Bedrock of city hospitality scene calling time
David Stones had to do the arithmetic in his head as to just how long he has been in the hospitality business in New Plymouth.
After his eyes looked north, and his mouth and lips moved to the sounds of numbers counting feverishly backwards, the man everyone knows as “Stonesy” landed on 38 years.
“It must be,” he said, because he turns 60 this year, and he was 22 when he first pulled a pint at the old Tasman Hotel, on St Aubyn St, where he worked as a trainee manager after returning from Perth when his father became ill.
Now, Stones and wife Sheryl are officially all but out of the hospitality business after they sold the Good Home, Icons Sports Bar & Cafe and the Rooftop Bar & Eatery, although they have kept ownership of the building and the Ariki Backpackers.
For those who frequent any of those inner-city New Plymouth bars, at what he called the hospitality hub, not seeing Stones and his welcoming smile will take some transition.
It’s no exaggeration to suggest Stones and the hospitality industry are as closely intertwined in this part of the world that it’s hard to imagine him not being part of it.
While it might have started at the Tasman Hotel, Stones was synonymous with The Mill Bars, rated by more than one generation as the only place you had to be on a Friday and Saturday night.
Punters literally lined Powderham St to get in as Stones worked through his recipe for running a successful operation, which centred on reliable, hard-working staff whose main credential had to be a desire to have fun.
“It was a great business, and you probably couldn’t get away with the things we did back then,” he said.
“While we were always very host responsible, people could really enjoy themselves a bit more ... there weren’t many cellphones then, put it that way.”
With several different bars within the historic premises, Stones said they aimed to cater for as many people as possible.
“When we employed people back then, I remember interviews to get bar staff, and we would ask them if they were prepared to dance on the bar,” he said. “If they weren’t, then you wouldn’t employ them.”
While the fun of running The Mill Bars was constant, so was the hard work, and the early Sunday morning starts after the late Saturday nights to clean up and count the cash in the days well before eftpos or Paywave became common.
Stones said it took Sheryl and their office manager, Michele Rosser, quite a few hours to balance the books before they got what was left of their weekend to relax.
While The Mill Bars was in its prime, the couple were also busy working to develop Icons, after they purchased and renovated the old Royal Hotel in 2000, running it as a “rugby, racing and beer” pub before significantly upgrading it five years later.
Not long after the couple sold The Mill Bars, they went on to develop The Good Home and, eventually, Stones’ long-held wish of bringing the city its first rooftop bar.
Strong patronage followed every endeavour, although he is quick to downplay any suggestion of him having a Midas touch.
“Definitely not,” he said firmly. “You have to have a bit of luck in the industry because it’s a tough industry.
“You have to have good people around you, and Sheryl was certainly that, because she was the driving force as well. You’ve got to have key staff and really look after them, and that helps you through, because we have been very fortunate and very lucky.”
An example, he pointed out, was his head chef Zack Jackson, who came on board as a 22-year-old when Stones took an almost leap of faith in offering him the job at the Good Home when they opened the doors 13 years ago.
The step into operating a more focused restaurant was something Stones said he immediately enjoyed as he continued a transition within the industry.
“For the first years of Super Rugby, the place [Icons] used to be packed, but over the years people got big-screen televisions and they could sit at home with their mates, so you have to adapt pretty quickly,” he said.
“Food was a good upgrade for us, and the Good Home filled that void really, really nicely. And food is great, because there’s nothing better than a Saturday night when the restaurant and bars are full of people dining and enjoying great food that you are plating and delivering. It’s an amazing feeling.”
He said that while he believed the challenge of good hospitality was always about keeping people happy, it had more than its share of challenges – none more so than four years ago, when Covid hit.
It was unprecedented times, when plenty of establishments struggled to survive, the ripple effect still being felt today.
He recalled the sudden realisation that they had fridges full of food they had to find something to do with.
His solution? Marathon cooking sessions for “meals on wheels”, when they put together containers of food and sold them online at virtually cost price.
“I think we sold about 3000 meals, and we even had orders from people in Australia who wanted to send them to loved ones in New Plymouth, because they were concerned for them.”
Despite that period, Stones said business boomed when normality returned.
“It was the best financial year we ever experienced, because New Zealanders got back out and celebrated.”
The rush of being back in business provided a fillip for Stones, who admitted it took several approaches from the new owners – Justin Vile and Louise O’Dea, as well as Darren and Renee Kerslake – for him and Sheryl to finally accept.
“I didn’t want to sell, Sheryl did,” he joked, “but I had not envisaged selling.
“But I do other stuff, which is getting busier and busier, and it was putting a little bit of pressure on, because this sort of business is a seven days a week job, and if you’re not here, it makes it difficult.”
That other “stuff” includes supporting local sport and his role as manager of the Black Sticks men’s hockey team, which is just a few months away from going to the Olympics in Paris.
Before then, the squad have a tour of Malaysia for a tournament before they return for a short break and then head to Poland for the Nations Cup, ahead of warm-up matches in Spain.
“She’s a full-on gig, and it would have been hard to balance it with the business, so the timing of the sale is great.”