hospitality industry<\/a> were \u201cso hopeful\u201d and generally optimistic but the past few years had been hard on the business.<\/p>\n\u201cI feel so bad for the whole of Tauranga because it\u2019s such an iconic, cool venue, and everybody\u2019s got a connection to this place, it\u2019s wild.\u201d<\/p>\n
The pub shared its closure with its customers in a social media post. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe Crown and Badger has poured its last pint and closed its doors for good,\u201d the post read.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo everyone who\u2019s been part of The Crown, thank you. From the epic teams we\u2019ve had to our fantastic customers, you made the place what it was.\u201d<\/p>\n
The post said the past few years had not been easy for the pub and the owners had \u201cgiven this place everything\u201d but it was \u201ctime to pull the pin\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re gutted, not gonna lie. But also really proud of what this little pub was and the community around it.\u201d<\/p>\n
More than 600 people had \u201cliked\u201d the post since May 3, and it attracted 250 comments, many of which shared memories of times spent at the pub. <\/p>\n
![\"The]()
The Crown and Badger’s last official trading day was on May 2. <\/p>\n
Mackenzie said it was \u201camazing\u201d to read all the stories that had been shared. <\/p>\n
\u201cYou look through that comment section and how many people met their husbands and wives here, or had first dates here, or celebrated after work, or it was part of their everyday routine.\u201d<\/p>\n
She said the pub\u2019s longevity defined its legacy.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis was a place for the community, it had a real culture, and I think Tauranga is going to miss it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mackenzie said her staff, who were now unemployed, understood the decision to close.<\/p>\n
\u201cI made sure to tell them it\u2019s through no fault of their own, they\u2019re talented people, and really good at what they do.\u201d<\/p>\n
An employee, who did not want to be named, said it was \u201cheartbreaking\u201d for colleagues but was a relief to get closure on what had been a \u201crough journey\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor some time, the Crown and Badger seemed to be pretty stable and untouchable \u2013 until it wasn\u2019t anymore.<\/p>\n
![\"Tauranga's]()
Tauranga’s The Strand. Photo \/ Kaitlyn Morrell<\/p>\n
\u201cWe just weren\u2019t making enough money, and that\u2019s been a problem for years, for the entire CBD, not just Crown and Badger.\u201d<\/p>\n
The worker said the Crown and Badger was a longstanding fixture of the city centre and people had incredible memories there.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s an enormous and deep blow to the immediate CBD economy and hospitality culture, you can not forgive, but you can get past it, as tragic as it is.\u201d<\/p>\n
They said it was significant when a \u201cmajor player\u201d like Crown and Badger had to close its doors.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt means the problem is that deep and enormous that it\u2019s taken down one of the major and longstanding businesses.\u201d <\/p>\n
Kaitlyn Morrell<\/a> is a journalist for the Bay of Plenty Times and Rotorua Daily Post. She has lived in the region for several years and studied journalism at Massey University.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mackenzie said the pub meant so much to so many and it felt \u201cweird\u201d to close down. \u201cIt\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":415109,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[23283,74,95,92931,18509,10808,111,139,69,90,40123,213518,1227,145,223,1530],"class_list":["post-415108","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-technology","tag-23283","tag-after","tag-and","tag-badger","tag-closes","tag-crown","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-on","tag-pub","tag-strand","tag-tauranga","tag-technology","tag-the","tag-years"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/415108","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=415108"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/415108\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/415109"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=415108"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=415108"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=415108"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}