The Musket Room, Ponsonby

1.00pm - By EWAN McDONALD for viva

Offbeat. "That's the word," I said next morning. "The Musket Room is offbeat." Which is not a bad thing, particularly in jazz and other musical forms, which is one of the things that is offbeat about The Musket Room.

For one, this new restaurant and bar - more bar than restaurant, really, but we'll come to that - is upstairs. Few Auckland eateries are: Kermadec, Harbourside, um ...

It's upstairs in Ponsonby Rd, in a couple of rooms that traded as the Thai Siam for years. Go through a marbled entrance, dark glass doors, up a red-carpeted stairway, and by the time you reach the frosted glass door etched with a stag at bay. It's getting a tad Maxwell Smart by this time.

The decor is that "o" word again, too. Stag's head on the wall, marbled floors, black furniture, rusty orange walls, subdued lighting above and from neon tubes hidden behind the banquettes.

Two smallish rooms - one for the bar, drinkers and smoke-friendly eaters, t'other for those ill-disposed to either of the aforementioned.

And the music, a great aggregation of retro jazz, cabaret, lounge, show tunes. Sounds and feels as though someone has gone to the time and care to compile this, the best soundtrack to eating out at any place we've been lately.

Throw in an eclectic crowd (stack them in, actually, and we've heard that by 11pm on a Friday or Saturday they charge extra if you feel the need to breathe) and the Musket Room takes on the look and feel of a smoky jazz club. If you can remember back to the days when they used to smuggle a snifter of rum into the Cona coffee when no one was looking or sniffing, it's something like coffee bars such as Montmartre or Chequers in Durham Lane.

And if you can remember back to those days you will be a decade or so older than anyone else here. Within weeks of opening, this has become Black Central for Ponsonby's predominant demographic. Which is not altogether surprising: the Musket Room is the new venture for Hilary Ord. Ord and Janet Sergeant founded Verona, the soul and spirit of K Rd, and ran it with panache for 12 years until June.

The new crew (see below) have all played in the first division: Mel Anderson, Ord's partner in the business, longtime maitre d' at Verona; chef Tim Davies, from Antoine's; and Brandon Walker, the bar manager, hails from the highly regarded and recommended Melbourne Wine Room in St Kilda.

Davies offers three compact menus: bar snacks, the traditional, and lighter supper meals. While there are only four choices on each, you're likely to find the staff ticking off just as many specials each night.

To start, we shared a fine salad: slices of lightly seared venison, spinach, olives, roasted cashews, bathed in the tang of a blue cheese dressing. Walker sent out glasses of Seibel's Long River cabernet pinotage '96. Entree? It made a meal on its own.

There's a tasty syncopation (well, I didn't want to use "offbeat" again) in Davies' beautifully cooked mains. A simply roasted lamb rack with the expected green beans and red wine jus makes friends with a cumin-scented pumpkin puree, marinated beetroot and caramelised fennel (wine: pinot noir, of course, Rabbit Ranch '03). Exotic mates for the pork fillet: Davies braises that in Japanese flavours and sends it to the party with tempura broccoli, sushi rice and a sake-miso dressing. That might have stretched Walker, but he responded with a Jules Taylor Riesling '02.

"I like it here," Ann said as the evening wound down. "It feels like a fun place to be." Guess that means we'll be going back, then. A caveat or two: the kitchen was on the slow side; and it is a bar, so tobacco-fascists should ask to eat in the second room.

Address: Level 1 29 Ponsonby Rd

Ph: (09) 376 1430

Open: Mon-Sat 5pm-late

Owners: Hilary Ord, Mel Anderson

Chef: Tim Davies

Maitre d': Mel Anderson

Bar Manager: Brandon Walker

Food: Contemporary NZ

On the menu:

Grilled scampi on wilted broccolini and wild rocket with a white truffle and lemon vinaigrette $27

Parmesan crusted chicken breast on creamed polenta with witloof and a dill caper sauce $25

Berry compote covered by a white chocolate souffle served with handmade fig vanilla ice cream $10


Vegetarian: Aplenty

Wine: Short list (10 whites, 8 reds) but it's a quality selection; all available by the glass. Exquisite cocktail choices

Music: Best in town

Smoking: Separate rooms

Parking: Up and down the street

Disabled access / toilets: Upstairs / downstairs

Bottom line: Oops, she did it again. Hilary Ord hasn't recreated Verona in Ponsonby; she and partner Mel Anderson dream up a winebar/restaurant that comes across as a smoky jazz club, stylish food neatly tweaked by Tim Davies and a killer line in cocktails from Brandon Walker. We'll be back.

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