You could be walking up the stairs to a shady club of ill repute, the offices of a c-grade dentist or perhaps, as in old b-grade b/w movies, the office of a New York private investigator. But your aren't, because you realise that behind the lights at the corner of mercer and willis street there is wellington's leading bastion of what Alice Waters called the "delicious revolution."
Waters' philosophy was straightforward - food is precious and should be sustainable, seasonal, local, bought from farmers markets, recyclable, compostable, cooked simply and both cooked and eaten with enjoyment.
Some might call it "nutritional gastronomy" serving not only to look after the planet but also the individual. Thus, a striking feature of TK is that it's dishes can be individualised according to nutritional needs and problems - FODMAP, gluten etc. Yet it isn't a restaurant that panders to food fascism - there is no crazy unthinking tripe - no-one telling you that raw, gluten free, paleo, low/high fat/carb, vegan or organic is the only way to go. It's more diverse and accepting than that. Basically it follows Waters philosophy to the letter.
We went for a late lunch on another drizzly Wellington afternoon, TK was close to closing but, at 2.30pm, with an hour to go we ascended those stairs.
The interior is as odd as its entrance. You enter into a rather dim and dingy bar area where the dining room isn't immediately obvious. It was kinda like an old, windowless student union bar in need of a makeover. Shown into the dining room, ambience changed entirely. How to describe it? From some angles it is like a very old beachside dining area in the tropics (I remember Trinidad as a kid), but with windows looking onto willis street, and your grandmothers Edwardian, turned leg, rimu dining tables taking up most of the place except along the windows where there are plastic topped tables with scenes from NY in the 30s. Not to be outdone there are badly framed oil paintings of cats in human dress for sal (this seems to change regularly).... And fans turning overhead.
With a fit-out that had done my head in, I was distracted momentarily by the menu. A delightful waitress helped us - told us what was now off - pulled pork and smoked fish - we were late remember! Ok so two hot chocolates, the bread and butter, fries, and a haloumi hamburger (more accurately a haloumi-burger I guess).
Hot chocolates - deliciously perfect, sublimely textured and lovely flavour. The perfect accompaniment to a scene of shoppers in wet and wind outside.
Fries: they were crusty with soft yellow interiors as if they were triple cooked in duck fat - accompanied by three dips: tomato, a sweet herby concoction and a mayo. Superb flavours and textures and, best of all, the tomato proclaimed itself by its clovey cinnamonness that it wasn't watties! (Or whatever global food giant now owns watties) .
Breads - 3 nicely chewy malt-coloured slices: sourdough, a grainy seedy one and another more plain. They were lovely and especially when smeared with the cultured butter that had been impregnated with seaweed or dipped into the deep-olive olive oil that had brilliant flavour and a softer pepperiness than is usual in local oils. (The fashion for extreme bitter pepperiness of both olive oil and hops in beer, I hope, is on the wane).
The haloumi-burger was excellent. The perfect size - it could be held in the hands and eaten with bites from top to bottom. It didn't need a toothpick or a knife and fork. In fact I think that holdability should define a burger - anything else is a stack. The fried haloumi was good. It was topped by an onion fritter, and sat on a bed of rocket - wild would have been better. The yoghurty sauce was good and the buns excellent. Overall a lovely gentle flavour, restrained, delicious.
The buns were almost brioche-like, soft and possibly buttery. Essentially so many burger joints forget that the buns maketh the burger - I stopped going to Wisconsin years ago when they started using dreadful bread. Bread makes up a large proportion of a real burger and its taste and texture and how it reacts with the juices is very important. TK's buns were great!
And of course they should be - Leeds street bakery and red rabbit coffee were born here and have now left home for ......Leeds street. The bread and the ridiculously good salted caramel biscuits are shared between the family.
Alice Walters would be proud,
Highly recommended.
Returned for brunch today - 19/09/15
Polenta porridge with rhubarb - creamy, sweet nutty richness contrasted to the slightly sharp rhubarb - would definitely have again.
Poached egg, black pudding, kimchi, smoked pork and bacon vinaigrette. Brilliant - sumptuous salty, smoked richness, edged by the kimchi and vinaigrette. Worth far beyond the sum of its parts. Excellent black pudding and perfectly poached eggs. Highly recommended.
Two trim caps - well made pleasant coffee.
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