Jose Ubiaga: Dakota Bar owner on a pub quiz putting the bar's future on the line

A Wellington bar owner could be stripped of his liquor license for offering a bar tab as a pub quiz prize.

Courtney Place's Dakota Bar advertises a first prize reward of a $150 tab.

Owner Jose Ubiaga has to appear before the council's Alcohol Regulatory and Licensing Authority.

He says he's been told to reword offering winners a food and drink voucher, to avoid the perception he was giving away alcohol.

He says it can be used to pay for anything at the bar.

"Ironically, when people do redeem our bar tab, 95 percent of our sales will be food and non-alcoholic drinks."

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Now a popular Wellington nightclub is facing a license suspension
all over a bar tab. So what's happened? As Dakota
Bar and Courtney Place has been offering one hundred and
fifty dollars bar tab as the prize for its weekly
quiz night, but the rules say that giving away free
alcohol isn't allowed, that you should They should have offered
a food and beverage voucher instead, which is basically the
same thing, isn't it. Jose Ubiaga is the owner of

(00:22):
Dakota Bar and with us.

Speaker 2 (00:23):
Hello, Jose, Hi, here there you go.

Speaker 1 (00:26):
Well, thank you. This is silly, isn't it.

Speaker 2 (00:29):
Personally I think it's absolutely crazy. Yeah, it's you. It's
Beyonesly and I agree. I mean food and beverage voucher
or bar tab or bar voucher. I mean, it doesn't
matter how you dress it up, it's all the same thing.

Speaker 1 (00:40):
Yeah, who told you? With the Wellington City Council you
should have called it a food and beverage voucher.

Speaker 2 (00:46):
That's coming from the head of the alcohol license thing.

Speaker 1 (00:50):
Did they tell you? Did they give you a warning?

Speaker 2 (00:53):
They send me I have received a warning because I've
got a couple of bars. They sent me a warning
from one bar, and then because this is the practice
that we've been using, well, I have been using for
twenty years, and so I don't agree with the change
of terminology, but I'm happy to try and work with it.
So I did try and change it. But then in

(01:14):
one of my other bars, that was put out there
again as well for a bar tab for another promotion,
which was we do a bingo night, the same sort
of thing, and so I got another warning for that,
and so so I changed my terminology. And then there
was a poster that I used all last year which
also has it in it too, and I reused that poster,

(01:36):
which I forgot that it had bar tab on it
as well. And this was the final straw for the
licensing team, and so they put me through to Allah
asking for now she wants this ninety six hour suspension
or cancelation of my license. This is what she's asking for.

Speaker 1 (01:53):
Okay, So it's pretty serious. Howse have we got a
bit weird about booze in this country? I mean, like,
I'm not a bit drinker anymore. I've got children, so
I can't so I'm not I'm not trying to defend
my favorite hobby or anything like that. But I do
feel like we have got weird again about alcohol, haven't.

Speaker 3 (02:08):
We Well, it depends on where you live, because each
area they can interpret the laws a little bit differently,
and unfortunately here in Wontington we seem to have some
of the stricter interpretations.

Speaker 1 (02:21):
Yeah, I already hate you guys on Courtney Place A
they do, yes, yep, you know.

Speaker 2 (02:27):
Ironically, the when people do redeem our Barthab, ninety five
percent of the sales will be food and non alcoholic
drinks from the Bathab. So it's not like we have
a problem with intoxication. Yeah, because people are coming in
and getting hammered while we're winning.

Speaker 1 (02:45):
Good luck fighting this because this does seem a bit silly.
Jose Ubiaga, who's the owner of Courtney Place Bar, Dakota.
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