Minibar

No Longer In Business

I’m glad this place was listed on here before my trip to NZ or I never would have found it. Owned by the same owners as nearly half the bars in Queenstown (the Goodbar group), Minibar is tucked away on basically an alley in downtown. The place is small, very modern, dark, and cool. There are no taps, but the bottle menu features over 100 bottles at any given time and a constantly changing lineup. It’s best to sit at the bar and look at the fridges rather than the menu itself because it was already very outdated for such a new place. There are a ton of NZ beers as well as a decent Belgian selection and some other Euro macros (the only North American brew was MGD because of the tough distribution down there). Three Boys, Wanaka, Emerson’s, Moa, Brew Moon, Green Man, and many other solid NZ brewers were available on my visit. The bartender was English and seemed to have a lot of say from his bosses in terms of what bottles he could get and how the place is run. He was very knowledgable and friendly and always looking for new, good brews to add to the menu. A must-visit for beer drinkers in Queenstown, this place had plenty of bottles I didn’t see elsewhere in town.

A hole in the wall bar serving over 100 local and international beers by the bottle. I was happy to find three of the Wanaka brews available and there’s plenty of other NZ micros on the menu as well. The bar chick was uber friendly and the place has a chillout lounge feel about it too, a cool vibe considering it’s small size. I think I was the only one there each night I visited but that kind of added to the charm of the place.