A new confidence in the future of Napier’s Clive Square has sparked the reopening of one of Hawke’s Bay’s oldest hotels, with a change of name doffing the hat to the area itself.
The Provincial Hotel – branded under several iterations since its public bar heyday – is now the Clive Square Pub.
It was opened last week by career chef Manjinder Singh Sidhu (known as Sidhu) in an owner-manager partnership with entrepreneurial Napier hospitality scene veteran Joe Taylor.
Opening in time to get a run-in before Christmas and take advantage of an already encouraging summer, they say they have confidence of a “take-off” for the environment of the Clive and Memorial squares.
Earlier this year, the Art Deco Trust moved into the renovated, century old War Memorial Women’s Rest rooms, in Memorial Square, which is fronted by the hotel, and new family entertainment and hospitality centre Good Sport, which also opened late last month, on the corner of Tennyson St and Milton Rd.
Earlier this week, the Napier City Council unveiled plans for a revamp of the squares’ streets to draw more people into the area.
Both premises were reopening after failures of previous short-lived operations which saw the closure earlier this year of Rosie O’Grady’s in the Provincial Hotel building and Good Sport’s predecessor, the Good George Napier Taphouse.
At least two other inner Napier bars closed amid what one proprietor described as a “brutal” winter in the trade in its continued recovery from the Covid and Cyclone Gabrielle years.
Provincial Hotel history in Napier dates back at least 150 years, but the current building, thought to be the third, is about 93 years old, replacing a structure burnt down in the fires which raged through Napier after the 1931 Hawke’s Bay Earthquake.
It’s still affectionately known as “The Pro”, back to the days of the traditional public and private bar days, which saw a particular peak during Hawke’s Bay rugby’s three-year Ranfurly Shield reign in the late 1960s.
Bought by the Burgess family in the 1970s, the Spanish Mission-style landmark was rebranded by Brett Burgess as the New Provincial and then Art Deco Provincial Hotel in the 1990s.
But, with different lessees, including former employee Taylor, it has since had various bar names such as the Thirsty Dog, the Dram and Cock Whisky Bar in one bar and Jazz Joe’s in the other, as run by Taylor, and was closed for about seven years before re-emerging as Rosie O’Grady’s.
Taylor’s tango club will continue on Marine Parade, where he once worked in that venue’s days of The Hairy Cactus.
He said the nostalgic feel has been obvious, with the return of patrons and their memories of the past.
While still pulling the beer of the days when it was known as a “Tui” pub, the Clive Square Pub will focus on local beers and Guinness, and a full restaurant menu.
Doug Laing is a Hawke’s Bay Today reporter with more than 50 years in the newspaper game, about of them in Hawke’s Bay covering most aspects of local and regional news.