce; Japanese eggplant, oyster mushroom, choy sum, ginger, chilli, cashew bounce off it. Rarely for a Kiwi chef, this man is very strong on vegetables.
If the mains were good, the desserts are even better. Jude wasn't inspired by the menu, reluctantly took a yoghurt pannacotta; syncopations of ginger and rosemary roast apricot, an orange sauce creating a fresh, exuberant highlight.
There's an icy crackle to the raspberry and nougat semifreddo; papaya, lychee and blueberries join the party.
We nudged the meter just over $200. Is the old corner pub worth it? From one angle you could say this is high-end dining on High St; from the other, it's not quite another O'Connell St Bistro. Yet.
