FEATURE
25
Some of the doors for the bar were salvaged
from a post-earthquake house demoliti on in
Kekerengu, while many other pieces were
stumbled upon at scrap yards or were too
hard to walk away from in anti que shops.
“It’s just evolved, obviously I like old stuff , old
cars, old bikes, just old ,” Haydn says.
“This is kind of my take on a similar concept
that’s not new, but to be honest it was
all done low budget so there was a lot of
recycling, a lot of repurposing and cost
cutti ng which is how it’s ended up giving it a
bit of atmosphere and character.”
Haydn considers himself lucky to have been
able to set up 5 Tapped Bar, a project he
says pulls on all the best bits of a range of
diff erent career paths he has mastered;
including engineering, mechanical, electrical
and automoti ve trades to servicing espresso
machines and making great coff ee.
Originally from the United Kingdom,
Nikky had two decades in the hospitality
industry under her belt, and had previously
considered opening a restaurant and bar
both there and here in New Zealand.
Opening a bar seemed a natural step, she
says.
“It doesn’t surprise me that I’ve ended up
setti ng up and owning a bar … I’m also an
accountant so I managed all the fi nances for
the project.”
Haydn says he has Nikky to thank for allowing
him to take the risk and set up his dream
business in a town they had not long called
home.
“With my trade history it was a 14 month set
up, which was the best gap year ever for me,
because I got to fi t out the inside of the place
and was lucky enough to be in a positi on
to be able to take a year off and create this
place,” Haydn says.
JAMES
“Nikky, my wife was just the key to
encouraging me and putti ng me in this
positi on where we were able to do it and a
lot of her ideas and input are here too, it has
been very much a joint venture. If I had run
out of ideas and got stuck then she would fi ll
in the blanks, so I was super lucky to have her
support and encouragement … without that
it would never have happened.”
As the name alludes, 5 Tapped Bar has fi ve
beers on tap at any one ti me, however
no replacement keg is ever the same. The
same goes for the coff ee beans, which are
refreshed with something new each ti me the
supply runs out.
“Cafés are typically committ ed to one brand,
usually by supply contracts and I always
Local ∙ Authentic ∙ Live ∙ Organic ∙ Craft brewed
Est. 2005
Proudly supplying and supporting
5 Tapped
0508 SUBLIME
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