UNO – Cheers for Bureta Bar & Eatery
From the day it opened the Bureta Bar & Eatery has been busy; wholeheartedly supported by locals delighted to once again have their own place to socialize. The Bureta Bar & Eatery has more than filled the gap left by the old Bureta Park hotel. The new establishment’s tasteful contemporary premises front the street, with the Countdown Supermarket behind them. It is a delightfully sunny spot to meet for coffee or breakfast, laze over lunch, or relax with a drink, perhaps followed by dinner.
The Bureta Bar & Eatery may have a convivial sports bar with a large window where patrons can prop themselves inside and out, and a discrete gaming room, but its focus is firmly on its food. Head Chef, Dave Hunt, who’s CV reads like a list of the region’s most respected restaurants, has put together a comprehensive menu of fresh based meals featuring plenty of seafood and even options for gluten free and vegan diets. You can eat at Bureta Bar & Eatery from 9am with breakfast and lunch till 3pm, from when a very tempting menu of bar snacks is available. Dinner starts from 5.30pm.
Experienced hospitality people Vicki Smith and her business partners set up the Bureta Bar & Eatery and Vicki manages it. She credits much of their almost instant success to having the right staff.
“We are a genuine team working together to deliver a great hospitality experience”.
It is testament to Vicki that she has attracted very experienced hospitality people.
Restaurant host Maitre D is Parisian Laurent de Bourgues who moved his young family to the Bay of Plenty for lifestyle after working at the prestigious multi award winning French Cafe in Auckland. Bar Manager Frankie McGuire will be well known to patrons of bars in both Tauranga and Mount Maunganui. Lion is the beer of choice at his bar, a happy buzzing place most evenings, especially Friday when locals and their friends wind down after the week’s work. Sunday ‘brunchers’ have filled the courtyard every weekend.
The lofty interior ‘multi tasks’ extremely well. The bar is one end, the restaurant the other. Within each there are differing spaces to choose from, depending on your company and your mood. The restaurant welcomes celebratory groups but also caters for intimacy in an alcove with low lights. Sun floods across polished concrete floors and the elevated ceiling is softened by a rope feature looping across it, just one of several nautical themes which meld well with the light industrial look. “We are adding as we go along, finding out what people like”, explains Vicki. Planter boxes border the courtyard, and there are plans for more bright graphics on the walls. Vicki remarks that Progressive, who own Countdown and this adjoined site, have been excellent landlords to work with. She was also very gratified when there was not one objection to their liquor license, in what is essentially residential area.
Winter will see the Bureta Bar & Eatery cosying up with infra red heating to supplement the sunshine. It’s rapidly becoming the place to be, and you don’t have to be a local to be welcome!