Mrudang Patel, with wife Madhu and son Mivaan at the counter of the North End Dairy, Pahīatua, now officially open.
Mrudang Patel, with wife Madhu and son Mivaan at the counter of the North End Dairy, Pahīatua, now officially open.
A Pahīatua shop building slated twice for demolition is now a bustling dairy and takeaways.
Owner Mrudang (Muru) Patel, who also owns a similar operation in Carterton, saw an opportunity in the shop at 28 Main Street and has opened it after extensive renovations.
He says since he announced via social media he was opening up the shop, now known as the North End dairy, a lot of people had commented with memories of the premises.
Muru Patel has had a number of people share their memories of the shop with him since he announced he was opening the North End dairy at the north end of Main St, Pahiatua.
He’d also had visitors during the renovations who shared with him their memories of the shop.
“That gave me the confidence that it must be right,” he says.
An official opening was held last weekend and Mayor Tracey Collis, along with MP for Wairarapa Mike Butterick were there to cut the ribbon.
Tararua District mayor Tracey Collis and Wairarapa MP Mike Butterick cut the ribbon to open the newly-christened North End Dairy in Pahīatua, owned by Mrudang (Muru) Patel and his family.
Tracey talked of the buzz within the community.
“In a small community you hear these things before you actually get the call and find out what’s happening, but that’s because there was such excitement around what was happening.”
She says the shop has always been “one of those icons” attracting people driving past early in the morning to truck drivers stopping in, as well as families using the park.
The park, opposite the shop, is the only one in New Zealand with an aeroplane in the middle of it, Tracey says.
She noted the support via social media for the new venture, as well as Muru and his family’s commitment to Pahīatua.
“To see activity here created an incredible buzz within the community.
“It creates a vibrancy whenever you see a new business open in town.”
Mike recalled passing through with his family more than 15 years ago and buying ice creams at the shop.
He says it’s nice to see a new business open in “pretty challenging times”.
“It’s a really great story – someone wanting to invest into a new business.
In a book Main Street memories about Pahīatua, Henry Angelini wrote the building was listed as a bakery, believed to owned by W.J. Mills in 1917.
The North End dairy and takeaways circa 1930, as pictured in the book Main Street Memories.
Paul’s research notes that the bakery changed names at some point to be Mills & Nation, until it was bought out in 1966 by Bridewell’s of Palmerston North.
The Bridewell’s-owned bakery didn’t last long and about 1968 it was bought by a local, Ted Elliott, who converted the shop to a dairy, calling it the “Town and Around Dairy” (after the television show) and then in the mid-70s it became Parkview Tearooms.
When the shop was known as Parkview Tearooms, as pictured in the book Main Street Memories.
The shop would go on to change hands several more times over the last few decades.
