The Faces of My Little Pub
Usually, we are ones for staying out of the spotlight but it’s only fair you get to put some faces to the name.
As many of you will know, My Little Pub was founded back in the times of covid (yes, that happened), by Gary Altenburg and Steve Rosling. An idea became a drawing on the back of a napkin which morphed into the first real Little Pub, T. O’Loughlin’s.
T. O’Loughlin’s became the poster child for the beginnings of My Little Pub. It’s design and creation came from Gary’s father-in-law, Terry, an Irish descendant from County Clare, which is where the pub’s blue exterior came from. The inside also tells a story and is filled with old Irish relics and family photos.
Fast forward a couple of months and one Little Irish Pub later, the team had the opportunity to put the pub into the Christchurch Beer Festival. Having not much time on their hands or event experience they enlisted Gary’s Niece Breiana Bennetts to come and organise the day. The pub saw hundreds of people streaming in and out of it all day, marvelling at “how cool” it was. That’s what sparked Breiana’s interest to get involved.
Breiana came from an event background helping to organise music festivals in New Zealand and around the world, a career that wasn’t so lucrative throughout the covid period. Having seen Breiana’s passionate spark about being involved in the startup business combined with Gary and Steve’s own businesses already taking up most of their time, they decided to “give Breiana the keys to drive the car”.
Over the last couple of years Gary, Breiana and Charlotte (also Gary’s wife) have been working to give My Little Pub an identity and become a name that people can trust. “We are constantly tweaking the formula to make a better experience for people. I’m consistently amazed the way that Gary can turn people’s ideas into something that is always above people’s expectations and is then able to implement the learnings into the next pub, and then the one after that and so on. It just gets better and better.”
My Little Pub has found it’s strength in being a family run and orientated business. “We always want to be the down to earth, approachable, real people you can talk to and know that we care for your project because you become a part of our community.”
“We have a group chat with Gary, Char and myself where we will often send a “how good”, “f**ing awesome”, “so amazing” message after a call with a prospective client and getting really excited about their ideas. It just feels really good to make cool things for great people.”
And of course no Little Pub would exist without the wider teams and suppliers My Little Pub work with. Particularly MWF Manufacturing, Gary & Charlotte’s joinery business (that they’ve had for 21 years!) who always always produce top quality work, have a “nothing’s a problem” attitude and are a great team of people to work with.
So there you have it, we are just your local, pub-loving, friends-next-door who want to put a really amazing miniature pub in your backyard that you and your family and friends will enjoy for years to come.
Gary, Brei & Char x
Pictured in order: Gary, Brei & Char