Graze Wine Bar

It's about treading lightly on the earth at Max Gordy and Stina Persen’s 22-seater in Kelburn. This means minimising waste throughout the menu and fit-out, and a focus on local, ethically sourced ingredients and suppliers.

Chef Gordy is determined to be as close to zero-waste as possible, with a concise, ever-changing food menu on a blackboard on the wall. Dishes often feature produce that Gordy forages for around Wellington; when Broadsheet visited shortly after it opened in 2022, he had gathered porcini mushrooms from nearby Mount Victoria and was serving them in perogies (Polish cheese and potato dumplings).

He also adheres to the slow fish movement, only serving seafood that is harvested sustainably. This means he won’t touch fish caught in a trawler, opting instead for spearfish he gets from a fisher, with whom he has built a relationship.

The wine list features New Zealand wines from hand-picked producers such as family-owned Astrolabe Wines from Marlborough and Hawke’s Bay’s minimal-intervention Decibel Wines. Spirits arrive in five-litre refillable bottles from Southward Distilling Co on Cuba Street.

In the space itself, much of the decor has been reused or repurposed. From the street, the interior glows with yellow lighting and you can perch at the kitchen on a bar stool (covered in secondhand jeans sewn by Persen and her mother), seasonal cocktail in hand as you watch Gordy and team prepare your meal.