INFO
| Name | Mabel’s Burmese Eat & Drink Shop |
| Established | 2022 |
| Disestablished | 2024 |
| City | Pōneke Wellington |
| Artform | Culinary arts |
| Decades Active | 2020s |
| Address | 66 Tory Street, Te Aro, Pōneke Wellington |
ABOUT
Mabel’s was a Burmese restaurant in Pōneke Wellington, created by Marlar and Ian Boon and their business partner Dan Felsing (together, they’d run the cocktail bar Crumpet prior to the opening of Mabel’s). As well as offering Burmese food, Mabel’s became a hub for local Asian tauiwi communities and artists, hosting market days, events, and fundraising initiatives.
Mabel’s opened in January 2022 following a series of pop-ups. The restaurant quickly gained a following for its contemporary Burmese cuisine (including a dedicated group of regulars who called themselves ‘The Monsoon Munchers’). Marlar — who learned to cook Burmese food as an adult from cookbooks and “watching YouTube religiously, tasting dishes her mother made and trying to recreate them, and cooking at home” — describes Burmese as “a very textural cuisine, with strong flavours of citrus, heat, sour and salt/fish sauce.” The dishes at Mabel’s reflected this flavour profile and included nga gyi kyaw (fried whole fish with tamarind sauce and fresh herbs), chickpea-based tohu (tofu), a variety of curries, mohinga (fish and rice noodle soup), and la phet thoke (fermented tea leaf salad).
The restaurant was named in honor of Marlar’s Anglo-Burmese phwa phwa (grandmother), who opened The Monsoon, New Zealand’s first Burmese restaurant, on Cuba Street in 1978. Boon said, “Mabel’s is a continuation of her legacy, as well as a way to showcase Burmese identity and our family ties with this city. Often we have customers come in who remember Mabel, her restaurant and her work in the Wellington Buddhist community.” Mabel’s also became known for its welcoming atmosphere. Boon had studied visual arts and worked closely with artist-designer Marta Buda and seamstress Annemiek Weterings to create a distinctive textile patchwork at the heart of the restaurant, described by Broadsheet:
… if there's a wait for a table, chances are you'll be perched at the bar to the left of the wall that's covered in charming patchwork material. Mabel's is unpretentious but every choice is purposeful and meaningful; the checked textiles were inspired by the Burmese longyi (sarongs) owned by Boon's dear, late uncle.”
Doug Johns, who runs the design studio Super Standard (formally Best Wishes Studio) with Marta Buda, designed the restaurant’s visual identity, including creating “a unique font that’s reminiscent of Burmese people’s handwriting in English”.
Beyond food, Mabel’s played an active role in the city’s Asian and artist communities. It hosted ‘community hall’ market days (generally twice a year), supporting local retailers and raising funds for causes related to Myanmar. The restaurant also collaborated with artists, including the Asian Aotearoa Arts programme, to host cultural events like the South & Southeast Asian Solar New Year Celebration: “a day of art, design, music, readings, food and performances”. In a conversation with the collective Soil of Cultures, Boon said of the restaurant:
I don’t think we’re doing it to make money. I know for sure we aren’t! So for me it’s more about sharing something I love with everyone else. And being able to give jobs to other Burmese people. … To me, the restaurant is just bigger than me.
Mabel’s closed its doors on Christmas Eve, December 2024, marking the end of its three-year run. Announcing the closure on Instagram, Boon shared that she and Ian were looking forward to being able to spend more time with their children and reflected:
As Burmese diaspora, we often find that what’s happening in Myanmar gets overlooked. My only hope is that Mabel’s gave you a connection to Myanmar and a reason to keep yourselves engaged in our struggle. … Mabel’s was my Oo (Uncle) Micky’s last wish before he passed in 2021. This was for him, he was so pleased we were going to name the restaurant after Phwa Phwa.
