Iconic pub inches from glory

Sara and Warren Robinson say a key reason for their success is their support for local community causes. Picture / Wairarapa Times-Age

Anyone paying a visit to Wairarapa's Gladstone Inn would be hard pressed to know that once upon a time the establishment nearly closed.

Now, a few years down the track, the iconic country pub is inches away from scooping a national award.

The Hospitality Association of New Zealand (Hanz) runs annual awards for excellence in the hotel industry, and this year the Gladstone Inn is one of three finalists in the Best Country Hotel category.

Owners Sara and Warren ("Big Bird") Robinson say that "just to be in the top three is enough", but that they will be feeling a few nerves at the award ceremony, to be held in Queenstown this month.

The couple say they entered the competition "for fun more than anything" and got a shock when the judges arrived unannounced.

"There were six judges, and they just turned up individually out of the blue. We had no idea they were coming," said Warren Robinson.

According to the Robinsons, the entry process was no easy task. As well as supplying information for the Best Country Hotel category, they also entered the Beef and Lamb Awards, where their lamb shanks and medallions were also accepted for judging.

"We didn't get any further than that with the lamb but we were pretty happy because we did it more for fun more than anything," Sara Robinson said. "Instead of entering anything special, we just entered what we would normally make, and it did pretty well."

Both entries required a massive amount of paperwork, said Sara, and each had to be replicated seven times.

Apparently Hanz received more than 200 entries in each category for this year's awards - a record.

This makes the Robinsons' success so far even more exciting. And all this coming from a couple who had no experience running a pub until they bought the "Gladdy" two years ago.

Before buying the pub, Warren Robinson had been a dairy farmer and was more used to sitting on the customers' side of a bar.

He had also played rugby for Horowhenua, and nephews Mark Robinson and Reece Robinson played for the All Blacks and the New Zealand Maori respectively.

Sara Robinson was involved in the wine industry. The couple's idea to move to Wairarapa hatched in one special moment when she arrived home and declared: "I'm sick of that bloody Pukerua Bay roundabout. I can't bear to drive it one more time".

And with that they decided to look around for a change in lifestyle.

Warren Robinson had been to the Gladdy before, and it wasn't long after finding out it was on the market that they took over.

"The good thing then was that we were country people moving to a country environment," he said. "We're not any old city folk who come in and think they know how it works."

The Robinsons attribute a lot of their success to support for the local community. They often hold fundraising events to support local causes, they have regular quiz evenings and they genuinely enjoy their community.

"There are some lovely people here, and we really try to look after out customers," said Sara Robinson.

The couple have made several changes to their hotel and say more are in the pipeline.

In the finals they will be up against the Brown Pub at Methven and the Whangamomona Hotel in Taranaki.

- WAIRARAPA TIMES-AGE