Badger Bars Ltd went before the Queenstown Lakes district's licensing committee yesterday to renew the on-licence for Church St bar Vinyl Underground.
The application drew objections over food, noise and customer intoxication issues.
The bar was criticised by police, the medical officer of health and the council for its minimal on-site menu, including pies bought from a nearby shop, the lack of promotion of its in-house food and how long it took to bring the menu up to standard.
Badger Bars director Ben Calder said the first nine months of business were ''immensely difficult financially''.
He agreed that initially food was not deemed important enough - but that the bar took its host responsibilities seriously.
It had improved its menu and last weekend promoted its ''gourmet toasties'' on social media.
Sergeant Linda Stevens, of Queenstown police, said Vinyl Underground never offered the food outlined in its initial liquor licence application.
Mr Calder explained his company had discovered the kitchen available was not suitable for food preparation.
In-house food was not initially promoted because ''we weren't proud of that food'', he said.
Council liquor licensing inspector Jen Mitchell asked why it took so long for food to be improved, when it was a potential breach of licence.
Mr Calder said after discussing the issue with Sgt Stevens, the bar took intermediate steps to upgrade its food.
Vinyl Underground had sparked dozens of complaints about noise - many from neighbouring luxury hotel, The Spire - but he said most were unjustified.
The bar had spent $4000 on a noise assessment and planned to take noise mitigation measures, which it hoped to be able to afford within six months.
In several instances the police raised issues about intoxicated patrons, including a person allegedly asleep in the bar and a woman leaving the bar early on Sunday.
Mr Calder said the bar had an extremely strict intoxication policy.
The committee reserved its decision.
