Owners close bar and prepare to farewell Nelson
The Covid-19 pandemic made many around this country take a second look at their lives and the owners of bar/brewery The Workshop Jackie Aislabie and Nigel Jerard were no exception to this cultural shift – the couple have decided it’s time to move home.
Their business, which has been on the market for around 10 months, shut its doors on Friday.
They held a private function on Saturday night to say goodbye to the regulars, a festivity Jerard described as ‘‘packed’’ and ‘‘very emotional’’.
‘‘There were a lot of thank yous, a lot of goodbyes, a lot of hugging. We’ve met a lot of lovely people who have been really supportive of us and they have loved coming here.’’
Aislabie and Jerard are packing up and moving to Christchurch, their hometown, where all their family is based.
Two of their children were in Nelson, but they had since moved back to Christchurch, Aislabie said.
There are also elderly parents thrown into the mix.
‘‘Covid-19 really made us sort of re-evaluate things and look at things . . . we would like to go back home.’’
Aislabie said they had the current address until the end of
the month, so they were looking to move out of the premises towards the end of that time.
She thinks the reason it hasn’t sold is the ‘‘current business climate and issues with staffing’’.
Potential buyers had also been struck with hurdles at the bank, she said.
The Workshop is listed on Ray White with an asking price of $120,000. Regulars just couldn’t believe that it hadn’t sold, and were ‘‘absolutely completely gutted’’ to lose the establishment.
Aislabie said there were still a few ‘‘nibbles’’ out there in terms of potential buyers, but whether they would turn into bites was unknown.
Upcoming sale or not, it’s going to be a busy period for the entrepreneurs. They’re currently in the process of creating a new beer brand and setting up a brewery on their rural property in Christchurch.
The Workshop may be no longer, at least for now, but fans of their beer will not be left bereft.
Aislabie said they had ‘‘left some space in another brewery’’ to continue brewing and supplying Nelson and Richmond Fresh Choice with Test Lab beer.
The couple say they are sad to be leaving the region – and the industrial building on New St that they fell in love with, with its high ceilings and exposed ceiling beams, where they were producing up to eight different types of beer.
‘‘We’ve had so many wonderful, loyal customers and to say goodbye to them has been pretty hard,’’ Aislabie said.
But for now the couple are looking to the future.
‘‘You have to move on,’’ Jerard said. ‘‘Life is short, you just need to keep moving ahead. We can’t stay here just because people want us to stay. We need to do what’s right for us.’’