Nauti Penguin
What makes your venue the Best Gastropub in New Zealand?
We like to think of ourselves as a one stop shop! Fun for the whole family. We have an arcade including an air hockey table and pinball machine, pool tables, darts, live music events and even pokies. By having such a large venue with an arrangement of things to do it allows everyone to have a great time.
Describe the experience your customers have at your establishment – what is your food and beverage offering and why do people come back for more?
Our customers are mostly local based who have grown up with this establishment, it is more of a gathering spot for families with how much time they spend here you start to know everything about them, what they do for work, meet their families/grandchildren but they also adopt you in as one of your own by working at the pub.
Our menu is gastropub style, featuring burgers, pasta, sides, toasties, muscles, fish & chips.
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?
Allergy and Dietary requirements are met by substituting where we can or also offering a special plate based off what the guest likes. We just changed our summer menu before Christmas, including Bay of Island wines to help promote the wineries around us (The Landing, Marsden Estate). Our food offerings include NZ Muscles and Omak Meats, locally sourced from Whangarei.
What are your key points of difference and how have you managed to deliver them?
We are the only location to have a little bit of everything in one venue. Our locals are like family, and everyone who visits our location is always amazed at how many different components we have that make it such a fun environment.
Tell us about your commitments to Customer Service and Host Responsibility
We are an R18 location; with that being said, we ensure everyone is ID'd at the door. We monitor the pokies every 20 minutes with room sweeps and follow up after the 3-hour mark about safe gambling. Incidents are reported. We ensure water is always available to our guests and check in on our tables regularly to ensure the safety of serving alcohol and if anyone needs to be cut off or slowed down. Taxi numbers are available as well.
Best Known for:
One-stop shop for the whole family
Arcade
Classic gastropub menu
Live music events
Please describe your commitment to sustainability
We reuse our empty liquor bottles for our homemade syrups, recycle them, and work with suppliers on how to lower the carbon footprint - as of right now, our deliveries for liquor come once a week. Food goes to pig bins instead of the garbage. On top of our commitment to sustainability for our environmental side, we also take into consideration our social responsibility and employee wellness.
Please describe how you create ambience.
We create ambience by hosting different live music events: UK Garage/Drum & Bass Nights, 1-3 piece live music Friday-Sunday, pool competition nights; we hosted the "Hell Freezes Over - Eagles Tribute" and will also be hosting the Sydney Hotshots (Strippers) for a ladies night on March 17. We've hosted the Coastal Classic sailing race from Auckland to Russell, Country Rock and Jazz & Blues Fest for the last 3 years. We engage in almost every group of people by having so many different events.
