The Fork & Brewer
January 18th, 2012 at 9:00 am by David FarrarThe owners of the Malt House along with well known beer writer Neil Miller opened up a new pub in Wellington last year. I promised I would do a review of it, and last week had a friend in town back from the US, so we all arranged to meet at the Fork & Brewer on Bond Street.
The Fork & Brewer is on Bond Street. The location used to be home to Syn & Hell Pizza, the Ruby Lounge and the Loaded Hog before that. I also recall it being the Bond Street Inn. You go up the stairs to be greeted with …
At present these are decorative, but in the near future they will in fact start to brew their own labels in-house.
On the good Wellington days, you can sit outside on the balcony and look down on all the worker ants scurrying up and down Victoria and Bond Streets.
I love their bar. The interior is quite large, and the bar forms a barrel almost the entire 360 degrees. The decor is cool with all the gadgets displayed on the wall, but what is most excellent is the 43 different beers they have on tap – almost all New Zealand independent and craft beers.
This is a bar made for beer lovers, owned by beer lovers. You can see their full range of beers here.
The food is great – much better than normal pub or bar fare. Not just my view, but also the Dine Out reviewers. I can only rave about the chicken wings – they are delicious, and you get a huge number too.
In keeping with their love of beer, they have matched beers to each menu item, as you can see above. You can see their menu here.
And as the final temptation to turn the Fork & Brewer into my mobile office, they have a power hot-point at every booth, so you can plug your laptop in.
All up, a highly recommended venue for drink and food. I plan to go there often.
Tags: Fork & Brewer, Neil Miller, Reviews
January 18th, 2012 at 10:03 am
I attended the first day of opening in the early 1980′s when this bar was originally called the Bond Street Inn. Also Victoria Street was only a short street then and where the road runs from Mercer to Manners the road was called Farish Street.
Before the Bond Street Inn was built the site was the location of the original Wellington Motorcycle Center shop (now next to the Embassy theater).
And opposite the Bond Street Inn, on the other side of the Street was an empty waste ground that former wrestler Cliff Condron ran as a car park. From the upstairs bar one could watch Cliff and his sons use every inch of the land to maneuver and squeeze cars onto the parking lot.
Regrettably one of Cliff’s son, Danny, became bored with running a car park and instead turned his hand to committing armed hold-ups, and later was charged with the murder of a drug dealer, who allegedly owed Danny $47k and whose body was never found. At trial Danny was discharged by the Judge on account of unreliable witness evidence. I recall Danny was one of the largest recipients of legal aid at the time.
Ah, happy days….
Vote:January 18th, 2012 at 10:19 am
Excellent.
This looks like it will be a worthy replacement for, and true spiritual successor of, the old Malthouse.
Vote:In the way that the new Malthouse never was.
January 18th, 2012 at 10:38 am
Sit on the balcony – on a fine wellington day…………….
Thats for a tui billboard
Vote:January 18th, 2012 at 10:46 am
Hell Pizza is still as it ever was on Bond Street. I think. Otherwise it has moved literally next door. But I’m pretty sure it hasn’t.
[DPF: It has moved]
Vote:January 18th, 2012 at 10:55 am
Graeme is right… Fork and Brewer was the Ruby Lounge for a couple of years. it had okay live music on saturday or sunday afternoons, but always seemed to be empty. not sure what it was before that.
Vote:January 18th, 2012 at 11:08 am
The penny’s just dropped for me. That name… The Forkin’ Brewer… geddit? Geddit??
I’m off down to the Forkin’ Brewer…
The expat Poms that infest this town will love that name.
Vote:January 18th, 2012 at 11:48 am
Hell Pizza move next door to Lovelocks sports bar – cheap beer – jugs, real pints, sports, racing and pizza. Whats not to like.
Vote:January 18th, 2012 at 1:17 pm
The old Bond Street Inn was my drinking hole as a poor student (apart from $2 jug nights at the Southern Cross). I remember quiz nights there in the early 1990s and Dan Wilson??, a singer on Wednesday nights who never seemed to tire of our repeated requests for Kenny Rogers’ The Gambler. I recall that the Inn and Lovelocks originally used to be linked and you could walk between the two without going outside.
RRM – agree about the new Malthouse. It’s a shadow of what it was when it was on Willis Street – too cramped, no atmosphere and hardly anywhere to sit. More like one of the hole in the wall bars than a proper pub.
Don’t get me started on some of the other 1990s Wellington pubs like the original Oxford Tavern on Lambton Quay, Millers Thirst/Lord Nelson, MidCity Tavern and MacGills
Vote:January 18th, 2012 at 1:33 pm
I can confirm DPF’s findings, I have been propping up that bar since the painters were still working last year. Good beer and the deck is great in the sun.
Vote: