Three former Dunedin students are taking the Wellington bar scene by storm.
Maria Boyle, her sister Lydia Suggate and Stacey Walsh all grew up in Dunedin for most of their childhoods and now between them own four Wellington bars: Little Beer Quarter, Basque, Beach Babylon and Bebemos.
They met at the University of Otago where they all studied varying courses, including design and technology and teaching.
Then they moved north to Wellington together in 2000 and started working in the Malt House, the first craft beer bar in the city.
''We were a bit fresh off the boat when we first moved here,'' Ms Walsh said.
''We had to ditch our trackpants and find some slightly tidier clothes.''
As well as being friends, the trio had also flatted together.
''We can be pretty honest with each other,'' Ms Walsh said.
''When good stuff happens it's pretty good to have people to celebrate with and it's a pretty fickle industry, so you need to have people you know well.''
The first bar they opened was Beach Babylon.
''The first year was a huge introduction to hospitality. It was open 8am to late every day. It took about a year to settle in, but from that point on it was smooth sailing,'' Ms Boyle said.
The craft beer community was really supportive and quite liberal.
''There was a gap in the market, I think, for a female-run craft beer bar,'' Ms Suggate said.
''Plus we were the third craft-beer bar in Wellington and now there's about 10 more.''
They all really enjoy their new lifestyle, especially Ms Suggate, who has children.
''It's one of the reasons I started. I was bored but I didn't want to put my children in full-time child care. It's something I can bring them along with me.''
The publicans say it's a very competitive sector with more bars than New York.
''The bar is set so high here, too. There really is a culture to go out.''
For Wellington On a Plate, the two-week festival that celebrates the capital's gastronomic delights, Little Beer Quarter has joined the first Capital Cocktail competition with a twist on an Old Fashioned, incorporating a syrup made from the smoky Invercargill-made Yeastie Boys Rex Attitude beer and accompanied by a Tuatara Helles and beetroot-cured salmon gravlax.
Basque is doing a beer and cheese-matching evening with Kapiti, Kingsmeade and Zany Zeus cheesemakers uniting with beer-makers Funk Estate.
''I think Dunedin should come up with something like this,'' Ms Walsh said.
