My Old Local is Closing
Thursday 18 December 2008 at 12:13 pm. Used tags: fitz, pub I almost created a 'nostalgia' category to post this under . . .Anywho, 'The Fitz' is closing.
Probably the most popular student bar in Palmerston North (possibly NZ).
Rumour has it that a previous owner (a hotel chain) was going to close it down but they looked at the financials and realised it was the only thing keeping their chain afloat.
As a pub it was a dive - if you haven't experianced an old urban Kiwi Tavern (rural ones actually have a bit of character) they tend to be designed in the 56/60/70's to maximise profit and minimise pretty much everything else. A big hall with a long bar and uncomfortable seating on stools and tall tables with cheap tin ashtrays embedded in them (they tend to fill with beer by nights end). The carpet is industrial and usually beer soaked (ie sticky) and the bogs are tiled and industrial to allow for easy hose-down. if you were lucky it'll include some pool tables and dart boards. When I was there you could get a jug of beer (about 2.5 pints) for $5 - most nights it was standing room only so there was plenty of spillage as people tried to pour beer into their 7-ounce glasses in a heaving crowd. You'd invariably stumble home (via the 24 hour hot-bread shop or pie-dispensing 24 hour petrol station) covered in beer and reeking of cigarette smoke.
Most Taverns had a 'sport bar' annex which was marginally classier (it had pokey machines and comfy seats) and had the older die-hard alcoholics in it.
Still, for all its faults, you could bowl on up the The Fitz (short for Fitzherbert - the street it was on) at almost any time of the day and be sure of meeting someone you knew from uni there procrastinating the day away.
So RIP The Fitz.
