Wellington hospitality patriarch Jason Roberts has been found dead in his bar.

The co-owner of some of Wellington's top spots - including Ponderosa, Red Square and, until a few years ago, Dockside - will be remembered as a man who would drive friends' children home from town if they had one too many.

He once hired a helicopter to fly staff - who had worked though New Year's Eve - to a dance party on Takaka Hill.

He was a father of seven-year-old twins Jack and Ellie, 18-year-old son William, and the husband of Katrina.

He was a keen diver, duck hunter, and fisherman.

He died aged 45 in what are being described as tragic circumstances at the Red Square bar on Blair St on Tuesday night. The death has been referred to the Coroner.

Business partner Mark Wilson said his good friend barely had an enemy in the world.

A publican to-the-core, he acted as a counsellor to many punters.

''He took a lot of Wellington secrets to the grave.''

As friends' children came of bar-going age, he kept an eye on them, keeping them out of trouble, and driving them home if they had one too many.

''He did the same for the parents as well.''

Staff at Dockside, which the pair owned together, had worked through a New Year's Eve in the late 1990s. As a thank you, the next day staff were put in a helicopter and flown to The Gathering at the top of Takaka Hill in Golden Bay where the party was still going.

They stepped out of the helicopter with bottles of champagne and ''came back with the very-worst tattoos'', Mr Wilson said.

He was a boss who led from the front, working on the floor or - trained as a chef - in the kitchen, though arthritis in recent years meant he had reduced work hours.

''He was more than happy being in the kitchen cooking for 300 for lunch as he was front of house.

''He was so well-respected and liked within the industry. There's a big hole in Courtenay Pl to fill.''

As a young chef, Roberts worked at Shed 5 on Queen's Wharf. In 1995, he went into partnership with Wilson at neighbouring Dockside which, in the late 1990s and early 2000s, was arguably Wellington's most-popular bar and restaurant.

In partnership, the pair opened up Keelers at the Royal Port Nicholson Yacht Club, then Red Square, Ponderosa, and UU in the Courtenay Pl area.

His funeral is on Tuesday at Old St Paul's on Mulgrave St, Thorndon at 2pm on Tuesday. It will be followed by a wake at Dockside.