Good news for LGBT Wellingtonians - two new gathering-places launch this weekend. ‘Our Bar' has a low-key opening on Friday evening, and ‘iMerst' gets re-launched with a big party on Saturday evening. Co-owner Sharon Boyd spoke to GayNZ.com about Our Bar. “It's gay, but straight-friendly. We've got a restaurant here, serving a variety of meals. So you can come in to relax after work and have a nibble. It's a very friendly atmosphere." Sharon Boyd and Ruth Post got the keys to Our Bar on the 10th of September. “It's been fast-tracked! We can't afford to muck around," says Boyd. Our Bar has two levels, so there's a space upstairs for private functions. "It's a beautiful old turn-of-the-century building," says Boyd. "It used to be the old ‘Neat' restaurant. We've had the girls around, building table-tops, bar-leaners, and re-doing the kitchen. We've got a little area out the front for smokers, and hopefully we can open a garden bar up out the back later on.” No events are planned yet, but Boyd says they've just fitted an “awesome” sound system. “So now we can have a DJ, karaoke and guitar performances. “We're a very community-minded bar. If people want to have functions here, whatever they need, if we can do it, we're here for them.” Doors open at 8pm on Friday evening. “We'll have some platters of food handed out, but we're keeping it fairly low-key. Just saying we're open, here we are, come and have a look, come and relax, bring your friends and have a good time.” Rhys Hakkens was a regular at Wellington's Pound nightclub, which closed three months ago. He tells GayNZ.com he misses having somewhere to go, and seized the opportunity to buy iMerst, a formally straight nightclub which had started to hold gay nights on Saturdays. He plans to turn it into Wellington's premier gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender venue. “The bar's on three levels – that provides three different areas for people to enjoy,” explains Hakkens. “We have the dance bar downstairs, with a dance floor and stage where we'll be having regular drag shows, and we'll also have DJ Cliché who was resident at Pound. “On the second floor is the lounge bar, which is a quieter place for cocktails, and there's a pool table there too. It has three fantastic glass panels – because it's upstairs, they look down onto the dance floor, and there's even a one metre square of glass floor, so you can be standing above the downstairs bar and look down to see the shows. The windows at the front look out onto Pigeon Park. Then the third level is the VIP bar, which will be open on the launch night.” Hakkens says invites have already gone out to iMerst's relaunch party this Saturday night, and he expects over 800 people there. It's going to be a ‘who's who' of the Wellington scene, he says, including an appearance by Mal and Scotty from Pound - “they're planning a different kind of venue to open next year, so we don't see competition between us.” Our Bar is at 201 Cuba Street (phone 04 802 4405) and iMerst is at 13 Dixon Street (phone 04 384 8229). Ref: GayNZ.com (m)
Credit: GayNZ.com News Staff
First published: Thursday, 26th October 2006 - 12:00pm