For three weeks I won’t be posting recipes or food from our restaurant. The time of the year has come to take a little break with my wife to celebrate both our birthdays and our first wedding anniversary. We picked New Zealand for the first and last third of our trip. Today I will post about a little place in Queenstown that we heard about from in the Fodor´s Guide, its name:
Joes Garage.
This small establishment uses the Car Shop theme and yet simple has its style. And let me tell you, they have something good going on.
They have seats outside in a terrace, but at lunchtime when we arrived, there was nobody there, and a couple of tables were inside already eating.
The bartender greeted us and offered a lunch menu. We looked and decided to go for “The Morocco” and a Tomato-Basil soup from the specials menu.
When we see the Tomato soup offered in Menus, we have some conflicted feelings about it. We love it, but if you are not lucky, you may be up for a disappointment. Some people think it is just throwing tomatoes in a blender. It happened us in Chicago last September.
Joe’s soup was excellent; my wife will always say the only is one worth having is the one at Nordstrom. I happened to agree it is good but its not the only one worthy.
The Moroccan is a Greek-style Pita with a lamb pattie, Halumi cheese, and Rucola. Some basil vinaigrette and a side of horseradish. We loved it.
The espresso is perfect, they brag about it and it delivered.
This meal I would probably recommend to pair with a nice Pinot Noir since the Kiwis have an excellent selection on this grape.
Enjoy!
