21 September 2010

A pop-up café in downtown Auckland looks here to stay for the long-haul.

Federal & Wolfe was initially described to us as a pop-up café in the space Rice restaurant use to occupy in Auckland’s CBD (unsurprisingly on the corner of Federal and Wolfe streets). We headed there for lunch and learnt that it’s actually more of a work in progress that’s destined to stay rather than a temporary spot. A far cry from the stark modern interior of its predecessor Rice, Federal & Wolfe has taken the rustic approach with large wooden spools used for tables, massive blackboards and industrial light shades all adding to the comfortable casual ambience.

Within Federal & Wolfe, the usual selection of cabinet food is available, but with a great offering from the kitchen, we opted for the latter. We ordered organic booster and zinger juices filled with fresh oranges, carrots and pineapples served in jam jars. For lunch, we had the organic beef burger topped with beetroot and feta relish with onion rings and a risotto with vine tomato buffalo mozzarella and rocket.  The meal sizes are substantial and very well priced with most main meals in the vicinity of $15 – $20. Federal & Wolfe is an excellent addition to the somewhat starved inner city lunch circuit.