VBG (Veranda Bar & Grill), Parnell

By EWAN MCDONALD for viva


I could have brought that gorgeous Italian, Ann suggested, a touch too wistfully for my liking, "or even that big boy from Australia".

"Sorry," I told her from the other side of the table. "You'll have to make do with a rather too well-rounded New Zealander."

It was Monday, the night when VBG is BYO. They do things like that at the Veranda Bar and Grill: you can bring your own wine on Mondays, have half-price Bolly nights (there's a Patsy and Edina joke lurking in there somewhere) and on Sundays in winter used to offer Slow Food (and that is a culinary concept, not a joke about the service).

Andrew Bell and his wife, Lucy, bought the restaurant about three years ago. For Bell, VBG was a sea-change from the suits and ties of merchant banking. "The hours are certainly different," remarks the father of three, now running one of the city's latest-night establishments, which lists its opening times as 6pm-3am, but ...

"My previous experiences in hospitality were limited to the university holidays at the Exchange and Pierre's Brasserie (coincidentally, a few doors up the hill where Cuba is now) many, many years ago."

Famous names for Auckland's less-than-recent immigrants. Perhaps almost as famous as VBG, birthplace of the myths and fables of late-80s Auckland, second home of the merchant bankers, lawyers and hustlers of less degree who reshaped the face of the city, then sheathed it in mirror glass so they could enjoy their favourite view.

The restaurant where you went to the bathroom one night and picked up next month's Felicity Ferret column to read what you'd allegedly got up to. Which is as good a time as any to point out that Judith Baragwanath (and if she needs further introduction you haven't been in Auckland long enough and we haven't got the space here) is hostess at VBG from Tuesday to Friday.

Outwardly and inwardly not too much has changed over the years. The painted wooden diagram of beef cuts is still on the wall. The bar and the restaurant are less crowded this night, but Bell points out that he's just reopened after a two-week recess "and all our customers are still in Fiji". You can tell there is a regular clientele here: its laidback rather than suave atmosphere gives the feel of a local in the heart of urbanity.

That lack of pretension carries into the menu designed by head chef Neven Letica. From Seamart (the fine dining end, not the fish and chip end), he and Bell work from a philosophy of serving "real food, intelligently cooked and served nude (ie, not swimming in some thick sauce or wrapped in something that hides what you have just spent the last 10 minutes cooking)."

The meals are robust, in flavours and size: terakihi and prawn fish cakes with sesame and cucumber salad, lemongrass mayo; smoked fish pie with kumara mash and roasted pickling onions; scotch fillet on green beans with a three peppercorn sauce; roast pork fillet with liver terrine, pumpkin and caramelised pear chutney.

Just the sort of thing that Parnell boys crave after a hard day's brokering and arbitrage.

The tua tua fritters and bangers'n'mash - oh, all right, "London Pride sausages (100 per cent Pure Pork) on parsley mash in rich onion gravy, $22" - have been on the VBG menu for 15 years, suitably updated because we didn't know about coriander, pineapple chutney and grilled lime back in 1989.

And then a hard day's night at VBG while Ella or Sarah Vaughan croon, "I get no kicks from champagne." In a place where Bolly might be half-price? Patsy and Edina would be absolutely flabbergasted.

* * *

Open: Mon-Sat from 6pm to 3am, Fri lunch from noon

Owners: Andrew and Lucy Bell

Head chef: Neven Letica

Hostess: Judith Baragwanath

On the menu:

* Tua tua fritters with coriander, pineapple chutney, grilled lime $16

* Beetroot, ricotta and mustard seed risotto with fresh dill and lime $16

* Chicken tangine (prosciutto-wrapped breast) with cumin, red onion, new potatoes, red pepper, apricots and eggplant $24

Vegetarian: Like the sound of that risotto?

Wine: Discriminating list from NZ, Australia, Europe plus a small cellar selection

Smoking: In the separate bar

Noise: Ella, Billie, Sarah ... the first ladies of jazz

Parking: Don't chance the streets - pay or take a cab

Disabled access / toilets: Steep outdoor wooden staircase

Bottom line:

Long-lived, late-night restaurant and bar that feels like a local in the heart of urbanity. That lack of pretension carries into the menu: meals are robust, in flavours and size; wine list is well above the norm.


* Read more about what's happening in the world of food, wine, fashion and beauty in viva, part of your Herald print edition every Wednesday.