The Vic Public House
What makes your venue the Best Gastropub in New Zealand?
The Vic Public House also known as The Victorian Rose has been a staple of the local hospitality and gastro pub scene since 1992. Built in 1882 as an Insurance Bank of NZ with the original vault door still on display. Having gone through a few major changes over the years, it has still managed to maintain a loyal following as a place of comfort, refreshing beverages and deliciously fresh food. Its current ownership has been safely in the hands of the Williams family since 2010.
Since then, we’ve had great times and waded our way through tough times, including a full premises retrofit for earthquake strengthening following the Christchurch earthquakes in 2012; the work was done with taste and enhanced the aesthetics of the building, adding an industrial feel to it. In 2020, the premises were rebranded and re-fit to “The Vic Public House”, again adding to a Victorian industrial feel with pressed tin fittings, steel beams, copper pipes and brickwork.
As a family business, we endeavour to bring our team into the fold, incorporating our core values and beliefs in the fundamentals of hospitality into a shared vision with them. So much so that they become part of the family. This welcoming family feel filters through to the customers, and as a result, you’d be hard-pressed to find folks that don’t have a story about their time at The Vic, sometimes dating back to its time in the 90s. It’s a joy to have folks come and visit who haven’t been back for 30 years and tell us their stories of fond memories of their time here. It is as much a part of Nelson as the very foundations the city is built on.
The family itself has a wealth of experience in the hospitality world from across the globe. From managing bars in hotels in Auckland to opening and managing places in Queenstown to working in cutting-edge bars & restaurants in the UK. The foundation of our menu originates from the knowledge gained from a Sky City apprenticeship under the watchful eye of great chefs such as Peter Gordon. This is only made stronger by the incredible team members we have on board from all walks of life and with experience from around the world.
Describe the experience your customers have at your establishment – what is your food and beverage offering and why do people come back for more?
As customers enter The Vic, they are warmly greeted but are soon distracted by the unique décor and beautiful Victorian features & fittings. Our goal for our standard of service is to ensure we are adapting to fit the wants and needs of the individual customer. As a result, our service style isn’t necessarily uniform. Especially during the busy summer tourism season, we need to be aware that people from Europe expect a different standard of service from those from the USA, UK, and domestic visitors. Our intention is to offer an accessible form of service without being pretentious. As part of our training, we instil in our team that they need to treat a service as if they are hosting a dinner party. As such, their goal is to make sure there isn’t an empty glass or belly in the house and that everyone feels comfortable and safe.
We offer a wide variety of NZ craft tap beer, classic cocktails with as many NZ spirits available as possible, locally produced wines, locally roasted espresso coffee, and a refreshing range of non/low-alc beverages.
We source our food locally as much as possible. All of our fruit and veg come from local farms through Connings Food Market, and most of our meat products come from Raeward Fresh. With it, we produce simple but well-done dishes. You won’t find all the frills other restaurants may offer, but you will hear a lot of compliments and satisfied customers. Most know what to expect and are confident in our consistency that they usually return, in some cases, we have holiday makers that come in every night over the course of their stay. Some of them were pleasantly surprised at the quality of the food and didn’t necessarily expect that level of standard when they ordered.
A good combination of beer-centric snacking dishes for those who just want a pint and a nibble and hearty comfort mains means that there is a wide variety of bases covered to satisfy everyone’s needs and cravings.
All of this combined keeps our customers happy and wanting more. There are always good comments on our atmosphere, too. Music playlists, lighting, and entertainment are added to this. All of the above ingredients combined equate to a recipe for satisfied & returning customers.
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?
We use local and/or NZ produce as often as possible. Unfortunately, some places do it better. It’s hard to find a good NZ-produced single malt whiskey, so you have to look to Scotland for that. That said, there are some up-and-comers we keep our eye on and stay in touch with the sales reps with the hope of finding a home for a variety of produce.
We don’t generally advertise where our product comes from; however, when asked, we inform them that most of it comes from within a 30-minute drive of the pub. We’re very lucky to live in an area that produces incredible fresh produce at a price point that is competitive with larger-scale suppliers.
We change our menu twice a year based on seasonality and showcase as much as we can to suit the season. In the winter, you’ll see hearty stews or pies on the menu, whereas the winter will showcase lighter dishes to suit the hotter weather.
Catering for dietary requirements is crucial to us. We have separate gluten-free menus with a separate gluten-free fryer to go along with it. This includes indicators for vegan and vegetarian dishes. If a customer throws us a curve ball, an allergen spreadsheet is available to staff and accessible chefs to answer questions and tailor dishes to suit the customer. If we have the product available to us, chefs have been known to come up with new dishes on the spot and take great care in reducing the risk of cross-contamination.
We often get comments and reviews from customers who are surprised that we’ve gone to the effort of printing an entirely separate menu for their dietary requirements. We assumed it was standard practice for most places. However, they assure us it’s hard to find. As a result, they keep coming back if they know they won’t be at risk and have plenty of options.
What are your key points of difference and how have you managed to deliver them?
The core strength of The Vic, and what has kept it going and customers returning for three decades, is its versatility. During the winter season, we offer multimedia quiz nights twice a week. These are usually fully booked every night, and there is generally a waiting list. Teams return week after week and have got to know each other well enough so that the competition and banter are great fun. As well as that, we are able to switch our restaurant from a lunch and dinner eatery to a party place offering live music from local artists and open mic nights for the up-and-comers to have a go too, some of the talent being that good that we then offer them a gig. Using this to our advantage during COVID helped us get through it as much as it did for our customers.
Because of this, The Vic is a great place for the community to come together to work out and hopefully take their mind off of their woes in the outside world. It is, after all, a public house in the traditional sense. We’ve played host politicians and political debates. We can happily cater for private meetings and events, as the premises is essentially split into three areas, we can adapt the space to suit private business meetings whilst also catering to the rest of the customers. In some cases, we also provide out-catering to local sports teams, catering to up to 700 people at a time. All whilst maintaining the standard of high-quality food, service & drink our customers expect.
Our location plays a massive role, too. We’re lucky enough to be surrounded by other great operators and restaurants, each with a different offering from the other. This helps each of us exist symbiotically and bounce trade between each other. We wouldn’t say we would sit in the same category as some of the fine dining establishments in our vicinity, but I would say we offer the best in our category in terms of a combination of quality food and beverage offerings.
Tell us about your commitments to Customer Service and Host Responsibility.
Customer service is paramount to what we do. At the core of it is the fundamentals of hospitality. Offering a quality customer experience and customer engagement is how we achieve this. We offer different mediums through which our customers can access service. It can be full table service for those who want to be wined and dined, bar service for those who want a more casual but interactive experience or, through the recently employed tech solution of QR table ordering for those who enjoy their peace and privacy.
This must be coupled with host responsibility. Staff are aware of the dangers of the products they sell. How damaging it can be if mistreated. They need to be aware of the differences between alcohol appreciation and abuse. Those who are here for the appreciation aspect, staff enjoy discussing and imparting knowledge on the products they sell. Knowing where your gin comes from and how it’s made is important for staff and offers an additional level of experience for the customer. Offering samples to get the right fit for a customer is more important to us than just getting the sale, we want our customers to enjoy what they’ve spent their hard earnt money on.
Best Known for:
Unique historical building
Welcoming family feeling
Gluten-Free menu
Please describe your commitment to sustainability.
We waste as little as humanly possible. A lot of items on our menu cross over to others to ensure food is being used and not wasted. Even off-cuts are used for stocks and sauces; after that, we pass it on to farms for pig feed. Any offcuts are left to any avid gardeners to turn into compost, even the coffee grind. The suppliers we use also use sustainable techniques in their process, which is important to us.
Paper straws are standard. I’m not even sure if they make plastic ones anymore. Any disposables we use are biodegradable.
Pre-COVID, we did have a grand plan to move from LPG to electric appliances and couple that with solar panels on the roof. This would have been a costly change, but one we are still committed to; however, the financial hangover from COVID has put this project on hold for the time being.
For now, we continue to look across the industry for examples of how to reduce our carbon footprint as much as possible.
Please describe how you create ambience.
A cosy and comfortable environment with dimmable lights helps us create an intimate and warm environment for customers. The summer months can get hot, so we ensure water and sunblock are readily available for customers. There are plans to build a pergola on the street-side terrace area to offer more shade.
Our music sticks to the principles of our brand. We move between funk & soul tracks, reggae & dub, and indie rock. All of this depends on the crowd and time of year. Some late nights like New Year's Eve, we often put on drum’n’bass for the younger crowds to create more of a party atmosphere.
The phrase “MLPP” is used often among staff. The refers to music, lighting, people, and place, and they all complement each other. Ensuring the premises are clean and tidy is a ritual before and after each service. First impressions are very important to us, and as such, we ask staff to pay attention to detail, even if they are things that customers aren’t really going to notice. Something dirty, broken, or out of place in the corner of an eye can cause a subliminal grievance, whether the customer is conscious of it or not, and it can determine if someone returns or not. Being situated in an old building means maintenance is perpetual, but we love looking after the place.
To get an idea of this, you can view our 360-degree tour of the pub on our website below.
