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.
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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.