The Penny Black, Newmarket

Food you would cook at home is just what you should expect from a local, and The Penny Black delivers. Picture / Carolyn Robertson

Herald rating: * * *

Bridget is newly single, newly decamped to - or perhaps that should be "camped in" - a city apartment. In the outer suburbs she had enough indoor and outdoor flow, if not to swing a cat, certainly to allow two small dogs to run free.

The first long weekend in the city just about did her in: "I'm flailing around in a little apartment with noisy neighbours on one side (lots of heavy base beats, hysterical women crying and someone with a hacking cough) and a guy on the other side who keeps saying 'eh, bro' down the phone all night."

As the ever-so-nice lady from the council had just assured me that the guy on the 12th floor of the building site next to my apartment was entitled to play with his powersaw until 11pm every night except Sunday, I could only sympathise.

"You're in Newmarket? I've heard the Penny Black is a class above the average pub."

"It is," she said. "I've been here a week and it's my local."

Penny Black represents new trends in urban eating-out. For the consumer, it's a casual yet sophisticated destination. Somewhere for the office to wind down, perhaps across an antipasto platter. For the touch team or the night-class to mingle over wines and tapas. For pre-movie nibbles or "just can't be bothered cooking" nights that's more than the neighbourhood takeout but not a full-on restaurant.

Until June it was the Carlton Club, an inner-city tavern that had seen much better times. Brian Collins and Roy Thompson made over the corner pub with cool blacks and greys, booths, a lounge of sofas around a gas fire.

Much like their Paddington in Parnell, Pog Mahone's in Ponsonby and Queenstown, Malt in Grey Lynn, Imbibe at the Mount, Rose and Crown in Nelson. The hospitality trade is growing this way: operators running several sites, allowing economies of scale and better buying and staffing power. Of course, small enterprises can be squeezed out and a certain sameness is bound to creep into what's on offer.

Under operations manager Steve Oakley, the place aims to attract a casually sophisticated and discerning corporate/upmarket clientele. Bridget fits most, if not all, of these criteria and I can fake them so long as I don't say too much or eat peas off my fork.

Richard Moorcock's "upmarket yet traditional pub food" means five pages of Lights (steamed mussels, wraps, open sandwiches), Salads, Tapas, Gourmet Pizzas and Mains. We turned to the Mains. Not quickly enough for the waitwomen, who came by four or five times while we chatted.

It was not long after 7 and the kitchen is open until 9.30. "Maybe they're in a hurry to get home?" I suggested. "Bet they don't live in city apartments," said Bridget.

Perhaps the corporate and upmarket are too busy being casually sophisticated and discerning to be leisurely. We'd barely lit into a small, shared plate of tangy ginger, lime and lemon peppered calamari before our mains arrived.

Venison bangers and mash, beer battered fish and chips, scotch fillet and mushrooms on mash ... I'd gone for simple oven-roasted chicken breast. Oh, on mash. With a rather tasty honey, mustard and coriander cream sauce and some bacon tossed in. The sort of thing that you'd cook for yourself at home if the guy with the powersaw ...

Bridget had the most adventurous offering, swordfish steak, neatly chargrilled.

She wasn't quite as chuffed with its plate-mates: she felt there was a bit of an argument going on between the roasted fennel, lemon, capers, thyme and pomegranate molasses, and the fennel was too stroppy for the rest.

Although it's a bar, the Penny Black's wine list is quite short at about 40 choices. It's patriotic - Johnny Foreigner only gets a say in the upper reds and bubblies - and bottles start from $33. Bridget enjoyed the week's special, Stoneleigh Rapaura Rd sauv' blanc; I was happy with a softish Central Otago pinot noir, Gold River.

Yes, we did want dessert. Traditional apple pie sat nicely alongside upscale almond and honey icecream. My rich chocolate brownie was rich. Bridget leaned over and half-inched a forkful. "Oh no, I'll be awake all night now," she wailed.

Address: cnr Broadway/Khyber Pass, Newmarket

Phone: (09) 529 0050

Open: 7 days 11am-9.30pm

Owners: Brian Collins and Roy Thompson

Head chef: Richard Moorcock

Cuisine: Pub grub plus

From the menu: Wok steamed mussels, shoestring fries, coconut cream, chili, lemongrass $17.90; Rosemary roasted lamb shanks, red wine and orange zest gravy, seasoned mint mash $23; Sticky date pudding with vanilla bean ice-cream, caramel sauce $9.50

Vegetarian: Not that we noticed

Wine: Short, patriotic selection

Bottom line: Casual, sophisticated destination for eating, drinking, chatting.