February 14, 2019

By The Glass

This week we revive our tradition of offering rare beer by the glass instead of the full bottle. This has the advantage of letting you savour some of those beers that almost never turn up on tap, without making an investment of $40 or much more in a whole bottle.

We’ll start this Saturday with Kereru’s Night Spirit – their whisky barrel aged imperial stout. We did in fact have this on tap, briefly, back in October. But it could be a long time before we get to do that again. So before everyone forgets just how nice it was, we’ll offer 100ml pours of this beer for $12. A full, 500ml bottle costs $55 over the bar.

Night Spirit is Imperial Moonless Stout that has spent ten months in barrels that originally held bourbon, and then cradled whiskey at the NZ Whiskey Co for 20 years. And all that beautiful boozy history is reflected in the finished beer.

We’ll offer Night Spirit in 100ml pours from 3pm until 9pm on Saturday.

Spectrum Shadow

Spectrum Shadow - playing this Saturday at 10pm - are a new musical act, and not just new to us. But they’re another permutation of some of Wellington’s well known musical talent, since they include the very familiar Dayle Jellyman (Dangerous Experts, Three Rays, Death Hos, The Rumble) on keys and Mike Jensen (La Bete) on drums along with the not so familiar Russell Henderson on sax and Dan Ryland on guitar.

Their listed musical genre is “vintage funk with a psychedelic twist”, which could mean just about anything. Maybe their very colourful, ‘70s logo tells us as much about what to expect. We anticipate archaicly timeless music with flare, best enjoyed with a relaxing beverage on a sultry summer evening.

Our musical programme is getting a little busier over the next month and is packed with some genuine highlights. Rather than enumerate them here (again), we encourage readers to bookmark useful links such as our own website's events page, the Hashigo Zake Lounge's facebook page or our listings on eventfinda.

On Tap Now

• Choice Bros Boogaloo Pale Ale
• South Cider Boysenberry Cider
• Brouwerij Boon Geuze Boon Sélection
• Tinker Tailor Hazy APA
• Deep Creek Hoppy McHopface
• Deep Creek Lagerita
• Kereru Moonless Stout
• Renaissance Odyssey Witbier
• Kereru Pohutukawa Golden Ale
• Choice Bros Reet Petite Red IPA
• Kereru Silverstream Pale Ale (hand pump)
• Deep Creek Undercurrent Pilsner

Strange Women Lying In Ponds Distributing Swords

Long before Peter Jackson’s Lord Of The Rings, or Game Of Thrones, the 1981 movie Excalibur was arguably the most memorable filmed work of medieval scrapping and mythology. It was full of spectacle, stirring music and severed limbs and was sprinkled with some great acting – particularly from Nicol Williamson’s Merlin. Oh and there’s the small matter of a quest for the Holy Grail.

Does Sunday night entertainment get any better?

On the cinema screen in our lounge at 7pm on Sunday.

Super Duper Rugby

It’s another warm, sunny summer, which can mean only one thing – it’s rugby time. It’s no secret that interest in the tournament now simply known as Super Rugby peaked some years ago. But this is a world cup year, which means that even if you don’t lie awake at night worrying about the Hurricanes, it’s everyone’s patriotic duty to lie awake at night worrying about the nation’s depth at 1st five, number 8 and lock. And the best way to be informed about these issues is by wasting Friday and Saturday evenings glued to a telly.

Or not.

We’re maintaining our Sky Sport subscription for now, so for the foreseeable future we give customers the option of having these games shown on one of the modest screens we have in parts of the bar. And this arrangement commences tomorrow evening, when the Chiefs host the Highlanders. The Hurricanes play a late game in Sydney on Saturday evening.

New Release Tuesday – Barista, 2nd Attempt

Kasteel Barista was meant to be our new release a couple of weeks ago, only for a different beer to be delivered in its place. This time we have the keg on the premises already, so we’re rescheduling it for Tuesday the 19th.

It’s a Belgian quad, with all the big, malty, boozy implications that that style brings. But it also has coffee and chocolate added, just to make 100% sure that it’s one of the most decadent beers you could ever sip on.

Raymond Chan

Raymond Chan was a wine critic and educator whose expertise helped thousands of Wellington consumers make informed buying choices and get more enjoyment from their wine drinking. And even better, he provided a lot of entertainment to those consumers along the way. So his death last weekend is a massive loss and a cause of no end of sadness to many people.

Others can explain Raymond’s career better, so we recommend reading these obituaries.

Those us at Hashigo Zake who knew Raymond admire his work and mourn his passing. We extend our deepest sympathies to his family and friends.

January 31, 2019

Upcoming Events

Monday the 4th is Super Bowl Monday. As described last week, we’ll be putting our lounge in screening room mode for the afternoon, and welcoming anyone who thinks they might enjoy the season finale of the world’s most lucrative sporting league.

We’ll even throw our doors open a little earlier than the standard midday, to help everyone get fed and watered in plenty of time before kick, which is at around 12:30pm.

We’re particularly looking forward to serving Ram Burgers made from braised lamb shoulder, served in Pandoro beer and barley burger buns.

Rock The Cash Bar

The first instalment of Rock The Cash Bar for 2019 takes place on Monday the 11th.

Rock The Cash Bar is our very amusing and increasingly popular music quiz, run by popular culture guru Hadyn Green. Anyone wanting to take part is encouraged to head along to the event’s own facebook page and ask for a table booking. But if you’re lucky enough to not be on facebook, feel free to just reply to this email for more info.

NRT

We’ve been visited by weather that residents of most parts of the world would recognise as typical of summer. The reaction has been as if the temperature had in fact been ten degrees higher.

But a correction is on its way, in the form of a brief cool change on Saturday. Based on recent evidence this should lead to panic buying of woollen mittens and hot cocoa. We have just the beer for next week’s New Release then, in the form of a Belgian Quad made with coffee and chocolate. And fittingly it has come all the way from Castle Brewery Van Honsebrouck in Belgium. Kasteel Barista goes on tap at 5pm on Tuesday. Servings will be small, as this is an 11% beer.

The Cosmonauts

Classifying the music of the Cosmonauts is tricky. They bill themselves as “Soviet Folk, 19th Century Balkan Hits and Italian Chanson”. Our booker distils that down to “Balkan Swing”.

From our vantage point behind the bar they are the band most likely to trigger dancing without employing a drummer.

Things we can say with certainty about them:

• They play a piano accordion (and guitar and double bass).
• They have a loyal fan base.

If in doubt, check out their youtube channel.

The Cosmonauts play in our lounge at 10pm on Saturday, with no cover charge.

Cult Film Basement

This Sunday the Cult Film Basement returns to the USA, for an 80s action classic. It should be a radical change from the disturbing Japanese horror films of the last couple of weeks. Except that… Runaway Train is based on a script by Akira Kurosawa. That’s right – Japan’s most famous film director and “Asian of the Century” penned a forerunner to Die Hard and Speed. In fact this shouldn’t seem so strange since Kurosawa’s films were always made to be broadly entertaining.

But enough digression. Runaway Train is an action film about escaped prisoners, Alaska and, well, a runaway train. It is broadly admired (“thunderous proto-Speed.. also works as an existential art movie”) and occasionally panned “bodaciously bad, grotesquely overblown, lurid in its emotion, big ideas on its brain.” Perfect cult film basement fodder!

Come on down at 7pm on Sunday for beer, free popcorn and a popcorn movie.  

Cricket!

Yes, cricket, that sport that we were world beaters at about a week ago.

Can the team formerly known as the New Zealand Cricket Team pick up the pieces of its reputation from cow corner and the third man boundary, or whichever parts of Mount Maunganui the Indians dispatched those pieces to? Find out this afternoon and this evening, from 3pm.

On Tap Now

• Peckhams Chisel Jersey
• The Theoretical Brewer Chrysanthemum Lager
• HeyDay Beer Co Dinglehopper Hoppy Saison
• Deep Creek Drop Top Chardonnay Brut IPA
• Deep Creek Lotus Pale Ale
• Maiden Brewing Co Multiverse Kiwifruit & Lime
• HeyDay Beer Co Oaktown IPA
• Hallertau Pilsnah
• Renaissance Stonecutter
• The Theoretical Brewer TransPORTER

Chisel Jersey

Please note Peckham’s Chisel Jersey in the above list. Few, if any, of us here at Hashigo Zake claim to be experts on cider, so the following comments are strictly those of an occasional cider observer.

The name comes from the variety of cider apple that it’s made from and the mere fact that this is a cider made from cider apples makes it unusual in New Zealand. It’s also spontaneously fermented and has had some contact with oak. All those details suggest a result that might somehow be extreme – maybe in sourness. In fact this cider is incredibly approachable and drinkable. It’s reasonably dry and a lot more tannic than typical New Zealand ciders, but the overriding flavour is of the apple variety it’s made from.

For a lay-cider drinker, it’s a revelation and highly recommended.

HeyDay Oaktown IPA

A little like the Peckhams Cider mentioned above, this beer has had just enough contact with oak to add complexity and maybe a few tannins, without completely transforming it into a big, boozy, bourbon-fuelled kitchen-sink of a drink. The result is stunning and highly recommended. Great work by brewer and former Hashigo Zake staff-member, Sam.

Te Rā o Waitangi

Open as usual ✔
Discounts to SOBA members ✔
Surcharges ✖

January 17, 2019

Planet Watson

Darren Watson is an authentic champion of free speech.

With apologies to anyone who knows this story well, in 2014 Darren came up with something that’s now quite rare – political satire in song form. Planet Key was recorded and released during the months before that year’s election, which is what you’d do if you’re an artist with political convictions, wanting to remind the populace of the faults of the then Prime Minister.

The Electoral Commission didn’t care for the distinction between satire and electioneering and deemed the song (and accompanying video) as an “election advertisement”, and subject to the same constraints as political broadcasts. That effectively banned it from being played on radio and television as a piece of music. Even the youtube link had to be taken down.

Darren and his collaborator on the video, Jeremy Jones, went to court over the decision and won in both the High Court and the Court of Appeal, relying on a legal team that worked pro bono. And as long as the case was making its way through the courts, any possibility of recouping a buck from sales of the recording were slashed.

It’s unlikely that there’s anyone alive who thinks that the Electoral Commission were in the right. But if Darren and Jeremy hadn’t kept the fight up with little to gain but a moral victory, all of our rights to free speech would be a little more constrained today.

So for this and other reasons it’s a pleasure to welcome Darren Watson back to the Hashigo Zake lounge this week. Darren is returning after taking a break from gigs following his 2018 album release and national tour. But judging by his recent activity on social media and appearance of RNZ this morning, Darren appears to be refreshed and eager to get in front of an audience.

This gig is categorised as “acoustic” and rather than his full band (coming later in the year) Darren will be joined by keyboardist Dayle Jellyman.

TL;DR: Darren Watson and Dayle Jellyman perform in our lounge at 10pm on Saturday night. No cover charge!

On Tap Now

• The Theoretical Brewer Chrysanthemum Lager
• Deep Creek Coromandel Gold IPA
• Renaissance Discovery APA
• Deep Creek Hoppy McHop Face IIPA
• Hallertau Lemon Curd (Nitro)
• Hallertau Maximus IPA
• The Theoretical Brewer Quantum Eraser Pilsner
• Kereru Rojito Extra Pale Lager
• Renaissance Stonecutter
• The Theoretical Brewer The 1st Finch
• The Theoretical Brewer TransPORTER

As mentioned last week, the combination of maintenance on some of our taps and the holiday season slowdown caused us to run with a reduced number of tap beers. We now have every tap pouring again and the hand pump will be operational later today, when we put Kereru Silverstream Pale Ale on. It will be the first time for months that we have twelve beers on tap at once.

Customers wanting to concentrate on pale hoppy beers might want to look to the right as they approach the bar.

Some current or future tap offerings of note:

• We now have four beers on tap from New Plymouth's Theoretical Brewer.
• Along with the shipment from Hallertau that includes next Tuesday's new release, was a nitrogenated keg of their very popular sour called Lemon Curd. It's on tap now.
• Our underkeg scale tells us that cult IIPA Hoppy McHopface will run out early this evening, if not sooner.
• Coming soon is a keg of Peckham's Chisel Jersey cider.

The Anti-Fining Phenomenon

Next Tuesday’s New Release will be Hallertau’s contribution to the flood of hazy IPAs - So Hazy Right Now. Will it have an initial aroma and flavour like a glorious cocktail of fresh fruit pulp, before finishing like a nagging, oversweet, made-from-concentrate orange and mango flavoured apple drink? Plenty of people will be hoping so.

We haven’t tried it yet, so can’t say, but we can confirm that the keg is already on the premises so we’re just rapt that there will no crossing of fingers or mercy dashes to a freight depot next Tuesday afternoon.

So Hazy Right Now goes on tap at 5pm on Tuesday.

Cult Film Basement

After last week’s “vintage” American horror, we’re switching back to the often disturbing world of Japanese horror, in the form of Suicide Club.

It’s a 2002 film about an inexplicable fashion for teen suicide that divides critics and audiences. Parental supervision is advised against.

Holiday Monday

Happy Birthday Wellington. We wish everyone getting Monday off an enjoyable rest. We’ll be open as usual. And as usual there’ll be no public holiday surcharge.

Is anyone looking for a relaxing use of your day off? Monday is the day of the two Conference Championship games in the NFL – effectively the Super Bowl semi-finals. But maybe don’t call them that. The first game takes place before we open, but the AFC Championship Final, between the New England Patriots and Kansas City Chiefs, kicks off at 12:40pm on Monday.

During the regular season the Patriots beat the Chiefs 43-40 on their own home turf and have been one of the NFL’s most reliably successful teams for many years, but this game is in Kansas City and the Chiefs have a superior record.

It’s a perfect way to get into the mood for our annual Super Bowl extravaganza, which will take place exactly two weeks later.

January 10, 2019

Welcome Back

Yes, returning to regular work patterns can be a challenge, especially when the sun is shining (and the road outside is being dug up).

To ease the pain we’re making a rare and very special offer with nearby workers in mind. Those discounts that we offer from Sunday until Wednesday to certain categories of valued customer, such as SOBA members, will be extended until 6pm tomorrow (Friday the 11th).

Full Complement

During the quiet period over Christmas and the New Year, we took the opportunity to let the beer on a couple of our taps run out and perform some overdue repairs. Those repairs were finished earlier today and over the next day or so we're progressively recommissioning those taps. That boost in tap numbers will let us put on several beers from a new supplier – The Theoretical Brewer.

To the best of our knowledge, The Theoretical Brewer’s beers haven’t been on tap in Wellington yet. We were sent samples by founder Doug and were impressed enough to get a keg each of his current core range. 1st Finch Pale Ale is already on tap. Most of TransPorter, Chrysanthemum Lager and Quantum Eraser Pilsner will make it on tap by tomorrow.

Doug has just expanded from a facility built at the back of his house in suburban New Plymouth – a beginning that should sound familiar to anyone following the New Zealand beer scene.

On Tap Now

• HeyDay Beer Co Agua Fresca Tamarindo
• Deep Creek Drop Top Chardonnay Brut IPA
• Deep Creek Dusty Gringo
• Deep Creek Hoppy McHop Face IIPA
• Kereru Rojito Extra Pale Lager
• The Theoretical Brewer The 1st Finch
• The Theoretical Brewer TransPORTER
• Kereru Yellowhead IPA

Live Music

Live music returns on Saturday. As we suspected, the programme has been tweaked since last Thursday’s announcement and Saturday’s band is to be The Inclinators.

This blues and R&B band last played in our lounge more than two years ago. They include several musicians, such as Terry Casey and Richard Te One, who played with Darren Watson for years, plus guitarist Chris Armour, who seems to feature in at least one band for every sub-variety of rock ‘n roll in existence. With all that experience we expect a consummate performance of “hot and sweaty R&B”.

And speaking of Darren Watson, the legendary blues performer is returning to gigging after a brief hiatus that followed his album release and nationwide tour last year. And we’ve got him playing an acoustic show on the 19th. (He’ll also be back with his current band, The Dangerous Experts, later in the year.)

Cult Film Basement

The Cult Film Basement’s programmer is a big fan of John Carpenter and Carpenter’s 1980 supernatural thriller The Fog is our cult movie on Sunday. Sadly we’re unlikely to repeat the stunt used when the film was released of firing up fog machines in cinemas. But we will be offering the usual free popcorn.

Our New Neighbour

The beloved and much fêted restaurant – and our fellow tenant at 25 Taranaki St – called Zibibbo is no more. We’ve been told a very small but crucial piece of information about the operation that Zibibbo’s owners are creating in its place. And that is that they're collaborating with DB.

Yes, the brewery that we’ve probably been more critical of than anyone else in the world, and who arguably did more to deny New Zealanders access to good and diverse beer than anyone (except maybe Lion Nathan), is moving in upstairs.

December 20, 2018

The Alternative Sensory Deprivation Tank
 

According to Wikipedia, sensory deprivation is “the deliberate reduction or removal of stimuli from one or more of the senses.” In the days after Christmas we know that many of you will be wishing for some sensory deprivation – maybe the removal of daylight, traffic noise or certain family members.

We have an alternative to shelling out hundreds of dollars to lie in warm goo with a blindfold on. We offer a dimly lit, windowless, underground space, with the only stimulus being intoxicating beverages and, perhaps, the mesmeric sights and sounds of televised cricket.

What’s more we offer our Alternative Sensory Deprivation Therapy on the dot of midday on Boxing Day.

Sadly the law prohibits the offering of our therapy on Christmas Day itself. But we look forward to seeing a queue form outside the front door in the minutes leading up to 12pm on Dec 26.

Christmas Cinema

This Sunday we screen Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale. Following last week’s Black Christmas, this is another alternative to the usual saccharin Christmas movie, being a Finnish hybrid of a horror flick and a Christmas movie parody.

At 7pm in the Cult Film Basement

On Tap Now

• Deep Creek Aloha
• Invercargill B.Man IPA
• Kereru Black Ruby Choc Imperial Stout
• Isthmus No Man's Land XPA
• Isthmus Peak Haze IPA
• Laughing Bones The Duke Rye Pale Ale
• Invercargill B.Man Pilsner
• Peckham's Moutere Cider
• Invercargill Pitch Black Stout

Belated Release

It finally happened – a new release was delivered so late by the carrier that we didn’t get it in time to go on tap on Tuesday evening. It was dropped off yesterday, so Isthmus brewing’s No Man’s Land XPA went on tap yesterday.

There won’t be a new release next Tuesday because we won’t be open!
 

Thunder. All Through The Night.

Experience tells us that from around about today, the Wellington CBD gradually descends into a kind of hibernation (or more correctly aestivation), from which it groggily emerges some time in January. Nevertheless we know that there are those of you who want to defy this urge and keep using the CBD as your workplace and/or playground. So this Saturday we do have a band in our usual Saturday night slot. Chocolate Thunder play at 10pm, bringing not just funk, but “funk groove fusion”.

We are passing on having live music on Saturday week (the 29th), and instead have the Vanguards playing two nights later on New Years Eve.

 

Contact

A few years ago, when providers started rolling out eftpos terminals capable of performing contactless transactions (i.e. “Pay Wave”, “Tap and Go” etc), we were alerted to the fact that performing these transactions imposed a fresh set of charges on merchants and so resisted getting them in.

Since then they have got wide - but definitely not universal - acceptance, and we frequently watch customers wave cards (and occasionally phones) at our eftpos terminals, expecting a payment to happen. And we explain that pay wave won’t work, while trying to resist the instinct to say “sorry”, because, in reality, we aren’t sorry that we don’t offer it.

Saying “paywave doesn’t work here“ fifty times a day gets a little tiring, so one day last week we tried pre-alerting customers to this fact, by announcing it on the sign outside. And because this policy is something we see no shame in and are happy to own, we wrote “proudly paywave free”.

Not long after, we got a review on a certain site that collects crowdsourced reviews saying “Boasting about not having eftpos, not cool. How about it’s 2018 and getting with the times.” Yes, someone really wrote that.

We take this as a sign that the subject of the fairness and expense of contactless payments isn’t as well understood as it needs to be.

From our point of view as a merchant, we have traditionally taken three kinds of payment – cash, eftpos (where money comes from a cheque or savings account) and credit. Cash and eftpos were effectively free (except for the cost of renting an eftpos terminal), while credit card transactions came with charges of between 2.5% and 3%. We have always tolerated those credit card charges for a few reasons:– customers such as travellers rely on being able to pay by credit card and payments by credit card were always a small minority of the total payments we took in. But the overriding concern was that customers simply expect to have the option of paying by credit card.

Then along came contactless, and a new charge. Suddenly those eftpos payments wouldn’t be free, if they were paid by a wave of the card instead of the traditional process. They would come with a charge of around 1.5% - not as much as credit card charges, but a totally new cost where there hadn’t been one before. When times are good a merchant might laugh at a fresh charge of 1.5% of some or all their income. But the rest of the time and for most merchants, this is a cost that has to be paid for by putting up prices. Maybe not immediately, but the day when an operator looks at their books and decides it’s time to put prices up might be brought forward.

So we resisted and have continued to resist. We scoffed when the bank called and offered to waive transaction charges for a month – as if that somehow makes a difference to the charges that would be imposed for the rest of time.

We know that we are far from the only hold-outs. In fact those anti-establishment rebels known as Burger King made the news by ditching pay wave a few months ago.

Now there is a problem with this explanation that is easy to make and difficult to refute, and that is the fact that we continue to tolerate the higher cost of doing credit card transactions. To be brutally honest, if we thought we could pass those ~2.5% credit card charges on to our customers and get away with it, we almost certainly would. Especially since the proportion of payments being made by credit cards is steadily creeping up. But this is the brutal reality – consumers have been persuaded that they (you) can not only switch seamlessly between credit card and eftpos, but loyalty schemes give you an incentive to take the credit option, while merchants silently pick up the tab.

Meanwhile the venerable payment system of eftpos, which has served New Zealand magnificently and economically for 30-odd years, is being undermined and replaced by stealth with a system that lets the world’s most profitable banks take ticket-clipping to another level.

Anyone want to debate this issue or suggest what a retailer like us should be doing? This email gets copied to a blog, where comments will be welcome.

 

December 13, 2018

Secret Source

It has been our nine-year long (and continuing) mission to find the best possible beer-friendly snack foods. To that end we have found what might be the best yet. For some portion of the population at least. While no doubt some much smaller portion of the populace will screw their faces up.

We introduce Nam Pla Nuts. These may or may not have been sourced at great trouble and expense from a producer in another part of the world. Either way, we have a limited, experimental supply available for sale right now at a mere $5 for a bowl.

Get Ready To..

The Rumble is one of several musical combos wrangled by local guitarist Chris Armour. Normally the lineup simply consists of Chris and drummer Miles Calder, playing what is officially labelled “raw Proto-Rock'n'Roll, Blues and Rockabilly”.

This week though they’ve enlisted keyboardist Dayle Jellyman, of Darren Watson’s band The Dangerous Experts. Dayle has been known to bring a full, working, upright piano down our stairs for gigs, which is always a bit hair-raising but thoroughly worth it. So we anticipate an even richer and more adventurous musical experience than is typical this Saturday.

As usual, kick-off time is 10pm and the cover charge is a smile.

And speaking of Darren Watson's Dangerous Experts, we're reliably informed that after a spell staying away from regular old gigging, Darren's batteries are recharged and we'll see him and the band back in early 2019.

On Tap Now

• Deep Creek Aloha
• Invercargill B.Man APA
• Invercargill B.Man IPA
• Kereru Black Ruby Choc Imperial Stout
• Cassels & Sons Cassels Witbier
• Choice Bros Disco King IPA
• Deep Creek Double IPA
• Te Aro Brewing Dubh
• Mean Doses Mean Juice IPA
• Kereru Silverstream Pale Ale (hand pump)
• Deep Creek Undercurrent Pilsner

The sharp eyed will notice two beers whose names vary from each other by a single letter. It isn't a typo. We rolled back the clock by placing an order with the venerable Invercargill Brewery. (In fact they're apparently in the process of rebranding as the Bloody Good Brew Co - does anyone think that's a good idea?)

For years Invercargill had a famous hoppy lager called Biman, then B.Man, then B.Man Pilsner. That beer still exists but it has spawned no fewer than two other hoppy pale beers - an APA and an IPA. We have both on tap right now, with the original to join them in the near future. Plus as an extra treat we grabbed a keg of the legendary Pitch Black Stout.

Look out too for something from Silverdale's Laughing Bones and some fresh cider on tap courtesy of Peckhams.

But right now, anyone looking for a Christmas treat is encouraged to look no further than Kereru Black Ruby Imperial Stout.

Black Christmas

The place of Die Hard as an action classic and a slightly unlikely/ironic Christmas movie seems to get more and more entrenched every year. But as this article lays out, we can do better in the form of the 1974 Canadian Horror Black Christmas - a highly regarded early example of a slasher film set in a sorority house at Christmas. Does it get any better than that?

As usual our cult movie screens at 7pm on Sunday in our multi-purpose art and performance studio.

Little Rocket Plan

Anyone else still get a kick out of watching rockets take off from the Mahia Peninsula? If nothing goes wrong with the weather or the technology there may be one some time after 5pm today. We’ll keep the projector and screen on standby just in case.

December 6, 2018

Rock Dots

Earlier this week Hashigo Zake was delighted to learn that our booker hadn’t actually made a typo on eventfinda.co.nz, and this Saturday’s music comes from someone with an umlaut in his name. We don’t care that Baron Oscar Lavën’s music is some distance from rock ‘n roll and that the performer in question was born with said umlaut. All that matters is that our act this Saturday has rock dots.

This isn’t completely unprecedented. A couple of years ago we hosted a secret gig by rock royalty in the form of Hüsker Dü’s late Grant Hart. Grant explained that Hüsker Dü’s umlauts were inserted to avoid being sued by the makers of the Hūsker Dū board game. Not particularly rock ‘n roll either.

And as if having an authentic umlaut in his name didn’t endear Lavën to us sufficiently, he has promised to play no Christmas tunes. Instead we're looking forward to a "deep-digging, boots-and-all Soul Funk organ trio".

The Oscar Lavën Organ Trio play at 10pm on Saturday in our Lounge. No cover charge.

If there is any reader who considers a lack of Christmas music to be a failing, we have two comments. It would be undiplomatic to actually express the first. The other is: please see the section below on Monday’s Rock The Cash Bar Christmas Edition.

Rock The Cash Bar VIII

Popular culture guru and quizmaster Hadyn Green has done a magnificent job of making Rock The Cash Bar an established and well-attended fixture in our calendar. Take a victory lap, Hadyn.

We thought it would be fitting to sneak in one last instalment of Rock The Cash Bar before the end of the year. And Hadyn isn’t going to pass up the opportunity of adding a Christmassy element, even if it means tolerating it being called Rock The Kitsch Bar.

So Monday night’s quiztravaganza should be an even better form of Monday night entertainment than usual. To be assured that you and your team can walk in on Monday evening and find a table with your team name on it, go to the event’s very own facebook page and leave a message.

On Tap Now

• Renaissance Black Hole Fusion
• Golden Bear Body Czech Pils
• South Cider Boysenberry Cider
• Te Aro Double Dragon IIPA
• Deep Creek Double IPA
• Deep Creek Lagerita
• Kereru Moonless Stout (Hand pump)
• Kereru Pohutukawa Golden Ale
• Sawmill American Brown Ale
• Sawmill Old English Ale
• Kereru Yellowhead IPA

I Saw The Devil

You might have noticed that we’re big fans of South Korean cinema. Especially of the Crime & Thriller films of the first decade of this century.

Following screenings of Memories of Murder and The Chaser we’re returning to South Korea with Kim Jee-woon’s (The Good, The Bad, The Weird) shockingly intense Special Agent vs Serial Killer Cat & Mouse thriller from 2010.

Byung-Hun Lee (A BIttersweet Life) stars as a Government special agent who unleashes brutal vengeance on the serial killer (Choi Min-sik - Oldboy) who murdered his pregnant fiancé.

What follows is one of the most incredible pieces of revenge cinema put to screen.

An unflinching gaze into the heart of pure evil and a perverse genre entertainment par excellence.” (Rob Nelson, Variety)

I Saw The Devil screens in our multi-function arts and entertainment complex (i.e. the Lounge) on Sunday at 7pm.

Santa Session Debrief

From our vantage point, Tuesday’s Santa Session looked like a lot of fun for all concerned. As well as generously pouring lots and lots of beer that had outstayed its welcome, we threw in a few beers that definitely did not deserve to be in that category. In other words, these were beers still at or near their peak condition and that are still available for purchase. And there were some definite highlights.

• Modern Times Funky Universal Friend – with Pinot Noir. Three years ago Modern Times took their Universal Friend saison, added grape must and bottled the result with Brettanomyces. (We’re told that they underestimated just how much carbonation the brett would add, leading to some feisty drinking.) The result is tasting as good as ever – complex, bright and a little, well, winey.
• Almanac Saison de Brettaville. More evidence – if it was even needed - that brett beers can keep getting better. This barrel-aged and brett-ified saison is riotously pineapply and vibrant, belying its several years of patiently waiting on a shelf.
• Moon Dog Bock Naked. This one is really causing some head-scratching. We wrote off our leftover supplies of this years ago and designated it cooking beer. (Because a strong chipotle-spiced bock is a great marinade!) But one day one of us sipped a little and it was surprisingly good. So we chucked a few bottles into the Santa Session and got great feedback. We’re still dithering about whether we can legitimately offer them for sale. Feedback welcome.

More on Christmas and New Year Trading

Time for yet another gentle reminder that we are open from midday every day that we’re allowed, which means every day except Christmas Day. Here are our closing times:

Sunday & Monday: No earlier than 9:30pm.

Tuesday, Wednesday & Thursday: No earlier than 11pm.

Friday, Saturday: No earlier than 1am.

Remember that we can, and often do, stay open later than those closing times. It depends just how busy we are around closing time. We know that many of you like to do your socialising later in summer.