Stay warm at Atlas

Fried chicken burger with bacon,
guacamole and a poached egg

Our talented chef has been working hard on our Winter Menu 2018. The trial period is over and the feedback we received is just mind-blowing.

Start your day right with a freakishly delicious chicken burger, also available at lunch time! For all the veggies out there, give the beetroot bubble and squeak with grilled haloumi, poached eggs and hollandaise a try. 

Add a Barista made coffee and you are good to go. To make you the happy bunny that we want you to be we expanded our lactose milk options to soy, almond or coconut.

Black bean quesadilla with guacamole,
fried egg and whipped chipotle sour cream

We are proud of our steak but variety is the key. What says winter more than beef stew with smoked mash and toasted ciabatta!? Or maybe your last trip to Asia is still on your mind? Come and get lost in your memories while enjoying a shredded duck open sandwich with pickled cucumber, spring onion and hoisin! If you have been  feeling like something light and refreshing then try our delightful grilled haloumi and beetroot salad with toasted walnuts and pomegranate dressing. 

How good is it when items are on both our lunch and dinner menu? No need to worry about time.

Shredded duck open sandwich with
pickled cucumber, spring onion and hoisin

Try our house made mushroom and leek sausage on smoked mash topped with onion jam and vegetarian gravy.

If this doesn’t make your mouth water maybe this tasty addition to our dinner menu will – twice cooked pork belly with ginger glaze on smoked mash with apple sauce.

All you need to warm yourself up after a good day shredding up the mountain is a little snack. We provide Japanese fried chicken, salt and pepper squid or Atlas style Poutine all day, along with an extended tapas menu at dinner time.

All winter we are doing a varying Sunday Roast every week.

One of our Sunday Roasts

Keep an eye on our Instagram or Facebook pages for daily specials and other fun stuff! 

Come and make your own opinion and try our Winter Menu. Let us know your thoughts on TripAdvisor. 

See you soon.

Grilled haloumi and beetroot salad
with toasted walnuts
and pomegranate dressing

House made mushroom and leek sausage
on smoked mash topped with
onion jam and vegetarian gravy

Tapas: diamond clams in a
spicy laksa curry sauce

Tapas: twice-cooked pork belly with
pickled cucumber crushed peanuts and hoisin

Queenstown.com: Atlas is Queenstown's Best Kept Secret

Chipotle Chickpea Burger with guacamole & corn chips.
Served for lunch and dinner

Take a break this Monday and check out your favourite restaurant and bar manager, Wes, and Atlas featured on Queenstown.com!

Our vegan and vegetarian options have been giving our rump steak stiff competition. Come in a try something new.

Read the article here.

Raise a glass to Queenstown's Altitude Brewing

Eliott Menzies from Altitude Brewing Studios
with one of his award winning beers on tap at Atlas

We only serve the best here at Atlas so it comes as no surprise that two of Queenstown’s Altitude Brewing Studios’ beers have won silver medals at the 2015 Brewers’ Guild of New Zealand Beer Awards. The Atlas team would like to congratulate Eliott Menzies of Altitude Brewing on this achievement – especially as his range has only been in retail circulation for just over two years.

The Mischievous Kea, winning silver in the Strong Pale Ale category, is made using all Kiwi ingredients – a carefully chosen blend of hops from Marlborough and malts from the Canterbury Plains. It’s a cheeky beer, with a cheeky attitude, which matches the cheeky parrot it’s named after! (5.5% abv)

The Posturing Professional, winning a silver in the Pale Ale category, is your typical Kiwi alpine ale. Eliott has used old school New Zealand hops to keep NZ’s brewing heritage and ancestry in mind. Best served after a hard day’s work! (5% abv)

“It is definitely a humbling feeling to win anything – as apparently this year’s awards were judged very harshly – and to be judged ahead of beers, that I considered international benchmarks, is a bit surreal. To win with two beers, you kind of have to smack yourself to see if it’s real. As of now, three, of the five beers in our range have medalled – so it must mean something being done is right. When you’re working 80 hours a week it’s a nice reward for sure!” – Eliott Menzies

Congratulations Altitude Brewing – you guys deserve it – and our customers love it!

The Mischievous Kea, along with two others in the Altitude Brewing range, can be found on tap at Atlas just now. The Posturing Professional will be returning to our line-up in coming weeks, along with three new Altitude beers.

Atlas Hand Pump - Tuatara Copperhead

Equally as delicious in Spring.

We've currently got Tuatara's Copperhead Red Rye on our handpump at Atlas and it's a ripper. Perfect for the colder months and pretty apt for early Spring, we think. It's not exactly that warm at night yet plus there's still ton of skiing to be had - so this beer fits right in. 

As the name suggests, rye is in the mash and that gives a distinct flavour you won't find anywhere else. The rye is enhanced by Bramling Cross hops resulting in a smooth palate that allows the spiciness of the rye flavours to be enjoyed and not smothered. The finish is sweet and fruit but still has the spice of the rye present.

Tuatara suggest, on their website, pork belly as an accompaniment. You could try a Copperhead with Atlas' pork belly with apple glaze and sesame seeds. Mmm-mmm that's apres sorted! 

Tuatara Copperhead Red Rye | 4.5% | $9.50 pint

Pork belly with apple glaze and sesame seeds | $8.5

Altitude Brewing | Moonlight Track Stout

Our good friends at Altitude Brewing have managed to tear themselves away from all that pow to brew their moreish new stout, Moonlight Track. As far as brews go you just can't fault a drop of stout when it comes to winter drinking. 

Moonlight goes on the lines at Atlas from this Friday (14th August). Elliott and the Altitude team will be in the bar from 7pm to answer any questions you may have about their new beer. So come on down to give it a whirl. Oh and there'll be a prize or two to win too!

Altitude Brewing Moonlight Track Stout | 6.8% | $9.50

Emerson's London Porter now on nitro from today!

Pouring the good stuff

Today we have had a brand new tap installed at Atlas! We're got a shiny new nitro tap with a keg of Emerson's London Porter tapped and ready to be poured into your glass.

What's a nitro pump? Most beers are pulled using CO2 or system that uses a mixture of CO2 and nitrogen to get the beer from the keg into the glass. Traditionally, it was hand pumps which used air along with a bit of elbow grease from whoever was pouring the pint. 

Using nitrogen alone makes for a really smooth pour which is great for dark beers, porters and stouts which serve well with little, or even no, carbonation. The result is smooth, tiny, creamy bubbles - Guinness being a well recognised point of reference for this.

If you are unfamiliar with Emerson's London Porter you can expect a dry, mellow brew with hoppy characteristics. It's firm-bodied without being heavy, has a creamy texture and the palate is roasted malt and coffee. 

If you are familiar with the porter it's definitely worth giving it a whirl now we have it on the nitro pump, it's a whole new experience!

Emerson's London Porter | 5% | $9 pint

Pump and pint

Waiting for it to settle

A quick sip for quality control

As always, please enjoy responsibly.

Atlas Beer of the Week: The Goldpanner's Profit

Goldrush

We've got some more of Altitude Brewing Studios Goldpanner's Profit back on the lines at Atlas as our beer of the week.

The Goldpanner's Profit is a crisp and refreshing ale named after the hardworking prospectors of Queenstown's iconic goldrush. Below are the tasting notes:

Brewed from all NZ ingredients, The Goldpanner's Profit is designed around a malt profile that gives a refreshing and characterful flavour with a very dry finish. It's rich and golden in the glass and had been subtly hopped to give a light bitterness on the palate and a pleasing nose of summer fruits. 

Colour: Rich gold
Nose: Tropical Summer fruits
Palate: Clean malts with a hint of toffee and biscuit. Mild bitterness with a dry wheat finish.
Hops: Riwaka, Nelson Sauvin
Malts: Pilsener, Wheat, Toffee, Biscuit, Chocolate
ABV: 4.9%

We recently caught up with the brewer behind the Goldpanner's Altitude's Eliott Menzies. If you missed the post click here to check it out. 

Altitude Brewing Studios The Goldpanner's Profit | 4.9% | $9 pint

Please enoy responsibly

Altitude Brewing Studios - The Posturing Professional Pale Ale

We're stoked to have the latest offering from Altitude Brewing Studios now tapped at Atlas. The Posturing Professional is a pale ale and is names after "the posturing mountain professionals the world over that are certain they are the pinnacle of human evolution".

Created as a session beer, The Posturing Professional is flavoursome and ideally enjoyed after a hard day on the slopes or on the trails. 

With a nod to New Zealand's brewing heritage The Posturing Professional is made with classic NZ Hops that haven't been cross-bred. The resulting beer has a dry palate with a sweet hop balance and clean spiciness on the finish plus sweet lemon and cut grass on the nose.

Altitude Brewing Studios The Posturing Professional | 5% |
$9 per pint

Please enjoy responsibly! 

Jabberwocky Brewing Company - Central Otago Pale Ale

Keep a look out: Jabberwocky's Pale Ale

We've got a new bottled beer in on the menu from Jabberwocky Brewing Company. It's a Central Otago Pale Ale and is brewed just a hop, skip and a jump away in Alexandra. 

The fun and fanciful blurb on the bottle reads as follows: "Beware the Jabberwocky! A storyline that conjures up thoughts of a mystery creature. Never seen but always always watching. Told in the Central Otago high country to keep young musterers vigilant for it may be their precious supplies that go missing such as their lunch or worse, their beer! New Zealand males and hops come together and shine in this unfiltered pale ale which finishes clean and refreshing."

As it's always cool to buy local, whenever possible, why not give one a whirl next time you're in Atlas.

Jabberwocky Brewing Company | Central Otago Pale Ale | 5.8%
$10 per 330ml bottle

Catching up with Altitude Brewing's Eliott Menzies

Sweet as: Altitude's Eliott Menzies checks out
 the sugar content of a brew

Based in Queenstown, Altitude Brewing Studios is a truly local brewery. As we've had a few of their beers on the lines at Atlas of late we thought we would have a catch up with head brewer and founder, Eliott Menzies, to find out a little bit more about what inspired him to start brewing and what we can expect next from Altitude.


Hi Eliott. Tell us a bit about yourself. Are you from Queenstown originally? If not, what brought you here?

I call Queenstown home. I moved here in 1997 and went through the school system. After that I lived overseas for several years, studied architecture in Wellington and then moved back. I really love being in Queenstown and enjoy the lifestyle that Queenstown provides. In recent years the town has changed beyond recognition and become a lot busier but it's still an awesome place to live. You just have to be patient sometimes!

Have you always been interested in brewing?

Not always, but at least for the last ten years. When I was 18 I was living in Scotland and I visited a brewery called Atlas in Kinlochleven which is in the Scottish Highlands. It fascinated me and I started appreciating a good beer. I still have their T-Shirt!

Can explain a bit about the inspiration behind Altitude Brewing Studios - what made you decide to get started?

The idea of Altitude started about two years ago. I was working for Peregrine Wines and brewing regularly from home and was consistently told that my beers were better than anything being sold in Queenstown. The time was right when both our breweries moved out of town. I knew I could have the market as Queenstown's only local brewery, as that means a lot to the locals here. I started to do some research into setting up a brewery and started to save up some money.

We've had the Mischievous Kea IPA on tap at Atlas and it's proved to be really popular. Is IPA a personal favourite of yours? What inspired you to start with an IPA as a first release?

An IPA is a very expressive beer and also one that really showcase a brewer's style. It is a personal favourite of mince as these are so many styles of it and you can really mess around with recipes creating some unique, interesting and awesome beers. A true all NZ IPA was always going to be the place to start for me and the recipe went through a two year development process to get it where it is now. Needless to say there will be many more versions of IPA in Altitude's future.

The beers you make have names that reflect the Queenstown locality. In terms of taste, is there anything you do to represent the Southern Lakes, flavour-wise, when thinking up recipes?

The most important thing to me when experimenting with a recipe, is to give the finished beer a defined backbone - to create a beer that has obviously been thought about and not mass produced. I designed the Goldpanner's Profit golden ale with a hot, Central Otago summer evening in mind - making it dry and refreshing. Then with The Posturing Professional pale ale, I wanted it to be flavourful and sessionable, so it can be enjoyed after a day on the slopes.

What other styles of beer do you like?

I really enjoy the way the English do their beer. An English special bitter or a Scotch ale are both special to me. The combination of cellar temperature and low carbonation means you can actually taste the beer. Some breweries shouldn't hide their questionable products by serving them fizzy and cold. I'm also a sucker for a girl holding a pint of double IPA.

What other releases are on the horizon for Altitude Brewing Studios? Can you give us a preview?

As I mentioned before there will definitely be more IPAs in the future. Next however, I think will be a double IPA which is a supercharged version of it's parent style. Even more hops and an alcohol level of around 9%. A party in your mouth , as they say. After that? Well, a Baltic Porter for Winter and then a low alcohol beer perhaps. There's so many things I want to do! I think though I want to concentrate on getting the current range the best it can be before expanding to much.

Taking a look at the Atlas menu, what dish would you match with a Mischievous Kea IPA and why?

A Mischievous Kea and an Atlas steak cook rare please. Not many things in Queenstown could beat that for an evening meal. In fact nothing, I reckon. Strong flavours need strong flavours. An epic combo.

And finally, describe your perfect Queenstown day.

A bit of a sleep in; ski pow all morning; a couple of rounds of disc golf in the afternoon; go for a run with the dog and then one of those steak and Kea combos. I guess I should fit some brewing in there somewhere also!




Altitude Brewing Studios | Mischievous Kea IPA | 5.5% | $9 per pint

Emerson's Brewer's Reserve - Summathat Pale Ale

'av summathat!

This is the third instalment in Emerson's voyage of lower abv ale exploration. The task they set themselves was to create a beer with a lower abv whilst still ensuring the beer had plenty of flavour (higher abv accentuate the flavours and aromas in a beer).

We had Nap in the Chair, then Acid Trip on the lines at Atlas and now it's Summathat. 

Summathat is inspired by the long awaited Otago Summer. Feeling in a summery mood after one day of rays in Dunedin the brewers got work. This time throwing in all the hops in at dry hopping time. Simcoe, Cascade, Zythos, Citra and Amarillo hops are all featured culminating in a huge hop hit with a tropical character being backed up by a citrus and piney zestiness. Bitterness is lower than in the previous Nap and Acid Trip ales. The malts are German Vienna for warmth and CaraAroma for some toastiness. 

Emerson's Brewer's Reserve Summathat Pale Ale| 4.9% | $9 per pint