Location

The sale and purchase agreement has gone unconditional. So I can finally let on that the location of Hashigo Zake will be the basement at 25 Taranaki St. At the moment it is the home of Vintage Bar, and over the years it has variously been known as Cell and Monkey Bar.

It's close to Courtenay Place but not in its noisy centre, which is something I always wanted in a location. It's also very atmospheric and already fitted out in a fashion that's compatible with what I wanted to create. It can hold 120 people, which should be plenty.

I take possession next week and have a few changes to make before opening later in August.

First Import Order On Its Way

Hashigo Zake's first import order is on its way. It's not big and it's not cheap, but on opening night we're guaranteed to have at least one pallet of rare and exciting beer sourced from North America, the UK and Scandinavia.

Milestone

A sale and purchase agreement has been signed (although it's still conditional) and I'm very close to being able to announce a venue.

Website

hashigozake.com (or hashigozake.co.nz) is up and running. Give it a go.

News

It's been a while since I posted. Lots of stuff in motion, not many results. Here's something at least - some artwork done by Sean Golding. Part of a pile of work he did including interior design concepts, branding and even a T-shirt design.

Tokyo

I just blew a pile of frequent flier points and visited Tokyo. It was mainly for personal reasons but it did give me a chance to visit the Baird Nakameguro Taproom during its first anniversary celebrations and talk to Bryan about making Hashigo Zake his first outlet in the southern hemisphere. I got to try the Colombus IPA, Four Sisters Spring Bock and Temple Yuzu Ale. No disappointments.

More Beer Tourism

I'm just back from Xxxxxx, where I met the local importer of yyyyyy, zzzzzz, qqqqqq and of course kkkkkk. Finding a decent beer in Xxxxxx was just about impossible, unless you were in the know, which I guess is true of most cities in this part of the world. Once I did get solid information about a well stocked bar I made my way along at around 8pm on Friday night and found it closed for a private function. Bit of a pet hate that. Take all your regular and prospective customers and tell them to fuck off in one go. For the record this is something I promise to never do at Hashigo Zake.

Speaking of Hashigo Zake itself, it's been a couple of weeks of dire warnings and scares. Rents for hospitality businesses in Wellington are going up just when they should be going down, the accountant and the bank and talking like undertakers and the ideal location just isn't appearing. Meanwhile distribution opportunities are lying there waiting to be pounced on. So it's increasingly likely that the next step will be to do that - import and distribute. It was always part of the plan to do this on the side and maybe let it grow, but it now looks like a useful stepping stone and sensible business move.