Auckland’s best pubs right now, from Grey Lynn to the waterfront
Publicans say the new Auckland pub is a relaxed ‘third space’ for locals.
If your friend asks you to go to the pub in London, you know what to expect: A watering hole that has likely been open for decades, if not centuries. A series of taps featuring classic lagers, ales, Guinness and, these days, a few craft brews, too.
There will be packets of chips, a back bar featuring Gordon’s Gin and a few vodkas, and a wine list that almost exclusively consists of a New Zealand sauvignon blanc, a chardonnay from South Africa and, if you’re lucky, a French rosé.
It’s as much a cultural experience as going to a West End show or starting your day with a full English breakfast.
Equally, if they invite you to a pub in Sydney, you’ll have just as strong an expectation for the venue. In Auckland, though, things are a little less obvious.
It could, theoretically, mean anything. It might mean one of the taprooms that line New North Rd. It could mean the local RSA, or perhaps the glossy corner bar in your neighbourhood stretch of shops. It might mean Hotel Ponsonby – a bar that perhaps best resembles Sydney’s pubs – or The Empire Tavern. It could mean The Elbow Room on Jervois Rd, the tartan carpeted Northcote Tavern, or even The Brit. All of these establishments serve alcohol in a drink- rather than food-centric environment, and they are ostensibly more casual than your stereotypical bar, but they also all strike their own path rather than adhering to a specific formula.
All of my favourite pubs in London followed the same format; they felt a bit lived in, they were largely used by the local community, they didn’t serve food, and they poured at least a few interesting beers and one good white wine (the last one, really, because I’m a bit of a fussy drinker). The more old-man they looked, the better.
The Carpenters Arms, on the corner of Cheshire St and St Matthew’s Row, is my platonic ideal of a pub; busy but quiet enough to always get a table, great beers on tap, a small but perfectly formed courtyard, a regular and reliable patronage of locals, and a back bar absolutely stacked with incredible whiskeys. I knew that leaving behind British pub culture would be one of the biggest reverse culture shocks about the move home after eight years in London.
To claim that Auckland doesn’t have a pub scene would be incorrect. What is perhaps more true is that we have such a varied pub scene that it’s almost impossible to define what a pub is in Auckland. Or, at least, it used to be. A new wave of openings in the city is carving out a new pillar of casual drinking in Auckland, and finally creating space for the city to define its pub culture. They are, yes, importing elements of pub culture from cities like London and Sydney, but they’re also reimagining them through a distinctly Tāmaki Makaurau lens.
Walking into The Grey Lynn Firehouse on Williamson Ave, you could be forgiven for thinking you’d been transported to the back streets of De Beauvoir or Marylebone.
Compact, with a built-in warmth and comfort that speaks to the building’s history, the pub has managed to manufacture a sense of enduring longevity – something so easily captured by London’s pubs that genuinely have been serving thirsty drinkers for centuries.
Still, though, if you look a little closer, things feel distinctly Kiwi. There’s Guinness on tap, sure, but also Sawmill Brewery beers and the Firehouse’s own lager. Upstairs in the dining room, chef Kererū Wilson is cooking up a menu of tried-and-true classics that take an antipodean approach to pub food.
On a sunny day, drinkers spill out onto the pavement or the compact roof terrace, and on rainy nights there are cosy booths and a sense of buoying conviviality.
What the team behind The Firehouse – the same guys responsible for Roundhouse Drinks, Norma Taps and Honest – recognised is that Aucklanders needed more low-fuss places to pop into for a beer. The kind of third space where you could come for one or stay for five.
By comparison, Slattery & Sons on the corner of Quay St and Britomart Place wouldn’t feel out of place in Dublin’s Temple Bar – there’s even Murphy’s on tap, almost unheard of down under. There are pressed-metal ceilings, wood-panelled walls and thick, red carpet that, if it were in the UK or Ireland, would immediately connote taps of ale and a patronage with an average age of 85.
And yet, even with all of these classic “pub” indicators, Slattery & Sons still somehow feels very Auckland. It borrows from the great pubs of Ireland, and gives it a sunny, waterside twist.
One duo responsible for two of Auckland’s newest, trendiest pubs are Patrick Kean and Victoria Blake, who own Water Boy in St Heliers and the recently renovated The Corner in Remuera. With the help of Ctrl Space, the interiors at the latter come from the same school of thought at The Grey Lynn Firehouse; lived-in but modern, somehow imbued with a sense of history that it doesn’t necessarily have.
“Our version of a pub in Auckland is all about vibe and a welcoming environment,” Kean says about how he would define a pub in the city.
“We have always wanted our venues to be an extension of someone’s living room, whether it’s for a quick pint, a casual meal or to catch up with friends or make new ones.”
He believes Auckland does have a different pub culture in comparison with more established cities like London or Sydney, but “the introduction of new venues such as The Grey Lynn Firehouse, Hotel Ponsonby and our venues are giving a modern spin on pubs which seems to be helping change that culture”.
To move pub culture in Auckland forward, though, it’s worth looking back at the blueprint. One publican who can hold himself responsible for some of Auckland’s classic, casual drinking haunts is Brett Simeti, owner of The Elbow Room in Herne Bay and The Gypsy Tea Room in Grey Lynn. For him, a pub is defined by how it serves its community.
“Both The Gypsy Tea Room and The Elbow Room are pretty much embedded in those communities. People really treat both of those venues as extensions of their own living rooms,” Simeti says.
He recounts UK customers who say both venues remind them of English pubs; that they’re friendly, unpretentious and welcoming to anyone as long as they have the right attitude. Where people from all walks of life and demographics mix, and at any point, total strangers could end up in conversation together.
Kean namechecks The Northcote Tavern and Westhaven’s Swashbucklers as two pubs he thinks have become classics in Auckland. Both are wildly different; the former is one of Auckland’s oldest pubs, having occupied its capacious home on Northcote’s Queen St since 1884, while the latter opened more than a century later in 1997, and is the opposite in every element apart from spirit.
“At an early age my father introduced me to Swashbucklers,” Kean says. “It’s become an absolute favourite amongst our mates.”
They are in stark contrast to each other, and yet both feel quintessentially Auckland. They also feel like, if you blended the two together and added in a dose of modern tastes (craft beers, slick interiors, intimidatingly cool bar staff), you would have the equation for what seems to be establishing itself as the new definition of a pub in Auckland. They’re casual, fun, and, crucially, somehow seem established and comfortable without cosplaying the pubs of Ol’ Blighty.
Perhaps, though, the key element is embedding a culture of pub use in the first place. The more pubs like The Corner, Water Boy, Slattery & Sons and The Grey Lynn Firehouse we see opening in Auckland, the more Aucklanders will come to see these third spaces as places to spend time – because regular patronage is the true defining element of a thriving pub culture in the 09.
Top picks for Auckland’s best ‘proper’ pubs
The Grey Lynn Firehouse
Whether a Monday afternoon or a Saturday night, The Grey Lynn Firehouse is always buzzing.
1 Williamson Ave, Grey Lynn
Slattery & Sons
A little slice of Ireland on Quay St – do not miss the spice bags.
102 Quay St, Britomart
The Elbow Room
An iconic local watering hole on Jervois Rd. The road front tables on a sunny evening are arguably some of the best in town.
198 Jervois Rd, Herne Bay
Swashbucklers
Sitting by the water here with a pint feels so quintessentially Auckland.
23B Westhaven Dr, Westhaven
The Corner Remuera
The kind of place you wish was your local.
602/604 Remuera Rd, Remuera
605 Morningside Drinkery
Is it a pub? Perhaps not in the traditional sense of the word. But it is a locally minded watering hole with a real sense of community.
605 New North Rd, Morningside
The Northcote Tavern
I would honestly come for that tartan carpet alone.
37 Queen St, Northcote Point
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