An artistic abundance

I remember sitting in an Auckland fine-diner around this time last year (a bit pissed, admittedly), trying to avoid making eye contact with my friend as our waiter earnestly ran through the menu cover to cover, as if he was helping us select a coffin for a recently deceased family member. I’d lost the will to live by the time he’d finished, and we still had to endure an entire evening with him. The food that night was, at times, excellent, but the fussy, awkward service — including a strange skirmish between the sommelier and our waiter — and the hushed reverence of the soulless dining room sucked the joy from the night. I