Garage Project taps into slow beer at new Leeds St bar

Wednesday, 15 October 2025

Garage Project head of venues Mattie Koenders, left, and head brewer Pete Gillespie sit in front of the specially-commissioned mural.

After a month of renovations, Garage Project has unveiled its newest — and largest — taproom, now open to the public on Leeds Street.

Housed in the former Barber & Co building, the site was previously home to Fortune Favours brewery, which closed its doors last month amid mounting cost-of-living pressures.

Garage Project head brewer Pete Gillespie said the past four weeks had been a flurry of construction.

A new bar and seating area had been built on the ground floor, and artists Anna Johnstone and T.WEI had painted a mural on the wall there.

Fans will recognise the pair’s bright and cartoony artstyle from various Garage Project beer cans, with Gillespie saying the taproom’s renovation was to give it that “Garage Project flavour”.

“It was about four weeks between Fortune Favours closing their doors for the last time and us reopening. It's been a super quick turnaround,” he said.

The building was fantastic, he said - adding he believed it had previously housed the Wellington Scottish Society and Wellington Communist Society.

Garage Project Leeds St would seat 146 people, with about eight to 12 staff.

Gillespie says the bar has a fantastic view of inner-city Wellington.

Downstairs was more a spot for quiet conversation, while the area upstairs was for a noisy, good time, Gillespie said.

“I find the view quite entertaining. You can just sit down and have a beer and watch Wellington.”

The majority of the Fortune Favours staff had been integrated into Garage Project, Gillespie said, either working on Leeds St or at other taprooms.

“We've been talking for a long time about wanting to have a larger space. As a brewer, it's really cool.

The Leeds St taproom will focus on its lager, Garage Project says, with plans to brew a 90 day cold conditioned beer.

“All the beers that we have here are the freshest, best batches we can possibly bring people. It's all fully curated, so there's a range of things for everybody.”

In addition to beer, food on offer includes sandwiches, crisps, and a giant pretzel with cheese sauce, with plans to add hot chips as soon as possible.

The taproom houses large brewing tanks, and the tanks were being swapped from gas powered steam to electricity, to de-carbonise the site.

Each Garage Project taproom had its own beer speciality, and Leeds St’s would be lager, Gillespie said, a 90-day cold conditioned brew.

Because commercially produced beers were hard to store long-term, the lager would be a treat. “The longer you condition a lager, the cleaner it gets,” he said. “The result is a crisp, refreshing beer.

“Lager means to keep a beer cold. They used to roll barrels of beer down into ice caves and age them for extended periods of time. So we're going to be able to do the same thing. There's no rush for us here. It's slow beer.”

Garage Project Leed St is open seven days a week to 10pm. From 2pm during the week and noon at the weekends.