120 | HOSPITALITY The Fork and Tap T T Alexia Anderson Arrowtown’s rich history restored Jeannie Crawford and her family bought the business in 2008 and took over the lease in 2011. One of Arrowtown’s much loved historic sites is now embracing an element of new. The Fork and Tap, located along the town’s main street, is at the end of a long two-stage re-development project to restore and maintain its rich history. The project started with restoration of the site’s old stone building, which was built in 1874, at the height of Arrowtown’s gold rush years. In its earlier years it housed the Colonial Bank of NZ in 1875 for about a year until the gold rush slowed. It has since been the Lakes County Press newspaper, lawyers offices, a private house, a “famous” tearooms and a restaurant, before becoming what it is today - the popular Fork and Tap. Jeannie Crawford and her family bought the business in 2008 and took over the lease in 2011, with dreams of rebuilding seven years ago. It was Jeannie’s late husband Keith Crawford who drew up the first design. Architect, Mary Jowett, was brought in to work across both projects, first the historic building and now the rebuild. In 2021 they did an extensive internal refit and seismic strengthening of the historic building, to bring it up to 100 percent new building standard, from 15 percent. Jeannie said it meant gutting the whole interior space, from the ceiling to rubble under the floorboards, and fitting major internal exposed steel from the inside to the outside. Original floorboards were re-instated with so much care and precision that they now tell a story of their own. “The floorboards were re-laid in such a detailed way as to tell the story of the original layout of the house, i.e. where the four bedrooms and hallway were in the 1800s.” The bar layout has also been redesigned and new joinery and furniture have been added to embrace the building’s heritage. The interior design is the work of Nikki Wilson. “You will see lots of wood, brass, beautiful tiles, antiques,” Jeannie says. “Nikki is amazing and the finish is just stunning.” Now Jeannie is embracing everything stage two of the project has to offer, which has ultimately allowed her to “finish what we had started with the doing-up of the old girl at the front”. Anything that had no significant heritage value was demolished. It now has six new toilets, a large commercial kitchen, dining room, outside covered area with an open fire and pop-up bar. Even the steel and stone fireplace, built by local stonemason Conner McNicholas, tells a “It’s all about preserving and protecting the heritage of the building for generations to come.” story - a tale about how old meets new after he used stone extracted from underneath the 149-year-old rimu floorboards in the historic bar. Taking on the mammoth two-stage project has been worth it for Jeannie and her family. “For our family, it is all about preserving and protecting the heritage of the building for generations to come,” she says. The end product, which now boasts an overall building space of 274m2 thanks to those additions, means the team at The Fork and Tap can now host functions and events and continue its love of the community. “It’s always been about the community and creating a hub for everyone inclusively to meet.” 28 McNulty Road, Cromwell 03 445 0313 Cromwell Showroom Regionwide Service P R O U D S U P P L I E R S T O T H E F O R K A N D T A P C R A F T S M A N S H I P I N H O M E A N D C O M M E R C I A L I N T E R I O R S S A L E S @MA S T E RWO O D . C O . N Z WWW . MA S T E RWO O D . C O . N Z
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