Young Guns take over landmark ‘pop up’ hospitality venue.
A trio of burger flippin’ hospitality entrepreneurs have bought one of Ponsonby’s busiest food and beverages operations in what is being seen as a ‘passing of the baton’ to the next generation of bar and restaurant operators.
Parade Burgers owners Sean Bone, Bryan Anderson, and Nicholas Fury have bought the popular licensed Midnight Gardener venue owned by hospo’ legends Luke Dallow, Shane Liu, and Phil Clark. The Ponsonby Road corner site is instantly recognisable for its dual shipping container structure, complete with a picket fence upper level, and abundance of vegetation around customer seating.
Parade Burgers will be relocating to the new venue just a few hundred metres away from their current site, with Midnight Gardener to be rebranded. Midnight Gardener defied industry trends during the past two years of Covid disrupted trading, making a dollar when similar operations in the Ponsonby Road strip struggled to stay open.
Midnight Gardener hit the headlines last year when it traded as a rentable ‘picnic venue’ – allowing patrons to bring in their own food and beverages and enjoy a few hours at an unstaffed eatery.
Following the sale of Midnight Gardener, Sumthin Dumplin founder Shane Liu and Dizengoff Café operator Phil Clark will now concentrate on keeping their core foodservice operations open to the public. Meanwhile, Luke Dallow says his career as a residential real estate salesperson with Barfoot & Thompson Ponsonby is now consuming all of his focus, and is looking at closing the hospitality chapter of his life.
“The hospitality industry has been good to me. Very good. I’m a big believer in karma, so it was time to pass on some of my good fortune to the next generation of those coming through,” said Dallow.
“Midnight Gardener has come through the Covid years pretty well – much better in fact than many other bars and eateries around Auckland. That’s mainly because as a ‘pop up’ business we set up with minimal overheads and virtually no debt. We kept the menu and fitout simple to keep kitchen costs down, and as a result we got through the tough times okay.
“But my heart just isn’t in hospo’ anymore. I’ve got other career aspirations I want to achieve. Shane and Phil feel likewise, so we all decided to hand over the reins to three guys bristling with enthusiasm and drive. We know that they will have a great business and while the Midnight Gardener name will disappear, its physical presence will live on.”
Dallow’s career in Auckland’s hospitality scene dates back to the 1990s when he managed the now departed downtown drinking and nightspot venue, Park in the Bar. Dallow opened up his first restaurant, Salsa, in Grey Lynn in the early 2000s then sold the business and established legendary Auckland drinking and dining establishment Malt Bar – still operating today under new ownership.
Under Dallow’s reign, Malt Bar achieved global fame in 2005 when the last cigarette ever smoked in the premises before New Zealand bars and restaurants went ‘smoke free’ was sold on trademe for $7,475.
Over the ensuing decades Dallow set up the vast Sale Street bar and eatery – now rebranded as Sweat Shop Brew Kitchen - near Victoria Park in what was one of the biggest and most lavish bar openings Auckland had ever seen with multiple and artists performing on two stages, followed by running the Red Hummingbird hospitality venue within the Sky City complex, the iconic Chapel Bar & Bistro in Ponsonby Road, and most recently opening Midnight Gardener in Ponsonby during the middle of the pandemic in 2020.
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