A tale of two suburbs

Takapuna Beach Cafe. Photo / Babichec Martens

Bridget and I are to lunch in Takapuna. That would once have been a difficult assignment but not, according to gushing locals and weekend press, since the Takapuna Beach Cafe was launched a year since. Into choppy waters, matching today's weather: long-timers complained about the legal manoeuvres which saw an old-time ice-cream store transmogrified into an architect-styled 70-seat cafe and deli in their (or so they thought) public domain.

More recent Taka-ites enjoyed the idea of a cafe to compete with the best in the city across the water: decent coffees, more than decent food, civilised hours and an unobstructed waterside location. Though where you'd find a place south of the bridge offering all that is beyond me, unless you don't stop until you get to Te Papa.

This is capping day on the Shore. The newly lettered and millineried are looking for a place to lunch with adoring family. Here, many will try but most are frozen. Gowns flapping like agitated seagulls, squawking dismay, they wheel around to the food chains of Hurstmere Rd.

Bridget and I snaffle the apologetically proffered last table next to the door on the promise that we can shift if somewhere better comes free. The next few punters, and quite a few more after them, elect to wait outside or stroll. They're handed a red plastic lobster that will quiver when a table comes available. "It looks like ... ," suggests Bridget, and I invite you to complete that sentence, but only if you are broad-minded.

Scott Brown and Jackie Grant run this, and the Richmond Rd Cafe, Cafe on Kohi and Gladstone Rd Cafe in Parnell, though the ultimate patron is Dave Donaldson.

You'll know most of the dishes because they differ from other daytime cafes by an adjective or bread grain. Poached or fried eggs with five-grain; sauteed lamb liver with port and onion marmalade, rocket and rye; the ever more ubiquitous (if something can be "more ubiquitous") tomato-stroke-beetroot, shallot-stroke-onion and goat's cheese tart.

Moi saw fish and chips and was overcome with that feeling of "I must have them, it's been so long". Hand-cut fries, which were; caperberry aioli, mushy, didn't cut the capers; and fish of indeterminate parentage. Given the extent of the battering, a call to 111 might have been in order. The chips had an unusual tang: I was told they're fried in cottonseed oil, "the best in the world for cooking". Perhaps. Or perhaps not. I parked that thought about fish and chips for another year.

Bridget sought the hyper-calorific comfort of The Grill. Bacon, poached eggs, rosti, mushrooms, blood sausage, slow-roasted tomatoes. "It's a man-sized breakfast," she pointed out, though she clearly isn't. I helped her out. Good bacon. Better sausage and mushrooms.

The cafe is not licensed; we enjoy decent flat whites and lattes rather than the Mango Stars, Gran's Gardens, Vanilla & Almonds that have taken the place of an honest cuppa these days and rue that the architects have used lots of glass to capture the views, metal outdoor tables indoors, and hard surfaces. Conversation is tricky.

As luck and business obligations would have it, I strolled into big sister next day. Richmond Rd's decor and menu are exactly the same but different, a little lefter of centrist in style and garnishings, as you'd expect when a place is just a hop, chop and a mung bean from Harvest Wholefoods and West Lynn Organic Butchery.

Here it's oloroso and porcini cream with the lamb liver, and braised bianchi di spagna beans. You know you're in Grey Lynn when there's a "Special Reserve Yogurt Selection". How did you find the 09, old chap? Not sure about the bouquet. Strong on the nose. Slips down easily...

The crowd (yes, it's full too, and we're offered the last table next to the till) is slightly older and younger than yesterday. If you've been out and about the inner west at this time of day, you'll recognise them (or they rather hope you will): the media, an occasionally famous face, those who've had enough of working from home for the day and gone out networking.

For me, roast chicken salad. Quinoa is as near as it gets to an exotic ingredient, but it's a more than agreeable lunch.

The Lapsed Vegetarian has the roast beetroot version with mint, almonds and grilled haloumi. We agree that cress - the grown-up sort, not that ridiculous mini-me - adds flavour and character as a salad, but when you're meeting someone for the first time, it's damned difficult to nibble with dignity. Just try to murmur business intimacies with a lengthy stalk hanging from a corner of your mouth.

It is licensed - we sip riesling and pinot gris, aromatics for the last lunch of summer - but they don't hand out the toys for waiting customers to amuse themselves with. It's Grey Lynn. Those are probably in the too-hard basket.

Double Happy

Takapuna Beach Cafe
Herald rating: * * *
Adress: 22 The Promenade, Takapuna
Phone: (09) 484 0002
Web: www.takapunabeachcafe.co.nz

Richmond Rd Cafe
Herald rating: * * * * *
Address: 318 Richmond Rd, Grey Lynn
Phone: (09) 360 5559
Web: www.richmondrdcafe.co.nz

Hours: Both open 7am-4pm, 7 days
Cuisine: Cafe moderne
Vegetarian: Easy peasy