Couple Otis and Jen Robinson outside their new venue, The Meeanee Hotel, where they've opened a new restaurant and garden bar. Photo / Gary Hamilton-Irvine
Couple Otis and Jen Robinson outside their new venue, The Meeanee Hotel, where they've opened a new restaurant and garden bar. Photo / Gary Hamilton-Irvine
Just weeks after the sudden closure of popular Napier eatery and ale house The Filter Room, the long-standing operators have announced a new home and venue.
Couple Otis and Jen Robinson have taken on the lease to run The Meeanee Hotel.
It is just 200m away from theirold business, The Filter Room, which closed at the end of October.
That was due to a “disappointing” decision by the landlord not to renew their lease at short notice after seven years, Otis said.
A law firm representing the landlord of The Filter Room declined to comment during a Hawke’s Bay Today story last month about that decision.
Otis said it had been a big few weeks to get to this point, and they were rapt to remain in Meeanee.
“A lot of people equate The Meeanee Hotel to the public bar, and that is all they think it is. Whereas that is a very small part of it.”
Jen and Otis Robinson in the garden bar area next to the Norfolk pine which inspired the stolen pine name. Photo / Gary Hamilton-Irvine
He said he loved that part of the hotel but The Stolen Pine was a “very different” addition.
“This is a restaurant and out into this garden which no one has really seen a lot of,” he said.
“We can hold between 100 to 150 people in the garden, and if you take the whole restaurant and garden we can hold up to 200 people.
“It allows us to do what we were doing.”
The Stolen Pine boasts many of the aspects which made The Filter Room popular including a garden bar (with 11 beers on tap), food, and live music on the weekends. It will also cater for functions.
The name comes from an urban myth related to a Norfolk pine within the garden bar area.
“It is a bit of an urban myth but apparently back in the early 1900s or whenever they were planting trees along [Napier’s Marine] Parade some got knicked.
“There are apparently a few around, about five of them - big Norfolk pines - and this could apparently be one of them, according to the myth.”
In terms of the way things ended at The Filter Room, Otis said he did not have any hard feelings.
“It is what it is and we have got to go ‘hey maybe this has happened for a reason’.
“We have ended up in what we feel is a better place and feel positive about that, and want to say to people who used to come and say hello to us at The Filter Room to come and say hello to us here.”
He thanked their new landlord, Wayne Parker, for allowing them to move in quickly. That allowed them to keep some of their Christmas function bookings.
The public bar is open Tuesday-Sunday from 11am (until late), and The Stolen Pine is open Wednesday-Sunday from 11am (until late).
It is unclear what The Filter Room premises will be used for in future, and a closed sign remains up on those shut gates.
Gary Hamilton-Irvine is a Hawke’s Bay-based reporter who covers a range of news topics including business, councils, breaking news and cyclone recovery. He formerly worked at News Corp Australia.
