News

Identity crisis imminent?

The Captain Cook Tavern is officially for sale, ending almost constant speculation from Critic. The Cook Brothers Bars Company has put the bar on the market and expressions of interest are open until 4pm July 22.

The Captain Cook Tavern first opened in 1864 and has been a constant feature of University of Otago student culture since. It is now the only remaining iconic student watering hole after the University purchased both The Bowling Green Tavern (‘ The Bowler’) and The Gardens Tavern (‘Gardies’) in recent years.
 
The four ‘Cook Brothers’ purchased the lease on the bar as students in 2004 and used it as a launch pad for their now considerable business empire. Since then the brothers have split into two separate companies, Cook Brothers Construction and Cook Brothers Bars.
 
Cook Brothers Bars now owns the Octagon bar Alibi, two Velvet Burgers in Dunedin and one in Auckland, as well as a bar in Auckland and Searle Lane in Queenstown.
 
The reason for sale is due to Cook Brothers Bars owners, Richard McLeod and James Arnott, no longer living in Dunedin. They feel the bar requires a hands-on approach and provides “a great opportunity for someone to stamp their mark”. When Critic spoke to the company they stated that they felt that the Rugby World Cup could provide a chance for a new owner to ‘ get the bar pumping’.
 
The sale of the Cook comes on the heels of difficult times in the Dunedin student pub market. In June last year, the University purchased Gardies for a $1.75 million and is yet to decide on a use for the building. The sale was the result of plummeting sales at the pub, which the owner blamed on a drinking culture where students consumed large amounts of cheap alcohol at home before going out to town, where the bought few if any drinks.
 
The Bowler was another bar to be sold to the University in early 2009 and has since been turned into an ‘academic facility’.
 
The announcement of the sale of the Cook has raised fears that the University will buy up and shut down another much-loved establishment, however the University has told Critic repeatedly that it is not interested in purchasing the bar.
 
A spokesman for the Cook Brothers Bars group confirmed they had received three legitimate expressions of interest in the pub, all of which intended to continue running the venue as a bar.
 
OUSA President Logan Edgar said OUSA had not looked into buying the Cook and did not know details of the sale, although he did say that purchasing the pub is not completely out of the question.
 
The Cook is holding a ‘ Remember Gardies’ event on the 13th of July as a fitting tribute to the late Gardens Tavern.