Once Upon A Time, At The Corner.

Posted by Tash McGill on May 5, 2011 in Uncategorized | 0 comments

Once upon a time, there was a girl who started a business. She had an office off the main road, behind a building, down an alleyway, up some stairs and straight on the left. She would work late into the night, sometimes stopping for dinner or meeting a friend for a drink.

She always bought her coffee from the same place just in the block she called home, she believed in local economy. And so, one night whilst thinking about a work project and meeting friends for a catch up drink, she found herself downstairs from the office and just on the corner, sitting in the corner bar of the block she called home.

Although a whisky drinker from way back, her palette was mostly developed around wine – but with a fondness for the refreshing sting of Stone’s Ginger Wine, she ordered the Whisky Mac and a love affair was born.

Bar Scene Babe Does Grand Central: From Auckland Scene

Posted by Tash McGill on Apr 27, 2011 in Auckland, Cooks & Cocktails | 0 comments

Originally posted at Auckland Scene

When do you know this bar thing is getting out of hand? When you order a drink at on a Monday night (on the night in question, a semi-traditional Whiskey-Mac with equal parts Irish Whiskey and ginger wine over ice with lemon, no mixer) and the bartender looks at you, smiles, winks, then says “Ah, hospo – right?”

Mondays, otherwise affectionately known as “hospo night” (when a lot of local bars and eateries take a well-deserved day off) is a strange time of the week to be reviewing a bar, but hey – for the Bar Scene Babe, anything goes.

A Clandestine Affair at The Department Store.

Posted by Tash McGill on Apr 20, 2011 in Auckland | 0 comments

I’ll be honest here, ok. Brace yourself. I’ve lived on the North Shore of Auckland for at least 10 years of my life. But, after all the years I’ve lived on the Shore, being firmly re-ensconced in central Auckland only reaffirms my feeling of being a foreigner when it comes to Takapuna. I mean, cliché as it is – it really is the land of BMW, Audi, white pants and now – the offshoot brainchild of some of New Zealand’s finest creatives – The Department Store. Which I think has and will continue to be a destination shopping & beauty experience for Aucklanders!

Therein, the conflict of interest lies. You see, I’ve had a bit of a lucky streak lately which started with winning $150 worth of The Department Store vouchers, which as Twitter informed me… doesn’t get you much. So, the very un-fashionista me… needed to go to the centre of high style in Takapuna. What a wicked tale of indulgence it begins..

Youth Specialties – An Update.

Posted by Tash McGill on Apr 20, 2011 in Community, Spirituality, Young People | 0 comments

So in 2009, I had the amazing privilege of working with Youth Specialties for a number of months. It was through a pretty crazy transition period for the organization. Well, actually – I came at what I thought was the end of a period of transition for the company.

As a youthworker, there has been no other organization that resources, trains and publishes relevant materials for my youth work career as well as my theological formation and development as a person of faith and a youthworker. YS has always been intelligent, forward-thinking and engaging. During my first years of volunteering, I clung to every word of Mike Yaconelli’s I could find. And other voices from the YS community began to become incredibly important and influence me.

So now – as another big announcement has just been made – I think it’s timely to throw a few thoughts and gratitudes of my own.

Bar Scene Babe Does The Golden Dawn: from Auckland Scene.

Posted by Tash McGill on Apr 18, 2011 in Cooks & Cocktails | 0 comments

When the Golden Dawn opened in December, there was much talk around town. For some of the young bartenders around town it was the place to work with Jacob Briars aka The Vodka Professor compiling a stunning drinks list and backbar selection of spirits.

And despite the flurry of new bars in Britomart, there are some things that just work, especially on Ponsonby Rd, no doubt thanks to the input of Sam Chapman (think Matterhorn, one of Wellington’s best bars), and Stephen Marr (hairdresser) and one of The Department Store brainstrust.

Righto – to the point, here’s what everyone else loves about Golden Dawn.

• The name. It’s a bit cheeky and while it’s the best time of the day to be drinking – let’s be honest, on Ponsonby Rd it could mean just about anything.
• It’s big enough to be flexible, find a quiet corner or dance to DJs in the packed out Friday & Saturday night scene.
• The hard-to-find, speak-easy entrance. It might look closed but pop your head around the corner, follow the light and noise from the outdoor courtyard. A little bit of mystery, woos the punters.
• That outdoor courtyard with coloured festoons strung from a maypole and long tables for sharing, it really does give you that New Orleans/county fair feeling.