The tin shed that could
The Mussel Inn is marking 25 years as a loved Golden Bay landmark.
Andrew Dixon looks around The Mussel Inn and shakes his head, wondering what on earth it is about the place that makes it a local, national and even international drawcard.
‘‘This place is a shambles – an organised shambles at that – but when you compare it with normal places where it’s all cut and dry and formulaic, we are nothing like that, although we have our own formula that works really well.’’
As recipes for success go the inn is unorthodox, but that’s precisely what attracts customers and musicians from around the world and why this month The Mussel Inn will celebrate turning 25.
In a quarter century when everything has changed, at the core of the Mussel Inn’s longevity is that very little has changed since Andrew and his wife Jane Dixon first opened its rustic doors in 1992.
These days, the couple are still very conscious about not changing anything, if they can help it.
‘‘We’ve had so many people tell us its still the same old pub they remember being 2 years old at, swinging on the tyre swing,’’ he says.
‘‘So when I removed that old tree this year, that was absolutely essential to get that tyre swing back up.’’
Instead he concentrates on building sustainable systems and things that work really well, like the composting toilets he designed himself, or investing in the high-quality sound system. An orchard and gardens out the back grow much of the produce and hops needed for the cafe and brewery.
‘‘When I built the big tables when we first opened, the design criteria was that when eight people are dancing on them and I’m behind the bar, I know it will hold them. People just love dancing on tables; there’s something special about it, so I built them to handle it.’’
It’s these small things, combined with the feeling that one is stepping outside the world as they know it, that all adds up to create memories people want to come back to. Every year, musicians from all around the world return, claiming it’s ‘‘like coming home’’.
The Dixons say they built The Mussel Inn for their friends. Mates would often stop by for a feed of fresh mussels after collecting them off the rocks at nearby Onekaka beach, washed down with a pint of Andrew’s home brew.
Back in those days, there were only the old style pubs and tearooms, but nothing nearby. Their log home, located just off the main road between Takaka and Collingwood, was often the go-to place and they dreamed of creating a venue where they could all hang out over a pint of beer and live music.
So they built The Mussel Inn out of recycled materials and locally sourced timber, allowing them to keep their overheads to a minimum.
Designed to evoke an essence of ‘‘Kiwi woolshed and tramping hut meets Aussie farmhouse’’, the old wooden building can be found on an unlikely corner in the middle of nowhere; it’s hard to imagine such a place could endure.
It’s still the same old single room structure clad in corrugated iron, with its open fireplace and verandah on all three sides.
The inside walls are embellished head-to-toe in artworks and quirky collectables, each with its own story to tell. Outside in the courtyard, a post is decorated with nailed-on cellphones, symbolising the Dixon’s distaste for technology as a mindless distraction.
It still serves the same menu of steamed mussels, nachos and hearty chowder that it did quarter of a century ago, and it still pours the same beers, brewed out back.
Yet The Mussel Inn has seen a steady climb to fame, and has managed to outlive all fads – and even set a few itself, thanks to the Dixons’ unwavering values rooted firmly in their original vision.
The couple are approaching retirement age now, but say they’ve only just reached the halfway mark, preferring to grow older amongst their grandchildren and the relaxed hustle and bustle of the busy pub, than to let go just yet.
The Mussel Inn has been coined the ‘‘spiritual home’’ by dozens of musicians from all around the world, who endure a yearlong waitlist just for a gig.
The flagship manuka beer, Captain Cooker, was featured as only one of 240 New Zealand beers to rate 10/10 in Keith Stewart’s The Complete Guide to New
Zealand Beer. It’s also been named one of the 10 best beer-drinking places in the world by The Lonely Planet Guide, and in Ned Bartlett’s book, The Great Kiwi Pub
Crawl, he included it as one of the country’s top five.
‘‘It’s unlike anywhere else I’ve ever been. It really is Golden Bay time,’’ he writes. ‘‘Everything about it is backwards. It shouldn’t work, but it does.’’
Andrew says it’s been amazing watching all the artists who come through their doors grow and evolve, some going on to become hugely successful.
But it’s the ‘‘buzz’’ he gets when he still gets to sit back to watch multitudes of people having a good time, that makes all the hard work and late nights worthwhile.
‘‘People often ask me what’s the best show or gig we’ve had, but there’s no one best one,’’ he says.
‘‘To me, it doesn’t matter what the performance is, because it’s when the audience, the performer and the stars, all come together and you just get that magic moment and there’s this amazing feeling, and everyone feels it.’’
Jane says at least five Golden Bay families have had two generations work at the cafe and brewery. They almost never hire travellers, even during the busy season, preferring instead to take on the locals.
‘‘It really makes it the part of the lifecycle, an ongoing thing.’’
‘‘It’s part of what makes it worthwhile and rewarding for us, is being part of the community and making employment. That’s been a real joy.’’
Despite the essence of the The Mussel Inn never changing, the times certainly have.
They say it’s ‘‘funny’’ being in the hospitality business for so long, and watching all the crazes come and go.
Even in a time when small craft breweries are springing up everywhere, The Mussel Inn has maintained steady sales. The brewery pumps out over 2000 litres of beer, cider and soft drinks per week on average, sold onsite and at over 80 outlets around New Zealand.
‘‘We have been going on long enough to not go along with all the new gimmicks; we just make drinking beer, and we always have. We just are what we are.’’
Every Sunday when they first started out, Andrew would take out a piece of A4 paper and hand-draw the advert for the Nelson Evening Mail, before faxing it off for print.
Jane recalls when musicians would send samples of their music on cassette tapes by post.
‘‘We’d have to listen to it, and we’d write back, and they’d write back, and we’d write back, and so on. Then they started sending CDs and we’d use email, and now you just go on YouTube. It’s so quick and easy.’’
Reluctantly, Andrew and Jane only recently conceded to introduce an electronic till system at the bar, replacing the old cash drawer and its staff members’ superior arithmetic for quickly adding up bar tabs.
‘‘It’s not without its problems, but we’re making it work for us,’’ she says.
The original vision of building a venue for their friends is even more alive than ever. The venue hosts a monthly quiz and live poet’s nights, and a yearly beer tasting competition.
Every Friday afternoon, dozens of neighbours and Golden Bay residents gather for the local’s night, which Jane says took about 10 years to naturally develop into what it is today.
She says it was something that you couldn’t create; it just had to happen.
‘‘When we first started we had to be okay with taking money off our friends,’’ says Andrew.
‘‘The other night, a few regulars who have been coming here since day one worked out they had payed over $90,000 on their beer over the last 25 years.’’
He says it’s them, and all the other people that come, who make The Mussel Inn what it is.
‘‘Without that, it’s just a tin shed,’’
‘‘People just love dancing on tables; there’s something special about it, so I built them to handle it.’’
Andrew Dixon