We Speak Dining & Drinks

Auckland Feast Turns the Whole City Into a Dining Room for Eleven Days

Published

4 days ago

November 11, 2026

The Auckland skyline seen from Viaduct Basin, home to Viaduct Harbour and its waterfront restaurants. Photo by Bernard Spragg, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Most food festivals fence themselves into a single park or hall. Auckland Feast is doing the opposite, spreading across an entire city and letting its restaurants, harbour and racecourse share the work. The citywide dining festival, powered by Mastercard, runs from Thursday, November 12 to Sunday, November 22, 2026, and it packs more than 25 culinary experiences into eleven days.

The format is simple and generous. Participating restaurants across the Auckland region serve special set menus through the festival, chefs pair up for collaborations, and outdoor dining takes over while the New Zealand spring is in full swing. Diners who pay with Mastercard at participating restaurants during the eleven days go into a daily draw, with four dining vouchers worth 250 dollars given away each day of the festival.

The signature events lean into the setting. The festival launches with a party at Jacuzzi on Thursday, November 12 from 6 pm. On Saturday, November 14, the Mr Morris team takes to the water for Mr Morris at Sea, sailing from Viaduct Harbour Berth 3 at 2 pm. Chefs Kasey and Kārena Bird follow with their own harbour event on Thursday, November 19 at 5.30 pm, again from Berth 3 on the Viaduct. The week closes with The Long Table Lunch at Ellerslie on Friday, November 20, a midday sitting at Ellerslie Racecourse in Remuera built around one shared table and a long lunch.

It adds up to a festival designed less like a trade show and more like a city eating together on purpose. For visitors, it is a ready made itinerary of the Auckland table at its best. For locals, it is eleven days of excuses to book the table they keep meaning to book, from a harbour cruise with a chef on board to lunch at the races.

Red Robin Bets Its Comeback on a Chef With 34 Years at California Pizza Kitchen

Published

4 days ago

November 11, 2026

We Speak Media

A gourmet burger, the dish at the center of the Red Robin menu revamp. Photo by Marshall Astor, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Comebacks in the restaurant business usually start in the kitchen, and Red Robin is making that literal. The burger chain has hired Brian Sullivan as its vice president of culinary and beverage innovation, handing its menu revamp to a chef who spent 34 years shaping the food at California Pizza Kitchen.

Sullivan began at California Pizza Kitchen as a kitchen manager and rose to senior vice president of culinary innovation, where he helped define the chain’s habit of putting global flavors on pizza. He also recently helped launch that chain’s first burger, an experience that translates directly to his new job. He left the pizza company in an executive shakeup late last year.

The hire reunites him with G.J. Hart, Red Robin’s chief executive, who took over in September and previously led California Pizza Kitchen with Sullivan in its kitchen. Hart has since hired a new chief financial officer and chief legal officer as part of a near total rebuild of the leadership team. “I enjoyed working with Brian during my time at California Pizza Kitchen and consider him one of the best culinary minds in the industry,” Hart said in a statement. “Menu quality and innovation is a major component of our comeback plan and Brian and his team are making great progress on menu enhancements we will roll out later this year.”

The early agenda is concrete. Red Robin plans to install flat top grills to improve its burgers, refresh its milkshakes and widen the entree selection across its 510 restaurants. “I am excited to join an iconic brand like Red Robin, known for their wide variety of gourmet burgers, bottomless fries, and creative beverages,” Sullivan said in a statement. “We are going to create an amazing menu and have a lot of fun.”

For a sit down burger chain fighting for relevance, the bet is that a familiar name in the kitchen can make the food worth talking about again.