Pouring the heritage back into Christchurch, one glass at a time

Saturday, 11 May 2024

A hushed enclave of High Renaissance architecture nestled in a corner of Cathedral Square, the Old Government Building serves as a welcome refuge from the glass, steel and graffitied modernity that is post-earthquake Christchurch.

One of the few remaining Edwardian buildings that managed to survive both the 2011 earthquake and the subsequent razing of so much of the city’s history, this elegant matriarch is home to Inkster & Company’s founding hospitality venue, OGB Bar.

When the dust from the earthquakes and the resulting demolitions had finally started to clear in 2016, the heart of the city was a wasteland, boarded-up heritage buildings and a ruined cathedral all that remained.

In those days the hospitality scene had been reduced to an incongruous line-up of Calendar Girls, Baretta, Mama Hooch and the Christchurch Casino, and Cantabrians were crying out for a venue where people could gather for a convivial drink and forget about what had been lost.

Enter OGB, a defiant symbol of the city’s resurrection among the gravel-strewn empty lots and condemned buildings, and just metres from the ruined cathedral.

Featuring a speakeasy-style bar with cocktails and live music, it’s now a Christchurch fixture and is clearly Nick Inkster’s baby, although he’s reluctant to play favourites.

“It was kind of at a perfect time when Christchurch was needing something a bit different, so it just went off,” he says.

Inkster’s success is down to a combination of a phenomenal work ethic, the ability to see opportunities where others don’t, and a knack for throwing a good party.

Growing up in 90s Christchurch, Inkster frequented the usual bars on The Strip, but he remembers being particularly taken with Sol Square when it opened in 2005.

“I’ve always had a romance with cool-looking bars, with laneways and stuff,” he says of this exotic precinct, which was the beginning of the “peak hospo” era in Christchurch, when new bars seemed to sprout overnight and it finally felt like the city was starting to grow up.

Born and bred in the Christchurch suburb of Dallington, Inkster, 40, recalls working as a glassie at the Dux de Lux at age 16.

This celebrated hospitality venue was an integral part of the Arts Centre, pioneering both vegetarian food and live music in the city, with Shapeshifter, Salmonella Dub and a young Anika Moa all cutting their teeth in front of a diverse and enthusiastic crowd.

Inkster’s father Robin recognised his son’s flair for hospitality very early on, and was happy to indulge his propensity for throwing “epic parties, with live bands and heaps of kegs, the works” at their Dallington home.

Mum Marianna, who moved to Amberley after the earthquakes, is also Inkster’s “biggest fan”, and he emphasises that it is her enthusiasm and energy for his venues that constantly inspires him to do more.

Old flatmate Liam O’Laughlin - he and Inkster have been friends since the late 90s - recalls the house Inkster and twin brother Leon bought in South Brighton after leaving school.

Inkster wasted no time installing a spa pool and building a deck around it, then cut a hole in the side of the garage and fitted a window and bar leaner to serve beers to paying customers at his parties. “He always knew a lot of people from different schools, and from the beach and the rugby club.It was a lot of fun.”

Robin died of prostate cancer in 2013, but not before telling his son that he “needed to build a bar”. He has since been immortalised at OGB in the form of a tap beer dubbed Robin’s IPA, which features his kindly, smiling face on the logo.

His picture also takes pride of place above the bar, along with a street sign taken from the now red-zoned Tilbury Place, where Inkster, Leon and sister Colette spent their formative years.

Inkster’s passion for hospitality makes his early decision to become a builder all the more surprising.

Offered a brewing apprenticeship at the age of 17, he opted instead for a career in construction, and spent the next four years learning the tools of the trade while playing rugby for Linwood.

Once his apprenticeship was complete he headed to remote Barrow Island, off the coast of Western Australia, and spent the next seven years building accommodation and facilities for the oil and gas industry.

Inkster laughs at his choice of building over brewing, because he “thought he’d end up fat, tasting beers every day”.

It was during his tenure on Barrow Island that the seeds of the Inkster empire were sown, with Inkster remotely signing the lease in 2014 for what would eventually become OGB, using his earnings from construction to pay for the lease and to design the bar he wanted.

For so many bars and restaurants in Christchurch, many of which had been through a post-quake rebuild, the arrival of Covid-19 in 2020 was the beginning of the end.

Inkster, however, saw an opportunity where others couldn’t, and “instead of sitting around moaning about it” he reasoned there would be a gap in the market.

While the rest of us were watching Netflix and sneaking socially-distanced drinks with neighbours, Inkster & Co was hard at work setting up three more hospitality venues - Austin Club, Paddy McNaughton’s, and Civil & Naval in Lyttelton.

With the help of government subsidies, Inkster managed to retain all his staff through those uncertain times. And he is thrilled his latest venture, The Church Pub, has finally opened in Worcester St after four years of dealing with a succession of naysayers, bureaucracy and red tape.

The Church Pub, originally the Trinity Congregational Church, is an architectural triumph, with Inkster’s desire to remain true to the building’s heritage apparent in every detail, from the lovingly-restored limestone cornices on the stained glass windows to the cleverly wrought replica organ pipes behind the bar.

Religious purists might disapprove of the quiz nights hosted by drag queen Tony Chestnut, and the live music played by the aptly-named Unholy Trinity, but there is no disputing Inkster’s love for the extraordinary craftsmanship of what is now the oldest stone building in Christchurch.

His reverence for the building’s heritage was even noted by a passing member of the clergy, who so liked what he saw that he kindly offered to bless the venue on its opening night, during which he sagely noted that Jesus did, after all, turn water into wine.

Inkster believes his company thrives because he refuses to be pigeon-holed and doesn’t subscribe to the elitism that has proven the downfall of so many craft beer start-ups.

He has a good relationship with Lion Breweries and is acutely aware that the company’s longevity relies on appealing to the masses alongside its more niche projects.

“There’s a reason why Heineken and Corona and Speight’s and Steinlager are the popular brands, because they’re sessionable.”

To this end, the Inkster Group bought the Fox and Ferret in The Palms in March last year. In Inkster’s words, this unassuming little venue “is a classic English pub, and it was well ahead of its time”.

While it has a vastly different vibe from his other well-known venues (like Austin Club and Parlour), his latest venture, was inspired by nostalgia as much as financial gain. The Fox was where dad Robin took Inkster and his brother when they came of age, insisting they buy him a celebratory beer in a time-honoured Inkster tradition.

An avid historian who delights in the circularity of his various ventures, Inkster recalls sitting in the old Civil & Naval bar in Lyttelton, which he now owns, while drawing up the plans for OGB in 2014.

In the same vein, his purchase of a black Austin 10 car, with its distinctive Inkster & Co moniker, was inspired by a picture of the OGB building in 1952 which featured a similar vehicle in the foreground.

Spying the rare beauty sitting in a North Canterbury paddock not long after, he made the farmer an offer and the rest is history. Inkster was informed by a member of the city council recently that the Austin actually took the title of most-photographed object in Christchurch in 2018.

Perhaps born 80 years too late, the 1940s were part of an era Inkster has always felt drawn to, with postwar speakeasies, basement bars, and swing, and the Austin 10, looking like it’s come straight from London of that period, is also the namesake of one of his most recent ventures, Austin Club in Cashel St.

This high-end basement bar is all about cocktails, comedy nights, poetry readings, and DJ sets that go till 3am, and if you’ve managed to actually find it, you’ll need to know the password to gain entry.

While Inkster is the face of Inkster & Co, the company has been run in partnership with brothers Andrew and Richard Norton since 2019. Well known in hospitality circles, the Norton family previously owned the Speight’s Ale House in Sol Square, and are now the proprietors of Bailies Bar in Edgeware and the Cranford Ale House.

The trio have been friends for almost 25 years; Andrew was Inkster’s rugby coach at the Linwood Rugby Club, and Richard and Inkster played seniors together for several years.

The Gaelic jewel in the crown of the Inkster empire must surely be Paddy McNaughton’s Irish Bar in Manchester St, which takes its name from the Nortons’ fourth great-grandfather, Paddy McNaughton. Young Paddy had the misfortune to be arrested and sent to Australia as a prisoner of His Majesty in 1810 for the heinous crime of stealing an orange.

Despite being offered land in New South Wales upon his release seven years later, Paddy decided that he’d rather take his chances in New Zealand, signing on to a whaling operation at Te Awaiti in the Marlborough Sounds. During this time, the colourful Irishman married a high-ranking Ngāi Tahu woman, Makareta Tangitu, changed his surname to Norton, and the pair moved to Christchurch in 1850.

This traditional ale house in the Shand’s Emporium building (now the oldest wooden building remaining in Christchurch) has sawdust-covered floors, an extensive whiskey selection and Guinness on tap. It’s snug enough that on any given weekend the bands playing traditional Irish ditties are almost sitting on patrons’ knees, in true Dublin style.

Inkster’s good friend Mijntje Lepoutre worked with him on the interiors of OGB, Parlour, Austin Club and Paddy McNaughton’s, and The Church was the work of local designer Gemma Atwood from Pluvio Design Studio. Inkster sources the old cash registers, phonographs and assorted paraphernalia adorning his bars from local dealers.

One of the more appealing additions to the OGB comes in the form of Inkster’s rather glamorous leonberger dog, Winston, a well-known fixture in the OGB and Church Pub courtyards. According to Inkster, Winston is great company, as well as being “extremely chill”.

Despite being in charge of six hospitality outlets and 140 staff, Inkster has also been managing the Linwood division one rugby team for the last four years. He and some friends even bought a bus for the club three years ago to allow players to travel as a team, with their motto being “get on board”. Linwood are currently in the top four of the metro competition, and Inkster hopes victory will be his managerial swansong.

Inkster & Co’s 10-year plan will hopefully see bars opening in Sumner and Redcliffs, and linking them with Civil & Naval, which will allow for a kind of Port Hills pub crawl (replete with a sober driver of course). Ultimately, Inkster’s goal is to extend the Inkster & Co empire beyond the confines of the Canterbury Plains.

Auckland, Wānaka and Queenstown are all on his radar within the next decade, and there is no doubt that the boy from Dallington who was born 80 years too late will show them how it’s done, one pint at a time.