Pub grub tops posh nosh
You know your pub’s a success when regulars start to consider it their second home, says the owner of a new Englishstyle Nelson gastropub.
By that measure, Kate Trower’s doing pretty well, with the clientele bringing in their own Toby jugs and chintzy plates to add to the crockery on display at her Collingwood St restaurant.
Trower and her daughters Charlie and Grace opened Vine Gastro Pub at the end of May on the site of the old Cobb & Co, next to the Wakatu Hotel.
Trower spent 25 years running pubs in Essex, England with her husband, but they gave it up in 2009 to move back to New Zealand, leaving the hospitality business behind for good – or so she thought.
‘‘I said we’d never do that again, and we hung up our aprons. But once it’s in your blood, it’s in your blood,’’ she said. ‘‘I went for a coffee with a friend one day and she said, ‘I’ve got this opportunity for you’.’’
Just two weeks later, the Trowers opened their doors.
Trower said she thought Nelson could do with a traditional-style English pub restaurant. ‘‘As nice as fine dining is, we don’t need another fine dining restaurant in Nelson.’’
The restaurant’s existing decor lent itself to an English pub restaurant serving a quintessentially English menu, she said.
Her daughters made natural business partners, she said. Grace is a qualified chef, while Charlie is a barista.