A new tapas, espresso and wine bar is close to opening its doors in Wagga and hopes to bring a more cosmopolitan offering to the city.
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Meccanico is trying to tap into the white-collar market by offering a dual-income stream, with the takeaway coffee market as well as after-work drinks and cheese platters.
The location's roots as a mechanic shop was a major influence into the design of the new venue and endeavours to mix old-school and European cafe styles.
Co-owner Richard Moffat said after many setbacks, the business is pushing to be open by October 14.
"It's been a long process; we didn't anticipate the development application with Wagga City Council to take so long," he said.
"I guess being our first business when we lodged our development application, I was thinking in about eight weeks we'd be able to start the fit-out but it was 12 months before we finally got the tick of approval, so that was a learning curve for us.
"We're investing in our staff, so we're a premium venue and we are going to be a bit expensive in the Wagga market and in order to justify that, we need to make sure our service is up to standard."
The bar is licenced to open until 11pm and will able to seat 75 people at once.
Mr Moffat said the business will be open seven days a week and will include a variety of wines, gins, scotches as well as breakfast, lunch and tapas menus.
"We're trying to bring a Melbourne and Sydney style bar to the region and we think there's a market here in Wagga, with a healthy disposable income," he said.
"People are reasonably well-travelled here and they've got really good food and wine knowledge and we don't believe they're really being serviced well here."
The architect behind the design is a former Wagga resident Lauren Sharman, who is now residing in Canberra.
"Having the connection back home is probably the main reason Richard got me on board as I know what it is in Wagga and I have an understanding of the market," she said.
"There's starting to be a few bars and cafes popping up in the city, but there is a gap in the market.
"Everything in the space will look like it has always been there ... and apart of the site's history."
The venue will include indoor and outdoor dining as well as utilising a lane adjacent to the building that will form part of the Cadell Place masterplan precinct.
"We'll do a soft opening, we can seat 75 at any one time, but we're a brand new team, new systems and a new menu," Mr Moffat said.
"We can do a lot of damage to our business by getting too many people in and then service is slow or we make mistakes.
"From a business owner with bills hanging out the door, I'd love to say let's get 75 in and seats turned over three or four times, but the long term health of the business means we need to stage it."
Wagga hasn't seen a designated wine bar for sometime since No. 96 Wine Bar shut up shop.