Venue Spotlight: Cuba Street Tavern

There’s something special about dancing in an open-air courtyard, especially during a balmy summer night. When it’s done right, the music just sounds and feels different. The result is an experience somewhere between an outdoor dance party and a sweaty nightclub. In Te Whanganui-a-Tara, Aotearoa, courtyards, live music and DJing have been intertwined for decades, especially on Cuba Street, in the heart of the city’s creative quarter. Surrounded by cafes, record stores, boutiques, musical instrument stores and ethnic eateries, the street’s bars and live venues have played a crucial role in several waves of local music and arts culture.

In the late ‘90s, one of the most important spots on Cuba Street was The Matterhorn, a converted continental coffee shop which reemerged as a lounge bar with world-class cocktails, live music, DJs and a humble courtyard where dreams became real. When I think about The Matterhorn, I think about the influential South Pacific Hi-Tek Soul band Fat Freddy’s Drop, game-changing Wellington DJs like the late Clinton Smiley, and the legendary MPC Battle for Supremacy competition. Three decades on, you can still feel that same spirit and energy in a newer venture: the Cuba Street Tavern.

Located at 172 Cuba Street, Cuba Street Tavern sits on the site of another former hospitality institution, Olive Cafe. Since March 2025, the tavern and its garden courtyard have hosted several regular club nights and DJ crews, including S-ence, On & On, FAM, Tempo Schmempo, and The Jewel School. Beyond the locals and friends from Tāmaki Makaurau, they’ve also hosted international selectors like Nice Girl, Nabihah Iqbal, Jasper James, and Musclecars. Open until 1 am on Fridays and Saturdays, Cuba Street Tavern closes early, which also means the party starts early, creating sublime moments during golden hour and twilight.

“When we developed the tavern, the vision was to create a community space Wellingtonians and visitors could genuinely call their own—built around food, beverage and music,” explains Cuba Street Tavern co-owner Richard Walshe. “That's actually where the name came from: we wanted to be a proper ‘tavern’, a local hub, not just another bar.” A twenty-year hospitality veteran, Walshe is also the director of one of the oldest pubs in Aotearoa, The Thistle Inn, originally built in 1840. Understated but confident, he’s a workhorse who measures the inevitable realities of commerce with the deeper value of shared spaces.

After coming up in the capital in the 90s, Tubbs spent two decades in the UK and Europe, where he hosted shows on BBC 6Music and Monocle Radio, and played at world-renowned nightclubs like Privilege in Ibiza to Fabric in London, before returning home in 2017. When he first entered the tavern, memories of The Matterhorn, and another long-shuttered Te Whanganui-a-Tara nightspot, Mighty Mighty flooded his mind. “I knew what Wellington has had over the decades, and I recognised that feeling in here,” he continues. “The space felt completely within the remit for an intergenerational party.” At On & On, Tubbs and the community around him chase the elusive Balearic beat, dancing to soul, disco, house, techno, and other eclectic uptempo selections.

Aside from the DJs and the audience, the heart of the Cuba Street Tavern experience is its high-end sound system, custom-built by Tubs Audio, a boutique audio engineering company founded by former America's Cup Engineer Tobias Shaughnessy, not to be confused with Tubbs. “We wanted to establish ourselves as a venue that cares as much about sound quality as it does about supporting local talent,” enthuses Walshe. “Tubs, based right here in Wellington, brought exactly the calibre of engineering and experience we wanted for the tavern.” When Cuba Street Tavern’s courtyard is full, the quality of the system Tubs Audio built for them speaks for itself.

“The relationship between the DJ booth and the dancefloor is 1:1,” explains Leon Baldock, aka DJ Coda. One of the driving forces behind S-ence, Baldock is also a godfather of techno in Aotearoa. Decades after he organised his first raves, you can still find him smiling on the dancefloor. “What you hear in the booth and on the dancefloor is the same. You get this very high-fidelity vibe, like being in a studio session.” He describes the tavern as a “pocket venue”. The courtyard’s capacity is 150, but all it takes is 40 or 50 dancers to activate the space.

“We’ve been bringing together a mixture of younger people who are curious about this music and older ravers who’ve reemerged from parenthood and want to discover the dancefloor and be part of a community again,” continues Tubbs. “There’s a group that sometimes swells to 40 people who call themselves ‘The Book Club’,” he says with a knowing wink. “They come to every party. It’s their church for the month.” Inevitably, some attendees start their evening inside with dinner and drinks, enjoying a menu that nods to classic pub cuisine, alongside sharing plates and skewers cooked on a Japanese hibachi grill.

“For us, the perfect night is when the whole place is vibing—inside is full, people are on cocktails and craft beer, working through the small plates, and out in the courtyard, things slowly turn from dining into dancing,” says Walshe. “What we love most about the tavern is the mix of people it pulls in: some are there purely for the music, some for the drinks, some for the food—watching those different crowds merge makes it special.” Lately, in a callback to The Matterhorn era, they’ve added live jazz to the monthly calendar, creating the possibility for more special times.

Another key part of the tavern’s courtyard experience is its impressive lighting design, created by Anita Dykes from ECC. “Anita is from this culture in the same way that Leon is,” Tubbs says. “It’s been lovely seeing her become more and more invested. She’s always looking for ways to raise the stakes and make people realise they’ve arrived. She can make the room feel so immersive and visually stimulated or pull it all right back.” When the haze, lasers and disco balls all come together after dark, the wooden dancefloor could be anywhere in the world.

Of course, as we all know, a great night out is about more than just getting on the good foot.

If you’re getting overstimulated on the Cuba Street Tavern dance floor, all you need to do is retreat inside into the dimmed ambience of its bar and restaurant. “It's all aided by this kind of acoustic anomaly that exists at the bar, where you can actually stand and have a conversation, and right through those double doors is a fucking rocking party,” Tubbs explains. “It's really weird. There's magic in that, you know?”

Sometimes there’s a magic when things go wrong as well. Tubbs has fond memories of an On & On when the fire alarm went off, and the party had to be temporarily evacuated streetside. “It felt like one of those moments,” he says with a grin. “Everyone was outside, talking and connecting. It was hilarious and fun.” Once the commotion was over, they went inside and did what they do best: dance, dance, and dance some more.

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Martyn Pepperell is a freelance journalist, copywriter, broadcaster, photographer and DJ. Find him on Instagram.