Queenies Lunchroom

HomeMenuFind UsPressWe like...Home

MenuJust a snippet of the scrumptious things made fresh daily by Angus & his team...Baked Goods DailySeasonal fruit & almond puff pastry tarts with creme fraicheHuge meringues with cream & berriesRasberry & white chocolate brownieScone with cream & rasberry jamArray of cakesBreakfastCreate your own big breakfast from a tasty selection of sides includingbubble & squeak, black pudding, haloumi & tea smoked salmonBoiled eggs with mitey soldiersHealthy Homemade granolaPikelets with lemon curd, cream fraiche and berriesCanadian toast with banana, pecans, maple syrup & baconCassoulet with canallini beans,chorizo, fried egg & ciabattaLunchSeasonal fare - changes dailyCrispy pork belly with honey roast root vegetables, spinach & tamirillo chutneyMarinated lemon & thyme chicken with white wine mustard sauce, kumara & green beansTea smoked salmon with bubble n' squeak, rocket, tomatoes, poached egg, parmesan & lemon dressingHerb crusted baked Puhoi goats cheese with rocket, almond & caramelised pear salad with honey & lemon dressingDaily soupSelection of sandwichesDaily tart i.e. salmon, capers, olive and cream cheese,or spinach, walnut & blue cheeseTake me awaySeasonal preserves - marmalade, rasberry & orange jam, lemon curd, tomato & chilli jamQueenies granolaSelection of biscuits & cookiesParmesan shortbreadFind UsPressSupreme Winner! Metro's 2009 Cafe Awards (November) Issue 338"A confabulation of award-winning design, mouth watering flavours and a charming unpretentious atmosphere. Our 2009 Cafe of the Year." "Owner Allana Owen has created an exquisite space, produces original and delicious food and great coffee, and works hard to keep her customers very happy. It's a real beaut."Gold for Queenies - Best Design Awards (October) 2009The BeST Design Awards are a national award programme of the Designers Institute of New Zealand, recognising New Zealand'sbest graphic, product and spatial design.We Won! Group Winner - Retail Design Awards (September) 2009The RED awards (formerly known as the Retail Design Awards) are about promoting excellence in retail design and recognising the contribution of designers and shopfitters to the retail industry .Judges comment "This is a unique, stand-out design concept with an innovative mix of colour, finishes and details. The brief required something that wasn't slick and minimalist and this has certainly been met. This is a bold move with a distinct flavour. Overall great result.Thanks to our designers, Clark Brown Architects Ltd. and shopfitters Scope Projects LtdUrbis, Issue 40Queenies - Cafe Auckland, New Zealand THE NAME REMINDS me of childhood, playing kings and queens, and running inside to be fed jam tarts and sardine sandwiches. Although at the same time, lunchroom immediately brings to mind the workingmans plastic-ribboned bakery or dairy. What Queenies actually is, is somewhere between the two: a fantastical childrens daydream come to life with a huge paint-by-numbers mural along one wall, that is also an unpretentious stopover for the adult coffee crowd. Owner Alana Owen and her husband, Paul Brown, of Clark Brown Architects, had a small slot of grass on a corner tucked behind College Hill in Herne Bay, and when they built the new building they felt like the site needed the architectural expression of a corner dairy. In line with Owens desire for an eclectic and comfortable space, they filled the café with old Crown Lynn china, photographs, Coke crates upholstered with brightly striped canvas, and zinc tables designed by the architects, to create a space filled with remnants of childhood memories. As everything feels so tantilisingly familiar, you cant help but feel comfortable. Nicole Stock Viva 6 May 2009A new cafe is getting leads in a stir, for its lived-in quality and enticing neighbaurly charm .STREET corners are tailor- made for surprises and this Freemans Bay corner cafe is, by its very esistence, one of life’s truly sweet surprises. Just ask everyone who has swung past this formerly anonymous corner between Franklin Rd and College Hill and pulled up with a start outside Queenies Lunchroom wondering why the heck they can’t remember what used to be in this building. This place has been her forever, right? It’s got “Queenies Bldg’ stamped into its plaster exterior, old style painted signs, Grandma’s tea cups and floral canister. There’s that paint-by-numbers wall byartistTyla Va’eau, the green vinyl counter and those Coke box seats. And on it goes, to the amusement of Allana Owen, the proprietor, and her husband, architect Paul Brown, who can claim existing-user rights to this city-fringe talking point. His architectural practice, Clark Brown Architects, is right next door in the commercial building that he and Allana owned for a couple of years without realising that they also owned the grass plot adjoining the council verge. There, right under their noses, sat 60 sq m of big possibilities just begging to be turned into the cafe they opened last November. Itching for a creative project, Allana dismissed the doubters who believed that their cafe had to be on Ponsonby Rd and minimalist in style to succeed. “It takes self-belief but if you have an idea that sparks a passion and you do it with integrity then just go with it.” Forget “minimalism” and don’t dare talk “retro” or “kiwiana” either. “I just hate those words,” she says. Think instead, as they both did, of a “corner store” or a favourite “local” that gets you connected with your neighbourhood. “It’s about people being able to take ownership of a public place where they can meetand make friends with the warmth of being in someone’s front living room,” says Allana. From chef’s blackboard menu treats and hot chocolates in Temuka mugs to the OIY toast from your table-top toaster, Oueenies in — underpinned by nostalgia in a deceptively simple building. “I didn’t want to over-design the space,” Paul explains. “The scale and the materiuls are actually all pretty simple.” New villx-xtyle sash windows, French doors, a panelled ceiling, built-in French benquette seating and the chequerboard painted floor in the greervcreem colours of vintage enamelware dehne the inteilor. The rest— including the vintage paper towel holder in the Florence Broadhxrst-wallpapered bathroom — has Allana’s touch all over it. Colour is her forte but she’s suwy enough to know that “the louder the barter” isn’t always the best. Credit here goes to Clark Brown architect Natalie Snowden for the beautiful muted tones within this big picture. Every piece here has its own story, from the classic, newly powder- coated La San Marco espresso machine ref urbished by the guys at Supreme coffee roasters, to the long marble table from an old butchery. And every day brings yet another bemused pemon in through Oueenies’ doors. “Even the little lady who once lived in an old house next door coeldn’t work it out either,” says Allana. View Auckland, March 2009Queenies Lunchroom 5 out of 5 stars Maybe it’s just the current mood of this batten down the hatches recession, but there are a few cafés around town that kind of make you miss the simpler days of old. We’ve already reviewed Agnes Curran up in Ponsonby, and a just a short way down Franklin Rd, Queenie’s Lunchroom is also doing great things with a hip retro Kiwiana ambience. You’d never know it from the outside, but the Queenie’s building is a new construction, sandwiched amidst a mix of apartments and offices in a quiet Freeman’s Bay back street. There are a few tables and chairs on a sunny patio outside, but the real retro fun kicks off inside. A huge mural — think unfinished paint by numbers meets Kiwi icons like Napier’s Pania of the Reef statue — dominates one wall. Other quirky touches include retro toasters, a vintage Kiwi shoe polish rack now dispensing servettes, paper bags and cutlery, and a cake plate decorated with naïvely drawn sketches of New Zealand’s fourth most popular folk parody duo, which is for sale along with other objects. The Flight of the Conchords comparison is actually quite apt, because Queenie’s Lunchroom also celebrates with a cool Kiwi irony. The team behind the counter are confident and laidback, and on the menu there’s a mix of international flavours and local goodies. The counter is a padded vinyl wonder that looks like it been rescued from your uncle’s rumpus room in Pakuranga. It’s mid morning and most people are only in for coffee, but I team a freshly baked cinnamon brioche ($4) with a sausage sandwich ($9). Crammed with spicy relish in toasted ciabatta, it’s great comfort food in these slightly uncertain times. The home-made pies also look good. Along with an alarmingly up-to-date selection of magazines, they’re another reason to return. The breakfast menu (7am-llam) skews towards classics with a twist; how about Canadian Toast with a maple syrup update, or boiled eggs With Vegemite soldiers? Lunch (noon-2pm) is more sophisticated with a highlight being Pork Belly with mustard and lemon braised cabbage, caramelized apples and mojo rojo (a Spanish condiment made from red peppers). Again, it’s hearty comfort food, maybe what your Aunty used to make. Of course that’s only if your Aunty was a well-travelled Kiwi foodie who had returned home to open the perfect little neighbourhood café. Gay Express, Food & Wine Issue 11-24 Feb 2009We entered Queenie’s Lunchroom at 9.3Oam, desperate for coffee and in need of sustenance. Walking into Queenie’s is like walking into a much more fabulous version of your nana’s kitchen — retro re-fit toasters, crown lynn crockery, floral serving trays and colour, colour, colour! From the huge mural — made to look like unfinished paint-by-numbers — to the freshy baked scones, meringues and savoury muffins, Queenie’s feels like it’s been there for forty years; it opened in November last year! Owner Allana and the staff adorn themselves with 60s aprons — except for delicious chef Angus, who the girls hide in the kitchen to prepare all things breakfast. Accosting Angus in the kitchen, we found a very clean space and a very sweaty man! “I haven’t even started on my tart and I’m thinking of doing away with eggs altogether,” he says. Spoken like a true queen! We loved Angus’s food though! Poached eggs with slow roast tomatoes, mushrooms and bubble ‘n’ speak were a simple but tasty treat for Hannah, whereas Amy and Paul chose more decadent breakfasts — Italian toast with roasted stone fruit, prosciutto and lemon syrup for her, Canadian toast with banana, pecan, bacon and maple syrup for him. We sat in the mid-morning sun, watching busy businessmen, animal control vans and fire trucks pass by, completely relaxed and happy to be away from the office for a day. After a couple of coffees, fresh juice and cold water, we left Queenie’s feeling happy, smiley and well fed! Taste, January 2009Place to visit: Queenie’s Lunchroom Standing proud on a corner site in Auckland’s Freeman’s Bay, Queenie’s Lunchroom opened late last year, defying the trend ofminimalist design dominating Auckland’s café scene. Owner Allana Owen explains, “I’m into eclectic, vintage things and I knew what I wanted Queenie’s to look like,” Hence the striking landscape mural, the 1950s’ ceramics on show, and a selection of craftwork by local artists for sale, Fiffingly, the menu doesn’t strive for cuffing-edge either. Instead, British chef Angus McLean, who has worked at Peter Gordon’s The Providores in London and Bellota here, focuses on what Allana calls “good clean food”, using fresh, seasonal ingredients with minimal fuss. A former primary school teacher, Allana says, “I wanted to create a community here. I think a lot of people are feeling insecure in today’s society and want to hark back to the comforts of how things used to be.” Geraldine Johns, About Town, 7 December 2008IT IS the perfect place for scone to meet cream; a schmoozing of lumpable jam in between. It is the address of dreamy clouds of meringue with the same sweet and creamy accessories — and you better save room for either of the above after you’ve partaken of the good savoury stuff that has gone before. Queenie’s is something old and something new: a paint- by-numbers mural and loudy green walls and striped orange upholstery. It is Crown Lynn china and cushioned Coke crates and cutlery of yore. Women wear aprons when they wait upon your table. Time-honoured traditions with a new food take. The punters do things differently at Queenie’s too. They talk with their neighbours, whom they do not know. They remark on the fact that you get butter on your toast; wait staff who don’t sneer; that there is comfort in abundance and not a snot of pretension. The Royal We have had multiple Queenie’s occasions since its November advent. We like today the bruschetta with salmon hot off the in- house smoker. It has a fall- apart gorgeousness all about its glossy, smokey self. It has tomatoes that taste like tomatoes, and cucumber and greens and a sprightly dressing too. This dish is from the lunch list. The golfing companion has for himself the Canadian toast (which is a modified French toast without the F word) from the breakfast menu — which ceases, depending on the whims of chef, around 11am. That’s when they bring out the sandwiches and they put the very excellent pies in the oven and they offer a tart of the day and other specials. Queenie’s, by its own definition, is “serving refreshments daily”. A woman likes the refreshing approach the place takes to the provision of foods and service. There is a price for this niceness, in that it is upper-end on the expense account, but the pain is ameliorated by the quality. We have supped finely on coffee (the supreme Supreme) and tea (loose leaf). We have owner Allana Owen and chef Angus McLean to thank for all this. Owen — a fine hostess — says she wanted a place that was comfortable and not pretentious and she has swiftly achieved her aim. The charming McLean is dogged in his dedication; making all but the brioche and pies (which themselves have a fme pedigree, coming from the house of Maggie Mowbray’s Little Cake Kitchen). Queenie’s opens only on weekdays but there are plans for Saturdays, too, after the Christmas break. This has to be for the betterment of society. We like...We like....Aaah! Teawww.aaahtea.co.nzBashford Antiqueswww.bashford.co.nzBlack Box Photographywww.blackbox.net.nzClark Brown Architectswww.clarkbrown.co.nzCoffee Supremewww.coffeesupreme.comEuropean Antiqueswww.europeanantiques.co.nzPowersurgewww.powersurge.co.nz 24a Spring Street, Freemans Bay,

Auckland, New Zealand

Serving Refreshments Daily

from 7 o'clock to 3.30 Monday through Friday,

from 8 o'clock to 2 Saturday & Sunday

Telephone: (09) 378 8977

Email: allana_queenieslunchroom.co.nz