Booze-free eatery out of business
A bar and restaurant that opened as a family eatery after failing to get a liquor licence has closed within weeks and is now in liquidation.
Wise Guys Bar and Restaurant opened in late July opposite Christchurch Casino and near Calendar Girls strip club.
Despite bar taps already installed and liquor bought, it could only be run as a unlicensed restaurant.
It advertised deals including $5 breakfast specials and ‘‘kids eat free’’ days, and offered a $3000 talent quest prize, but was forced to shut down.
It is the second business on the site to close this year, and one of several hospitality businesses in Victoria St that have shut down recently.
Wiseguys Bar and Restaurant Ltd’s sole director and shareholder is Michael Smith, who is also a director and shareholder of demolition and asbestos removal businesses.
A second original director and shareholder, Sophie Rudolph, ceased her directorship and passed her shareholding to Smith before the restaurant opened its doors.
Landlord Barry Thomas said the restaurant hardly got going and had problems from the start including ‘‘some issues with their related businesses’’.
The company was registered in May and opened in leased premises in Riverlands House at 31 Victoria St. It was in liquidation seven weeks after opening.
Reviews on the business’s facebook page dated back to May, two months before the doors opened.
The premises were previously home to gastro pub The Good Goat, which was part of the JDV Group and also closed earlier this year after only a few months of trading.
Liquidator Murray Allott’s first report on Wiseguys said the business’s liquor licence application was declined and that the business was ‘‘not viable’’ without selling liquor.
However, district licensing committee records reveal the application was not declined but withdrawn by the applicant before it was considered for a decision.
Significant investment had been made into fitting out the premises, the report said.
The 16 creditors include Inland Revenue, liquor company Lion, Coca Cola, gas supplier BOC Ltd, hospitality equipment suppliers Silver Chef Rentals and Total Food Equipment, Luxon Advertising, Media Works, real estate firm JLL, and coffee and food suppliers.
Debts at the time of the report totalled $74,000, and the report noted it was unlikely there would be sufficient funds to pay unsecured creditors.
Rudolph declined to comment on the business and Smith could not be reached for comment.
Despite two tenants being lost this year, Thomas said the location was good and he had a new cafe and bar business due to take up the premises soon.
The site has a licence for pokie machines to be run on the property.
‘‘Since the earthquakes, business hasn’t been easy for a lot of people,’’ he said.
Other hospitality businesses that have closed recently on Victoria St include Tequila Mockingbird, Rockstar Pizza, Chinwag, Chopped, and Harlequin Public House.
The latest Restaurant Association of New Zealand report shows the number of hospitality outlets in Canterbury grew by 5.1 per cent to 2166 during 2017.
This was made up of 339 businesses opening, offset by 243 closures.
‘‘Since the earthquakes, business hasn’t been easy for a lot of people.’’ Barry Thomas