The Freeport with Cleaver & Co
What makes your venue the Best Gastropub in New Zealand?
When we started out in 2019 we set out to become a great community pub with the long term goal of becoming one of those great venues that is known simply as a 'local Institution'. Fast forward 4 and half years and we are still working on the institution piece (This could take a lifetime!) we believe we have created a great community venue built around great people and amazing food and drink.
Quality food, beverage and service is at the heart of everything we do. We believe in customers having 'The Best Time Every Time' meaning each visit should be just as good or better than the last. We like to stick to the basics, which is great food and drink, great service, in an awesome environment.
We have a people led approach and we use this to guide our decision making at the venue. This is whether it be what is right for the customer and what is right for our team. We think this is at the heart of why we are the best Gastropub in NZ!
Describe the experience your customers have at your establishment – what is your food and beverage offering and why do people come back for more?
Customers Entering our venue will be greeted at the door and given an option to Drink or Dine in either The Freeport Side of the venue which has an open and airy, industrial aesthetic with comfortable seating. Or over in Cleaver & Co, which is a darker more intimate setting which is somewhere between a speakeasy and an American sports bar.
Table service is provided to diners with a focus on an accommodating & friendly service style, where our team are free to be themselves. Those in for a drink have the option of table service or ordering at the bar if preferred.
We focus on providing simple but authentic food, with a menu that is anchored with Low and Slow Barbecue at one end, and Authentic Napoli hand stretched pizzas at the other, with delicious burgers, salads and pub classics in between.
Without having a huge menu we can cater to a wide range of customers and we make sure that every menu item is as Yum as it can be, while providing value for our customers.
People rave about our barbecue and our Pitmaster platters are a crowd favorite, and our Authentic Naploi style pizza is simple, light and airy.
Beverage wise we focus on tap beer with a craft heavy mix, with some kiwi classics thrown in, a simple but delicious wine list and a great range of cocktails and every changing slushie cocktails (also a crowd favorite)
We have a people led approach and we use this to guide our decision making at the venue. This is whether it be what is right for the customer and what is right for our team which flows through to all aspects of our customer experience.
Tell us how you showcase NZ produce / offerings? Does your menu change with the season and how is it locally influenced. How do you accommodate allergy and dietary requirements?
From a beverage perspective our Wine and Beer List are almost 100% NZ Sourced with the exception of an Ozzie Red or two.
Foodwise we use NZ produce as much as we can, and we generally update our menu seasonally to make the most of in season produce.
For our award winning toastie (The Surf and Turf Smoke Monsieur) we used NZ Lamb to make our pastrami, coupling this with prawns to reflect the nature of Our local area. The Lamb was to reflect Mauao (MT Maunganui) as there are sheep grazing on its slopes, and prawns to refect the coastal nature of our environment. This created a delicious dish which represented our local area.
Our menu is labelled with Options that can be requested Gluten Free, vegetarian or vegan. We have an allergy matrix for our FOH and BOH staff in the kitchen so our team can quickly check which allergens are in each menu item if a customer has a specific request, we always double check with the chefs as well.
What are your key points of difference and how have you managed to deliver them?
Our venue started life as two separate offerings with a central kitchen. During the first covid lockdown we made the decision to blow out a wall between the two venues and create one large venue with a combined menu and two distinct areas or experiences.
This means we can cater to a wide range of occasions for a wide range of customers. Anything from a couple of afternoon drinks with mates, to a family dinner, watching the game on one the big screens, through to a corporate event or celebration for 20-120 guests in one of our function areas. Throughout all these occasions we work hard to ensure a great customer experience for our guests.
We really focus on customer service and experience which is a direct and indirect result of every team member in our business. We keep an eye on review platforms for any red flags which could be learning opportunities. We track our ratings and at the end of each month if we are at 4.5/5 or higher across the main review platforms we put some funds into a team account which they manage themselves and is usually used for some sort of fun activity.
Or diverse menu is also a point of difference as we are able to go deep on some authentic food styles and provide a menu that has great balance and variety.
Oftentimes with diverse menus, quality can suffer - we get around this by having chefs specialize in different areas of our kitchen. Outside the head chef we always have a 'BBQ Lead Chef' who is ultimately responsible for the Low and Slow section as this is a very specialized area of cuisine. The same is true for Pizza as we have a Pizza Lead Chef who is passionate about everything hand stretched pizza. Each section has an unofficial 'apprentice' so we are constantly building capability across all the sections of our kitchen and we have structured renumeration increases as our team members become proficient in each section.
This approach aims to increase knowledge throughout our team which is great for our people and means if we lose a key team member, there is generally someone else with the skills to step up.
Best Known for:
Speakeasy/American sports bar
Authentic Napoli-style pizza
Two separate experiences
Please describe your commitment to sustainability.
Beverage wise, tap beers are our largest seller, followed by slushie cocktails which means no packaging waste from these products. We have a limited selection of bottled beers and are dialing up cans in this space. We don't sell any RTD's so this cuts down on packaging.
We commercially compost all our food waste, and paper/cardboard products which have come into contact with food. Paper, plastic, cans and glass is all separated and recycled.
Have you won any awards in the recent past? Tell us about them.
We won the McLure's Pickles, NZ'z Best toastie 2023.
Finalist in the HNZ Awards for Best Bar 2021
Finalist in the Bay Hospitality Awards Best Bar 2019,2022
Please describe how you create ambience.
Getting the music and lighting right is key for this, we focus on foot tapping tunes at a volume that still allows for conversation, with live acoustic music on Friday nights. Both areas in our venue have their own identities with Cleaver & CO being darker with grittier tunes, where the freeport is a bit brighter often with some Motown, funk or reggae playing.
