Thursday, September 12, 2013

September 12, 2013

The Debate... Music This Saturday... New Release Tuesday... Ramen... On Tap Now or Soon...

The Debate

We're pleased to announce that Councillor Morrison has declared his availability and we now have a full complement of mayoral candidates coming along next Wednesday evening for our debate. So for the third and final time we invite readers of this email to propose questions (by replying to this email) that our moderators might put to the candidates next week.

The debate starts at 5:30pm on Wednesday in our lounge. We plan to mic the participants and broadcast proceedings throughout the bar. We encourage our regular customers to take this opportunity to participate in the democratic process by submitting questions and/or attending on Wednesday.

Speaking of the Wellington City Council, they (and we) were in the news earlier this week over modifications to their proposed local alcohol policy. The main reason we saw for relief was the apparent rejection of the "entertainment precinct" concept. For those who haven't heard, that proposal was that operators wanting to create a venue with a late licence would only be allowed to do so in parts of town that are already saturated with bars.

They also appear to have rejected the idea that those of you wanting to take home a bottle of exceptional beer from our selection would have to do so by 9pm.

What seems to have been overlooked by the media in the Council's revision of their own plans is that they have added a fleeting mention of large events and the Wellington Sevens. It doesn't say much but we're relieved to see a passing acknowledgement that there might be improvements in the way alcohol is used over the period of the Sevens. It probably won't be enough to persuade us to risk staying open on February the 7th and 8th next year, but it's a start.

Music This Saturday

We've another new (to us) act this week in a the form of Rhinoboogie, a four-piece side-project of local "hip-hop neo-soul chunk-funk" outfit Brockaflowersaurus-rex. We expect horns, drums and samples.

As always, music comes at no charge to customers and kicks off at 10pm.

New Release Tuesday

Next week's new release is another collaboration between a relatively new brewery and one of the country's most respected brewers. The new brewery is Taupo's Lakeman. The wise old head that assures us we're getting something good belongs to Graeme Mahy of 666.

So at 5pm next week we're putting the new Lakeman/666 IPA on tap - we believe for the first time in Wellington.

Ramen

After two test runs with popup restaurant The Ramen Shop, they're happy, we're happy and there seemed to be quite a few happy customers as well. So we're taking our relationship to the next level and we don't care who knows.

The Ramen Shop will now be bringing their broth, pork, tofu and fresh noodles to Hashigo Zake once a fortnight for Friday lunches. This new arrangement starts next Friday (the 20th) and will run until Christmas.

On Tap Now or Soon

We're pretty impressed with our current lineup, if we may say so ourselves, with a local collab helped by a rockstar Californian brewery, an always popular staple from Green Flash, a rauchbier from upstarts Brewaucracy, a pilsner from next big thing Panhead and the experimental Screwtop on a hand pump.

But there's always room to tweak things, so look out for:

  • Baylands Brewery's Berry Brownie - the berry-infused brown ale that just about everyone reading it thinks is "Berry Brownlee" and some kind of reference to a certain politician. We're assured that no such connection was intended.
  • Liberty's 'Ow'd ye' like 'dem Apples, the beer made without yeast or water, unless you count wild yeast and apple juice.
  • Christchurch's Wigram Brewery have a Hefeweizen and it's time it had a turn on our wheat beer tap.
  • Coronado's citrus peel-infused IPA known as Frog's Breath.

Oh and bottles of Ben Middlemiss's Nota Bene and Baird Red Rose Amber Ale are back in stock.

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