Alison and Graeme Franklin's Black Stump Cafe (Pahiatua) closes doors after 20 years

Graeme and Alison Franklin call it a day for the Black Stump.

The Black Stump Café in Pahiatua closed its doors for the last time on Saturday night, December 4, after being run by Alison and Graeme Franklin for 20 years.

The couple has been in business for 33 years in the Main Street of Pahiatua, starting with Franklin's Dairy and Gobblers Takeaways. In 1992 they started Green Bottle liquor store and started a bottle store in Carterton from scratch.

After selling the dairy and Carterton operation, they carried on with Green Bottle until supermarkets were able to sell beer. "We lasted a year after that, the loyalty was there, but it dropped off," said Alison.

Graeme and Alison Franklin call it a day for the Black Stump.

The Franklins bought the Black Stump in 2001, when it was across the road, from Glen Garforth. "One of the best nights we had in there with live music was with the Zeatles Tribute Band," said Graeme.

"The town was quite shocked at the time, we had a $5 door charge for the first time. We had over 300 people come through the door that night. All I did was drive to and from the Green Bottle store to get more beer.

"We finished up at 5am in the morning. We lifted a floorboard up and hosed the floor through the floorboards. We went home and my son was getting the cows in. It was an incredible night, with well behaved people. The band came back later as the Geebees Tribute Band.

"We'd had a lot of bands over the years. The most interesting night was the first day of no-smoking in licensed premises. We had a band booked for the Saturday, we thought 'that's going to be interesting.'

"It was Murray's Tractor, local boys: Paul Angove, Anton Kennett and Geoffrey Edmonds. Not one single person attempted to smoke inside. Fortunately, it was a warm summer's night.

"The band boys said it was the first time they'd played anywhere that you could see the punters and they didn't go home stinking of cigarette smoke and suffer sore throats.

"Our lease came up for renewal and the landlord had a rent appraiser come up from Wellington. The result was an 80 per cent increase in the rent in one jump.

"We gave notice and moved the Black Stump into the Green Bottle building (former ANZ Bank and then Postbank building.)

"We got rid of the jukebox and pool table and made a focus on the food. As we owned the building, we purpose-built an extension out the back. We have been in there for the past 16 years.

"In the lockdown last year, we bounced back well, there were no regional border closures. This year, with lockdown and Auckland locked up, it just died. Over 1000 hospitality businesses have closed down in New Zealand so far," said Alison.

"We had signed a contract to sell the business, just before this year's lockdown, with a 15-day due diligence clause in it. On the 15th day at 4pm the buyer pulled the pin as we were then in lockdown.

"Since then, Graeme has worked every single day since lockdown. We thought 'what are we doing.' "

Catering was a big part of the business, over the years the Franklins have catered for 78 weddings.

"The first wedding we catered for was that of Becky Lea and Matt Anderson at Tararua College. "Our very last wedding was also at Tararua College for the daughter of mayor Tracey Collis - with the daughter of Becky and Matt working with us that night, 20 years later," said Alison.

Alison has been a councillor on Tararua District Council for five years, in her second term. "I love it and really enjoy it," she said.

"We did a big fundraiser for the Christchurch Earthquake, with Peter Lindstrom's band playing for free. We raised $8000 on the night and gave it to the Salvation Army.

"We specifically chose this charity, because we had been there on the ground only about two weeks after the February quake and saw first hand the wonderful work being done by this charity - they were everywhere, feeding people on street corners, you name it, they were amazing!

"All our staff worked for free. Guest speaker was Blair King, chief executive officer of Tararua District Council at the time and part of USAR, which meant he had to help down in Christchurch. He then had to go to Japan for the tsunami - he was an appropriate speaker.

"Dan Carter donated rugby balls and underpants which he had autographed - we auctioned them off. Red and black helium balloons were tied to the backs of the chairs. At the end of the night, we released them all in front of a full moon. Watching the balloons go across the moon was really amazing," said Alison.

The long lunches (two) were another charity fundraiser, held in the town square across the road. "We had a stop/go sign made for the traffic to let the waitresses cross the road with the food," said Graeme.

"The first car I stopped happened to be a police car. The policeman stopped and waved - that's what living in a small community is all about," he said.

The Sharemilker Shout ("we're shouting our local sharemilkers because the payout sux") was another fundraiser put on by the Franklins. "There was a lot of depression out there, so we decided to put on a dinner," said Alison.

"Again, all our staff donated their time and we donated the food. Everyone wanted to be a part of it. BNZ paid for the bar, the vets were in, people left with their arms laden with gifts.

"The next day, there was a knock at the door, a farmer's wife stood there with a box of chocolates and a posie of flowers. She burst into tears and said 'we just wanted to say thank you, my husband and I reconnected last night.' That made the whole thing worthwhile," she said.

Despite having little spare time, Graeme has had a hand at being an inventor. He had a dream one night. "I was milking my son's cows and all the wash water went into the vat," said Graeme. When I woke up, I thought, 'there must be a way to be able to stop that.' So we set about doing that. After 12 months, we went to Mystery Creek with the idea," he said.

Alison said, "we went to see a professor at Waikato University and then we met a genius in electronics. He made the idea work. We went on to win "the most viable business" award at Mystery Creek. But the next year the milk payout crashed.

"We were on the TV show Rural Delivery out at David Swanson's farm. He extended his cowshed and Graeme worked out how much milk in the pipeline was being wasted every day. David was sold on the idea, called DTexH2o, and was one of the first adopters. MCI held demonstration evenings in Dannevirke," she said.

Graeme had a heart attack 22 years ago in the bottle store. But he has managed to work on. "We've met some amazing people over the years," he said. "We've missed out looking after our grandchildren as we have always been working in the school holidays," he said.

The Black Stump Café won two Montana Food and Wine Challenge awards twice, a testament to the Franklins dedication.

They started the Dannevirke Black Stump (formerly State of Art) and ran that for six years, going through the Dannevirke town upgrade. In Pahiatua, after the first lockdown, they had to face the Pahiatua town centre upgrade, which was disruptive for the business.

"The Black Stump's success has been Alison's passion for food, to make sure the staff did it right and to make sure the kitchen was clean and hygienic," said Graeme. "She has driven the Black Stump Café over the years. I was just the person out the front," he said.