Garage Project Aro Cellar Door — Restaurant in North Island

I was looking forward to visiting this brewery for weeks prior to visiting Wellington. Unfortunately, Garage Project did not live up to my excitement. There are two types of craft breweries: exciting, welcoming ones and stuffy, snobby ones. From my experience, Garage Project falls into the latter category. The staff were not welcoming, but rather cold and reserved. They were hesitant to provide samples at their tap room, prioritizing people with growlers who had come in awhile after me. They didn't try to connect with me or be friendly, despite viewing my passport and knowing I had traveled thousands of miles to arrive there. The beers they had for sampling were rather plain—their more exciting options were reserved for purchase at their taproom. And at their taproom, a small four beer tasting tray would have cost $17. I left. I had arrived at Garage Project prepared to spend a healthy chunk of change on beers and souvenirs. Unfortunately, I couldn't deal with the place's vibe, and the trip down wasn't worth remembering with a souvenir.

My recommendation: go to Hey Day Brewery down the street, where the beer is better, the prices are better, and the hospitality is way better. I visited them the night prior, and they set a high bar that Garage Project didn't come close to meeting. If you do visit Garage Project, hopefully your experience will be better than mine.

Two stars for each one-ounce...

I've had a few of their beers - it's good beer. But I'm more writing this review as a review of the humans and/or humanoid reptilians if there are any of those among them (I don't judge.)

In respect of their beer which used some iconography and a name referring to the Vietnam war, a Vietnamese Australian contacted Garage Project because they didn't really like the name/images. To me, that's a totally understandable thing for someone to think!

Also, in terms of the product itself, it's totally understandable how a NZ producer of a product could name and label a product in such a way, more or less innocently and without any intention to cause offense to anybody.

Garage Project responded to the complaint by immediately removing the product from the market, at substantial cost... and clearly they felt quite bad about the upset caused. I think that this was a great response, and I wish more companies were this considerate and thoughtful.

I sent an email thanking Garage Project & Pete Gillespie, and he took the time to reply & thank me for my support.

So - these are good people. Their beer is...

Love this place so much! It's first on my to do list when in Wellington. Amazingggg beer, and the staff have always been kind and helpful to me! I have seen a few reviews saying the staff have been rude, however I think since they do get quite busy sometimes they just need patient customers, rather than customers who would get mad at not having 100% attention when they're trying to help others too. I can see how then those impatient customers may feel the staff are being 'rude', but just relax and be patient and im sure the staff would be ever so kind and...