27.03.2018 Views

Waikato Business News March/April 2018

Waikato Business News has for a quarter of a century been the voice of the region’s business community, a business community with a very real commitment to innovation and an ethos of co-operation.

Waikato Business News has for a quarter of a century been the voice of the region’s business community, a business community with a very real commitment to innovation and an ethos of co-operation.

SHOW MORE
SHOW LESS

Create successful ePaper yourself

Turn your PDF publications into a flip-book with our unique Google optimized e-Paper software.

20 WAIKATO BUSINESS NEWS <strong>March</strong>/<strong>April</strong> <strong>2018</strong><br />

Community set to<br />

follow Biddy’s to<br />

Hood St<br />

When Biddy’s moved to Hood St, a<br />

community moved with them. That includes<br />

staff, musicians and patrons - and it<br />

includes a fox terrier called Bella.<br />

By RICHARD WALKER<br />

Bella tells you a lot about<br />

Biddy’s. She and her<br />

owner, Mike, have a<br />

relaxed approach, which makes<br />

Bella a favourite in the pub,<br />

and also occasionally, when the<br />

bar was at the northern end of<br />

Hamilton’s Victoria St, saw her<br />

taking a solo walk on the street.<br />

We try and have<br />

music seven days a<br />

week.<br />

Biddy’s co-owner Mark<br />

Flyger remembers two nights<br />

in particular. There was the<br />

time Bella was kidnapped by<br />

a passing driver, to be reunited<br />

with Mike some time later,<br />

and there was also the time an<br />

entire pub downed their drinks<br />

and set off on a search mission.<br />

Bella had disappeared. Some<br />

patrons headed north along<br />

Victoria Street, some headed<br />

south and some headed out the<br />

back of the pub, where there is<br />

a parking area and hedgerow<br />

between them and the neighbours.<br />

Enthusiastic searchers<br />

scoured the undergrowth,<br />

while those out on the street<br />

headed two or three blocks distant.<br />

No Bella.<br />

They found her eventually,<br />

stuck in the neighbouring pharmacy.<br />

Flyger surmises that she<br />

followed someone into the A<br />

and E centre and then couldn’t<br />

get out when the doors closed<br />

her in, unnoticed by the pharmacist.<br />

Bella was reunited with<br />

Mike after that escapade, and<br />

has also come with him to the<br />

new Hood Street premises,<br />

though other owners haven’t<br />

all brought their dogs with<br />

them, to Mark’s regret.<br />

It’s that kind of place.<br />

The move to Hood St came<br />

after their Victoria St lease<br />

expired. Mark says he and fellow<br />

owner Duncan Otto hunted<br />

around for a replacement in the<br />

northern end, but it was heavily<br />

tenanted, and a suitable<br />

space couldn’t be found. They<br />

decided to shift to Diggers,<br />

which they also owned. Part of<br />

their desire to stay in the north<br />

had been the parking, but Flyger<br />

says parking has proved to<br />

be fine in the southern end.<br />

The shift was completed<br />

during the Christmas break<br />

before they reopened as Biddy’s<br />

in the first week of January,<br />

a shift which included all<br />

the staff coming with them. It<br />

marked the end of almost 25<br />

years for Biddy’s - or Biddy<br />

Mulligan’s Irish Pub, as the<br />

earlier signage says - in northern<br />

Victoria Street and, in a different<br />

way, three decades for<br />

Diggers.<br />

For the current owners,<br />

all of this started about seven<br />

years ago. Duncan was a mortgage<br />

broker, it was after the<br />

GFC had hit, work was slow<br />

for him, and the two friends<br />

saw a for-sale ad for an Irish<br />

pub. They went down and had<br />

a pint, and decided to give it a<br />

go.<br />

“We thought, let's have a<br />

bit of a play and see what happens.<br />

And if we lose a little bit<br />

of money it's not the end of the<br />

world and if we make some<br />

money it's even better,” says<br />

Mark<br />

“It's not the sort of thing<br />

you'll get rich in.”<br />

“But we've had so many<br />

laughs and met some great<br />

people.”<br />

Part of it - a big part of it - is<br />

the live music. Mark plays the<br />

sax, Duncan plays the double<br />

bass, though they’re not necessarily<br />

the stars on any given<br />

night. But when it comes to<br />

organising, they’re tireless.<br />

“We're trying to keep that<br />

live music theme going, particularly<br />

in an environment where<br />

live music seems to be on the<br />

wane,” says Mark. “Some of<br />

those old iconic bars that people<br />

used to go and play at are<br />

disappearing now, which is a<br />

shame.<br />

“We try and have music<br />

seven days a week.”<br />

If it’s Monday it’s open<br />

mic night, if it’s Tuesday it’s a<br />

Celtic Club jam out front and<br />

the Hamilton Acoustic Club in<br />

the back bar, where the acoustics<br />

are very different because<br />

of the wooden cladding as<br />

opposed to the concrete of the<br />

front.<br />

Wednesday is quiz night<br />

followed by karaoke and, in<br />

the back bar, poker school,<br />

Thursday is Blues Club once<br />

a month or a resident artist,<br />

and Friday sees Seanache,<br />

with Dublin-born Willie Yeoman,<br />

playing traditional Irish<br />

music. After them, Friday night<br />

reverts to the original Diggers<br />

format with a band from 10pm<br />

till 2am. On Saturday there is a<br />

band from 10pm onwards and<br />

Sunday sees a slot for resident<br />

artists from 4-8pm, with an<br />

Irish theme once a month.<br />

As for those acoustics, they<br />

come courtesy of a building<br />

that was constructed in 1903<br />

and which is registered with<br />

the Historic Places Trust. Flyger<br />

says it has seen plenty of<br />

tenants since, including a curtain<br />

shop and a gun shop, and it<br />

once housed the <strong>Waikato</strong> Hospital<br />

Board. Mark and Duncan<br />

bought the building in 2013,<br />

earthquake-strengthened it<br />

and sold it, leaving them in the<br />

happy position of having a 10<br />

year lease and right of renewal<br />

for a further 10 years.<br />

Seanache continue to be<br />

one of the musical drawcards<br />

after Biddy’s became the latest<br />

tenants. They pull in regulars<br />

each Friday night, including<br />

one particular group with a<br />

fondness for Irish curry sauce.<br />

It’s a house specialty, along<br />

with hotpots and other Irish<br />

familiars, and - courtesy of<br />

their “excellent” new Chinese<br />

chef - a couple of Chinese<br />

dishes. But you don’t mess<br />

with a classic, and one of those<br />

is the curry sauce with chips.<br />

Recently, the bar had run out,<br />

so the regulars rustled up their<br />

own. Mark got a text from<br />

them the next week, checking<br />

the sauce would be back on<br />

the next Friday night because<br />

otherwise they still had some<br />

of their own in reserve. They<br />

didn’t need to; normal service<br />

had resumed.<br />

Duncan, meanwhile, is the<br />

“brewmaster” as Mark puts it.<br />

He’s pretty good too - Biddy’s<br />

has won best pint of Guinness<br />

in New Zealand three years<br />

running. You don’t get much<br />

better than that in an Irish pub.<br />

Come St Patrick’s Day, however,<br />

he and Mark are on the<br />

other side, enjoying one or two<br />

of the 3000 pints of Guinness<br />

Biddy’s pour between 8am and<br />

3am the next day.<br />

So, yes, Biddy’s is a classic.<br />

And there’s one last story that<br />

underlines it. It was Mark and<br />

Duncan’s second St Patrick’s<br />

Day after taking over. One of<br />

their patrons had been enjoying<br />

the day and needed a snooze.<br />

He chose the gent’s, assuming<br />

he could still make a choice<br />

by that stage. That was fine<br />

except he was still asleep at<br />

3.30am when the staff locked<br />

up, set the alarm and walked<br />

out, exhausted at the end of the<br />

biggest shift of the year. Some<br />

time later, around 5am, Mark’s<br />

cellphone started up - the bar’s<br />

alarm had been activated. Mark<br />

got in his car, headed to the bar<br />

and found the door open. The<br />

sleeper had woken up, wondered<br />

where everyone had<br />

gone and wandered out into the<br />

street. He was still there when<br />

Mark arrived. No harm had<br />

been done, and in recognition<br />

of his feat, about four months<br />

later Biddy’s bought a toilet<br />

seat, put a plaque on it and presented<br />

it to him as a memento.

Hooray! Your file is uploaded and ready to be published.

Saved successfully!

Ooh no, something went wrong!