Cup of Jono is a bar at 32 Laingfield Terrace in Parau, a small settlement in the bush-clad hills west of Auckland, and it holds a 5.0 Google rating. A small neighbourhood bar lives or dies on things no drinks list can fix: a proper welcome, clean glassware, a well-kept pour, and a room where strangers end up talking. The best small ones keep the range short — a couple of taps rotated with care, a tidy wine list — and none of the fuss of the city. In quiet pockets out west, bars tend to keep hours that follow the locals rather than the clock, so it pays to check before setting out, and the seat at the bar is usually the best in the house. Tucked into a settlement as small as Parau, it is the kind of local find that makes the drive into the Waitakere foothills worthwhile.