Seth Hamilton
Business Owner - Craft Embassy & Soul Quarter / Cascades Bar
Seth is a born and bred Cantabrian who has followed his passion for the hospitality sector in some form or another his entire working career.
Listening to Seth’s story, I get a sense he has worked for people who have nurtured his growth and development along the way, starting back with his first job as a chef at Blue Jean Cuisine. He highlights that owner Murray Traill gave him the opportunity to become a chef while putting himself through a chef-training course at Ara Institute.
After 5- 6 years as a chef, he decided to try a change of lifestyle and moved to Auckland in the early 2000’s working in the food supply industry for a company now known as Bidfood. This job still connected him to the hospitality sector and provided him the opportunity to craft another passion for spinning tunes as a DJ.
Seth could only take one year in Auckland and transferred his role back to Christchurch with the company that supplies most of the hospitality operators.
Working during the day and at night he DJ’d for a number of years for local venues during the mid to late 2000’s. However, post the earthquake, nothing was set up until Dux Live located on Lincoln Road at the time.
It was around this time Seth decided he wanted to get back into the hospitality sector but from an ownership perspective. However, he wanted to test his metal and see if he had the right skills and relevance to go out on his own. In 2015, the owners of The Pedal Pusher, Madlen, and Wayne provided the opportunity to do just that and was their general manager, saying his time there was the perfect learning environment to move forward and out on his own.
It was 2017 and with a couple of business partners they leapt at an opportunity that Antony Gough was offering along The Terrace at that time. They knew that taking a spot on the first floor would require becoming a destination and that they would need to give people a very good reason to venture upstairs.
With a solid idea in train, they spoke to a number of providers with most saying you cannot have 30 different independent beers on tap, but here they are. When they opened in 2018 they started out as mainly a beer offering but have evolved into a true embassy and ambassadors to crafted food and beverage in a more general sense. Sporting 30 ever-changing guest taps of independent New Zealand craft beer, and over 30 local wines with food crafted to suit, and is the true embassy overlooking The Terrace.
It was during the pandemic another opportunity opened up in Stranges Lane. With business partner Josie Baker they took over what was previously “Strange & Co” and “Orleans”. They opened amid the pandemic in 2021 not expecting it to go on as long as it did but they created the Soul Quarter and Cascade Bar. Cascade has a cocktail focus flowing out to the fairly lit courtyard and Soul Quarter a separate intimate restaurant dining experience bringing a modern Louisiana, French, New Zealand, South, and Latin American influence to provide a hearty and flavoursome dish to your table.
With a keen sense of the hospitality industry, we wanted to know who Seth thought was providing good experiences to our city. He loves Pomeroy’s Pub as a good local and Rascal who offer a great vibe and likes the changeability of their menu.
He also loves the bespoke and independent nature of New Regent Street with operators such as Gin Gin, Last Word, Twenty Seven Steps, and Story all showcasing their individuality. He also thinks it is great having Little Andromeda so close to their Craft Embassy as the arts bring good demography and says the arts hold a mirror up to politics and society to provide society the opportunity to reflect upon itself.
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