Bar Bodega

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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.

Regular appearances by Chris Knox, Martin Phillipps and The Chills, Jean-Paul Sartre Experience, David Kilgour, The Renderers and many other household names of New Zealand music ensured a wide and loyal following of this bar.^{[citation needed]} The White Stripes played at Bodega on their first New Zealand tour in 2000.

• Bodega MySpace page

41°17′34″S 174°46′31″E / 41.2929°S 174.7752°E / -41.2929; 174.7752