The women of Blue, cafe & wine bar in Tāmaki Makaurau, are our current muses — fearless, curious, and quietly magnetic. They've built a community that’s electric, inviting, and alive in every sip, every bite, and every shared table. We asked them to share what moves them; what they’re reading, eating, listening to, and where they’re going.
EVE
Reading - Sex and Rage: Advice to Young Ladies Eager for a Good Time by Eve Babitz. I adore her writing. Privilege in Perpetuity: Exploding a Pākehā Myth by Peter Meihana.
Blue order - A long black and the green cilbir eggs. In the afternoon, a glass of Skin Contact wine.
Listening - Marlon Williams, Erny Belle, Aldous Harding, School Fair, Jazmine Mary, Ringlets are mainstays. Our own Jude Kelly and Awning (forever and always). Kate Bush for Sylvie. To keep her sane.
Travelling - Port Levy or Koukourarata on the Banks Peninsula is an important place for my whānau. We are privileged enough to have a cottage and I’m constantly dreaming of weeks spent there writing and resting.
Current muse - My Mama. She is beginning her full immersion haerenga this year and I’m completely proud. Inspired doesn’t begin to describe it.
KATIE
Reading - All About Love by Bell Hooks. It’s an incredible nonfiction that has really reshaped my understanding of love. You can never know too much about the topic.
Blue order - Whatever’s just at the peak of its season. Right now, it’s the heirloom tomatoes, a tomato dish is something I look forward to every year.
Travelling - My partner and I recently traveled to the South Island, and we really loved the Caitlins. The landscape is so immersive and powerful, it felt really humbling.
Current muse - I'm very inspired by collaboration at the moment. I feel privileged to be in an environment where the creativity and vision is shared by so many like minded friends.
SLYVIE
Reading - Ministry of Utmost Happiness by Arundhati Roy
Blue order - Our raw fish dish with strawberries and sumac togarashi from the evening menu with a Sawmill Pilsner or Palestinian owned Gaza Cola
Listening - Sharon Van Etten or maybe OutKast if I’m in a different kind of mood.
Travelling - I’ve spent a lot of time with my best friend on holiday in New York visiting my sister. I created a lot of memories and had experiences that will always stay with me. But my special spot is Paxos, a tiny little island in Greece.
Current muse - Forever and always my 3 older sisters, Ella, Florence and Olivia. I have always looked up to them as the youngest and they have shown me how to be a strong, fashionable, silly and resilient woman.
OPHELIA
Reading - I like my content consumption how I like my men, on either end of a spectrum, trashy or earnest and thought provoking, I’m disinterested in the middle group.
Blue order - Drinks wise…whatever Sylvie picks - she’s got a clever palette and I’m never disappointed. Food wise…Cilber eggs in the daytime, and in the evening the Crudo with a black like cream, strawberry, Zuni onion and sumac togarashi.
Listening - Jude Kelly’s latest album, ‘The Seven Spirits of Her’
Travelling - Tāwharanui, it’s close enough to Tamaki to not be a big ordeal but it feels worlds away.
Current muse - My mother always and my daughter always, children are the best inspiration…but also one of my best friends Joe - he’s just willing to be in the world in a way I find inspiring, always growing and learning, accepting, leaning and loving. Maybe also my husband, he’s having a bit of mid 30s identify crisis and I love how he’s leaning into it.
