Bar Bodega is a former music venue in Wellington, New Zealand that closed in 2016.[1] Founded in 1991, it originally occupied a house earmarked for demolition by Transit New Zealand to make way for an inner city motorway extension. Due to the continuing short-term nature of the lease, the venue continued to exist with a relatively makeshift appearance until 2001 when the motorway extension was finally started and the venue shifted into new premises on Ghuznee Street, a former Nestlé factory and warehouse.[2] The old location was later purchased by restaurateurs Lorenzo and Leonardo Bresolin in 2014.[1]
Bar Bodega was one of the few stages open almost exclusively to original New Zealand bands and has played a vital role in nurturing the highly original and unusual music scene of New Zealand's capital city.[citation needed]
Virtually every New Zealand band played in this venue in the 1990s, very often in front of a very crowded house.
Many local Wellington bands had regular spots there: The Gardening Angels, Letterbox Lambs, Breakfast of Champion, Jahailer and Let's Planet, to name a few.
