Bringing Badass to Braidwood by Allan Sko It’s the stuff of a charming, award-winning little indie-film-thatcould; the tale of a mixed heritage husband and wife starting up a restaurant/bar/live music venue in their sleepy-yet-charming home town of Braidwood. Their hopes and dreams of combining homestyle Himalayan cooking with a vibrant music venue is initially met by some locals with befuddlement, before eventually winning over hearts and minds. Except this isn’t a film, but an actuality playing out about an hour away from Canberra. And even more charmingly, it’s run by two Karunas ; Karuna Bajracharya (pictured far right in splendid pink baseball cap) and Karuna Gurung. “We’re of Nepali, Bhutanese and Aussie heritage,” boy Bajracharya says. “We’ve both grown up in the region spending our formative years in Braidwood and Canberra, and are really passionate about sharing our culture in a regional Australian town setting. “Sharing the same first name can be confusing at times; we’re commonly called by our initials KB and KG; easy to remember as Karuna Boy and Karuna Girl.” Sharing culture through food is always a winner, and the pair have whipped up something special to make Smokey Horse stand out on any culinary map. “We serve homestyle cooking, all made using family recipes from Nepal and Nagaland in Northeast India - home of the hottest chillies in the world!” KB declares. KB’s passion for food is matched by his prowess as a muso, with a long and colourful musical background, playing in Canberra Unearthed band the Bumblebeez, being an MC and producer in his own right, as well as stamping himself as a stalwart of the local drum ‘n’ bass scene. KG has a real job at the ABS but is also an avid DJ/ selecta, writer, and entrepreneur. “We’re big supporters of original live music especially,” KB enthuses. And they’ve put their money - both literal and metaphorical - where their mouth is, boasting a brimming live calendar over their near three-year (minus Covid shutdown) history. “We’ve hosted numerous gigs during our first few years of operation including well established acts like Michael Simic of Mikelangelo and the Deep Sea Gentlemen, Christa Hughes of Machine Gun Felatio, Rufino and the Coconuts, On The Stoop, Headz Are Rolling, Cathy Diver, MC Context, and many more,” KB beams. “We’ve hosted numerous fundraisers, partnering with Girls Rock Canberra twice, where the funds were used to sponsor local Braidwood girls attending their rock camp, and also raising $3000 for our local RFS brigades during last year’s bushfires.” The suck that was/is Covid rudely shut the doors only a year into operation - a terrible occurrence that is only amplified for any fledgling business. But the couple didn’t slow down.
“We took advantage of this closure,” KB explains, “making significant venue upgrades, soundproofing, as well as installing new equipment, a ME&U digital ordering platform, and expanded outdoor seating to accommodate social distancing. “We also had time to apply for multiple funding grants to bolster our ability to host live music events, and were successful in three out of three applications, including the biggest application from Live Music Australia where we were awarded a total of $26,000, which broke down into $20,000 in artist fees for original live music and $6000 for venue upgrades. It was a massive coup!” Smokey Horse have staged three gigs so far under said Live Music Australia funding, hosting Canberra, local and regional acts like Cathy Diver, Paint Store, Lily Morris, and Blue Mountains outfit Earprojector. And there’s plenty more planned for the year ahead. “We’re aiming to host 15-20 gigs over 2021 with up to three artists per gig, giving both emerging and established performers, from a wide variety of genres, opportunities to perform,” KB states. “Live streaming upgrades will now allow us to share high quality video and audio online during shows. We also have the capacity to do multitrack audio/video recordings for post production and later release, also.” It’s more than fair for KB and KG to be proud of their many fine achievements thus far. “Looking back over our first two years of operation, we realised how much we’ve accomplished and why we ticked so many boxes in our applications,” Karuna reflects. “We’d hosted dozens of live music shows, cabaret drag nights, DJ events, fundraisers, indigenous events, as well as partnering with a raft of Not For Profit organisations, building a reputation as a viable, inclusive and well organised live music venue/restaurant/bar as part of a growing regional touring circuit.” As you would expect from such plucky folk, the libation-slinging legends are not laying on their laurels. “We are really excited about using this funding to bring high quality acts to Braidwood and really put us on the regional touring map. We are also really stoked about being able to support musicians and the arts industry during what has been a difficult year.” So get out to 183 Wallace Street, Braidwood to revel in Smokey Horse’s wares. Upcoming gigs include Hey Neighbour (8 May), Brass Knuckle Brass Band (29 May), The Strides (13 June), all of which start from 5pm, and are free!
