Capital Conversation: Three new bars opening on Courtenay Place

Wednesday, 11 September 2024

Locals and visitors share their thoughts on the Golden Mile, and some new alternatives.

After a long winter of discontent for Wellington hospitality, hope is emerging with three bars about to open within metres of one another on the Courtenay Place nightlife strip.

Hummingbird, on the corner of Courtenay Place and Blair St, could reopen after a four-year hiatus by the end of September. A new British-style pub, BL3, with a rooftop area, is opening in October just up the road, and a licence application is in for a new bar, Back Alley Sally, in what used to be Nicolini’s Italian restaurant, which has reopened on Blair St.

The capital’s hospitality scene has been through years of struggle with Covid, a cost of living crisis, and people not heading to town. Wellington hospitality figure Matt McLaughlin said there was still “doom and gloom” around in the industry but there could be an upside.

Cody Halton is opening BL3 on Courtenay Place.

“It potentially brings new blood into the industry.” That could be hospo workers spotting a “for lease” sign and going for it, he said.

At 8 Courtenay Place, at what used to be The Champagneria, Cody Halton is that new blood. He is opening BL3, which will be a “little British pub” with a rooftop area and street frontage.

Hummingbird on Courtenay Place has been closed since 2020 but is set to open again.

It will be Halton’s first venture but he previously managed bars Dakota, SugarWoods, and Rubix. He was optimistic the beginning of the end of hard times were here.

“I’m hoping. I think the plans for Courtenay Place are showing anyone coming here has to do something different,” he said. That was a pub with a sit-down, relaxed atmosphere.

Bar owner Greig Wilson: ‘There is hope emerging from the winter of gloom.’

The Wellington City Council is about to start on a major revamp of Courtenay Place as part of its eventual revamp of the whole Golden Mile. The plan has plenty of detractors, with an estimated 90% of Courtenay Place businesses opposing it, but Halton saw an upside.

“I think there is hope,” he said. “We have been a couple of years out of Covid and Wellington is showing some regeneration.”

And having two other new bars open nearby was only a good thing, he said.

Hummingbird was a Wellington institution before closing in 2020.

“The more vibrant Wellington is the better.”

Courtenay Place bar owner Greig Wilson faced an expensive legal battle with police, Te Whatu Ora’s medical officer and the Wellington City Council to get a liquor licence for his new bar Saint Diablo on Courtenay Place but said there had now been a “seismic shift” for the better in the council’s handling of liquor licences.

He was on Wednesday presenting to a council committee to get permission to close Allen St for a fan zone for the night of the Wellington All Blacks versus South Africa test on September 28, then to close Courtenay Place to traffic for a New Year’s Eve event. It would be the first significant street closures for events in years.

And business was picking up with Saturday nights, weather permitting, “booming”, he said.

“There is hope emerging from the winter of gloom.”

Adding to that hope was the imminent opening of a new Courtenay Place apartment building bringing “hundreds and hundreds more people in”, he said.

But across the road at the about-to-reopen Hummingbird, owner Nick Mills was expecting “hard times ahead” after reopening. There were still “a lot of dark spaces” of shut businesses in the area.

The bar, on the corner of Courtenay Place and Blair St, shut for earthquake strengthening in 2020. He was aiming to open for the All Blacks versus Australia test this month if they could be ready in time.