Tears in beers as Happy Tav calls time
‘We’re going to cry when this place closes . . . We’ll need counselling, I reckon.’
FRANCI BYRNE, 82, has had a favourite perch at Havelock North’s Happy Tav bar for the past 26 years, and is not ashamed to admit he’ll shed a tear when it serves its last pint today.
Like most other locals, Byrne and fellow patron Alan Smith, 68, still refer to their favourite drinking hole as the Happy Tav, a name it was given in the 1960s, but which hasn’t been officially used for more than 13 years. Strictly speaking, it’s been the Arizona bar since then.
The bar and its big screen, TAB machines and pool table is to be demolished to make way for a fivestar boutique hotel, bar and restaurant.
Byrne understands the need for change, but laments the loss of ‘‘a village icon’’ that’s been a welcoming mingling spot for tradesmen, farmers, orchard workers and others with a penchant for a quiet jug without any airs and graces.
‘‘This’d be the best bar in town,’’ Byrne said. ‘‘Everything that other pubs have got is in here, but it’s more roomy, more friendly, and the publican Gavin Skinner, who’s been here for 20 years, is brilliant. Real popular.
‘‘I’ve been in a lot of pubs,’’ he said, rattling off a list of those that had closed locally in the past 20 years. ‘‘They’re all jammed-up places now, no room in them, or they’re dance clubs with all that carry-on’’.
Byrne and Smith have become
Franci Byrne members of the Havelock North Club, and intend to meet there three or four evenings a week, as they have done in the Happy Tav.
‘‘We’re going to cry when this place closes, we’re really going to cry. We’ll need counselling, I reckon,’’ Byrne said.
There has been a pub or bar on the site since 1862, when the vil- lage’s second hotel, The Exchange, opened its doors.
Lowmac, a company co-owned by the local Lowe and Mackersey families, has owned the site for 15 years and will be demolishing the current building to replace it with the $25 million Havelock North Village Exchange, a 40-room, fivestar boutique hotel, bar and restaurant, function and conference facilities.
The two-year project begins next month, and will see the site become home to three separate buildings encircling a central courtyard. It will also include shops, offices, a cafe, and a basement car park.
The building’s contents will be sold by auction at the bar at 10am on Sunday, January 4.