New Roosters owners seasoned hands at hospitality

Bay Espresso owners Chris (pictured) and Jonelle Jarvis have bought the Roosters Brew House.

Roosters Brew House has been bought by Bay Espresso owners Chris and Jonelle Jarvis.

The Roosters brewery/bar/restaurant and off-licence was established 22 years ago on Hastings' Omahu Rd at the edge of the Gimblett Gravels.

Mr Jarvis said they bought Roosters because they needed a new challenge but were not in uncharted territory.

"Craft beer and coffee are kind of cousins," he said.

"In my formative years I spent six-or-so years running bars in Wellington restaurants and there is a lot of similarity between coffee and cafes, beers and bars.

"The challenge is to take a longstanding Hawke's Bay brand and give it some oomph."

Last year they sold two cafes in Havelock North, one in Taradale and leased out a fourth, retaining ownership of their original Hastings cafe on Karamu Rd and their coffee roasting business.

They intended to revitalise the Roosters Brew House, sell beer in single-serve containers - currently only beer kegs can be taken away - and develop new brews.

The revitalisation needed at Roosters was "almost identical" to their first cafe.

"We took over Karamu Rd about 13 years ago when it had lost a lot of the gloss for many reasons. Roosters is almost identical."

Many thought they were mad to throw in two secure jobs and, with a 2-year-old, sell their home to buy Bay Espresso but the gamble paid off.

At this stage there were no plans for a chain of Roosters as they did with Bay Espresso.

"I think I might take one thing at a time," he said.

"I'll get the home store set up like I would like and then the focus is going to be on brewing different styles and seasonal bits and pieces.

"There is a bit of scope to have some fun with the brand on bottles and caps and maybe from that point I'll be tired and someone else can do it.

The contract brewing of one of Giant Brewery's beers would remain.

He said there were no plans to supply beer to their own cafe. A Havelock North cafe was licensed for two years and only sold about eight beers.

"Mainly that's because of the way we are looked at - we roast out own coffee so the expectation is you can't buy a beer."

Roosters has capacity to produce 6000 litres of beer a week but sales were only tracking at little more than half that level when sold.

The purchase was from Chris and Jill Harrison, who sold the business to concentrate on Beach House Wines.

They established Roosters 22 years, making it one of NZ's first craft beer brew houses with on and off-premise licences.