Maria Lane Eatery
Sharon Stephenson’s taste buds travel the globe – via a laneway in Whanganui
I could tell you about the twice-cooked beef short ribs or the thick, creamy labneh, speckled with chilli butter. Or perhaps the tamari-baked tempeh, a dish that’s as clever as it is tasty. But all you really need to know is that in this quiet laneway off Whanganui’s main street, you and your taste buds are guaranteed a good time. Owners Belinda Pilcher and Bryce Mason opened Maria Lane Eatery & Bar in November 2019, not long after turning their back on the Wellington and Auckland hospo scenes. “We wanted to get out of the rat race and enjoy a more laid-back lifestyle for ourselves and our son Kye (13),” says Belinda. Bryce, who got his start in hospitality at Bellamys in the Beehive at 17, is best known for owning Sandwiches, the legendary Wellington bar and restaurant, for a decade. But his home town was always nibbling at the edges.
“We felt there was an opportunity to bring great food and a cool dining scene to Whanganui,” says Bryce. In 2017, the couple moved back, initially to start a roof-top garden bar. But when that didn’t work out, they found an unloved laneway that had once been the National Bank staff car park. They called in architect Chris Aplin, who created an elongated 65-seater restaurant. The result is Instagram-ready stunning, with concrete floors, oodles of glass and a minimalist vibe that looks as though it was airlifted from New York or Melbourne. Ironically, Melbourne is where they turned to for their head chef, local lad Isaac Paurini, who’d been working there for a decade with his wife Melanie, also a chef. “We had two young kids and were ready to come home and bring some of that Melbourne dining aesthetic to regional New Zealand,” says Isaac. It’s what the trio has done, nailing the concept of seasonally-driven food that roams across the planet. “It’s a small menu but we didn’t want to be restricted to any one cuisine,” adds Isaac. He does, however, lean into Asian and Middle Eastern flavours for dishes such as Vietnamese duck or the ever popular short ribs, which zing with the flavours of shores far from here. Ingredients are sourced as locally and organically as possible, with Isaac offering specials to showcase whatever is fresh that week. Bryce and Belinda also know their way around a cocktail menu, with offerings such as the Laneway Martini, a delicious mashup of vodka, peach and apple schnapps and passionfruit purée. I can personally recommend the Maria Lane Breakfast Club, which sounds so wrong but tastes oh-so-right: rum, Earl Grey tea, marmalade and honey. The team’s next move is, in fact, to take over space from the building next door for a 30-seater wine bar/cocktail nook, which they hope to open in March. “For so long, the regions were considered wastelands for good food and beverages,” says Belinda. “But people are doing cool things outside the main cities and now’s a great time to get in your car and get off the main drag. You’ll be surprised at what you’ll find.”