Ponsonby · Est. 2017
A prohibition-era cocktail bar on Ponsonby Road. House-made bitters, weekly guest-mixologist residencies, and drinks worth dressing up for.
Build your flight →Maia Chen and Reuben Tait signed a lease on a 90-square-metre basement beneath Bloom & Stem florist. They spent four months hand-laying 2,400 hexagonal brass tiles, fitting a twelve-seat American walnut bar and wiring 114 pendant bulbs on individual dimmers. The first cocktail served was a Corpse Reviver No. 2 made with their own dried-orange bitters.
What started as three house bitters grew to fourteen. The back office became the bitters lab: dehydrators, vacuum sealers, a centrifuge and an entire shelf of gentian root and wormwood. Every classic on the menu uses at least one house bitter, and we sell four-bottle sets to take home.
Kahu Matene, formerly of Cloakroom Bar in Melbourne, moved behind our bar for four weeks and introduced a clarified-milk punch programme that we still run every winter. Since then, forty-seven mixologists from Auckland, Sydney, Tokyo and Mexico City have done residencies.
We placed eighth in the Spirited Awards Australasia list and won Best Cocktail Menu for our seasonal Autumn Bitter Suite — five drinks built around quince, walnut and smoked honey.
We have not expanded. We will not franchise. The Gilded Hour is one room, one bar, one team that knows your name. Reservations open seven days ahead at noon.
Tasting Flight
Pick up to four cocktails. We will serve them smallest-to-strongest with flavour notes and garnish pairings.
Guest Mixologists
Formerly of Cloakroom Bar, Melbourne. Kahu introduced our winter milk-punch programme in 2022 and returns each June with a new clarification technique. This year: cold-brew coffee Negroni, clarified tableside.
Residency: 2–29 June 2026Head bartender at Bar High Five, Tokyo. Four weeks focused on precise dilution: hand-cut ice, calibrated soda and single-malt Japanese whiskies served at exactly 4 degrees Celsius.
Residency: 7 July – 3 August 2026Co-owner of Cantina Oscura, Mexico City. Sofia brings artisanal mezcal from three Oaxacan palenques and builds cocktails around sal de gusano, chapulines and hoja santa.
Residency: 10 August – 6 September 2026Maia opened The Gilded Hour in 2017 after a decade behind bars in London and Auckland. She runs the bitters lab, designs each seasonal menu and still takes the Wednesday-night close.
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What's On
Two hours, four clarifications, all the science. Includes cocktails and bitters to take home.
Teams of four. Three rounds: spirits history, blind tasting, cocktail speed-build. Winners drink free.
Japanese whisky, hand-cut ice, calibrated soda. Learn the perfect highball.
Tour the lab, taste all fourteen bitters, blend your own 50ml bottle to keep.
We host private events on Mondays and select Sunday afternoons. Three packages, all including exclusive use of the 42-seat bar.