The Musket Room, Ponsonby

Muster at the Musket Room for an excellent bar and good Gallic food. Picture / Babiche Martens

Good morning bon vivants, and welcome again to the column that keeps you up to date with parking problems, music, chitchat, a city bureaucracy that has more brain explosions than Zinedine Zidane, plus occasional and accidental diversions into food, wine and the like.

"I thought this was a restaurant review column," said the Lady Editor. "No, it's about eating out," I said. "Just for a change, I thought we could have a preview."

She sighed in that way she does.

Almost two years ago I wrote about a new place on Ponsonby Rd: the Musket Room, brainchild of Hillary Ord and Mel Anderson, who for a decade had been the heart and soul of that K Rd institution Verona. I raved about the music, decor, atmosphere and food.

Writing this column, you're never sure who's reading it. Reading that morning were the people who bought Verona from Mesdames Ord and Anderson, and they saw something as red as Verona's walls or Zidane's card.

They filed legal action to shut the Musket Room, alleging the sale agreement prevented setting up a competing business within 1.75km of Verona for two years.

So the Musket Room took real meals off its menu and has traded as a tapas, wine, cocktail and really cool music bar. The good news is that it is about to serve meals again. Not become a restaurant, Ord and Anderson emphasise, but "an excellent bar that serves good food".

It may have happened by the time you read this - or not. Because Ord is determined that nothing will happen quickly at the Musket Room. Especially with the food.

Note: that's food, not menu. For Ord, who has gone into the eatery's tiny, lean-to kitchen, will serve what she calls a "verbal menu".

"There'll be four items each night, available in $12 or $20 size - fish of the day, meat ... I'm not too sure about chicken now," she laughs.

"I can go to the Ponsonby butcher and choose what meat looks good that day, or go down to the fish market and see what's available. Then I can come back and cook a bouillabaisse that takes five hours from go to whoa, or a casserole that takes six to eight hours.

"I love Gallic food, all those long, slow casseroles. The idea is, Mama's in the kitchen and what she cooks tonight is what you get." So Ord has been experimenting for a few weeks, adding a platter here and there to that about-to-be-phased-out tapas menu.

When Ani and I sampled one of her new dishes, the crock du jour was a lamb casserole with mushrooms and seasonal vegetables. Slow food, to stick to the ribs in midwinter with the fire blazing in the corner under the mounted deer's head. Amid two or three other small plates, Ani was happy to dive into her regular order of "the best salt-and-pepper squid" in town.

Some other things won't change: the coolest music, a great room and service, the tight wine list of 10 reds and 10 whites - and the famous cocktail list.

"Maybe I'll cut that down from 20," muses Ord. Or not.

Address: 29 Ponsonby Rd
Phone: (09) 376 1430
Open: Mon-Sat, 5pm-late
On the menu: What Mama's cooking tonight
Vegetarian: Aplenty
Wine: Small, perfectly formed list