We’re open — finally

It took longer than he expected, but owner Gareth Pearce has finally opened his Two Taniwha Kitchen and Bar on Waipukurau’s main street.

Mr Pearce had initially hoped to open his new steet eatery — housed in a 12m-long bright yellow shipping container on Ruataniwha St — by Easter. However delays with his resource consent, a hold-up with with his liquor licence and a longer than expected time to install a toilet meant he could not start trading until May 2.

After advertising the “soft” evening opening on Facebook, he was pleased with the number of customers who tried his pulled-meat burgers, pizza slices, wedges and salads, coffees, milkshakes and alcohol — and his signature dish, the

Pu¯ kana burger.

“We decided to just throw ourselves into the cauldron and we smashed it out,” said Mr Pearce, referring to himself and two staff members, Rick and Allarna.

Aside from a bit of a wait for pizzas, which are made to order, he was happy with how the opening went.

“We had one woman who waited too long for pizzas, but she private messaged us to give us feedback, which is great. We will just keep working on it and keep improving the product.” Since the opening, a number of customers had visited to wish him the best.

“We’ve had lots of wellwishers. People seem to love the concept, the atmosphere. I think they are appreciative of having something new in town.”

He said gaining resource consent and a liquor licence had taken much longer than anticipated.

“It was definitely a long process and a lot of paperwork involved. But if you remain patient and follow the process, you’ll get there in the end.”