RIDING A WAVE OF SUCCESS
No one has been more surprised by the success of Coromandel Peninsula pizza haunt, Luke’s Kitchen, than its surf-loving owner.
Mention that you’re off to Kuaotunu for the weekend and chances are you’ll receive a perplexed look accompanied by ‘Where?’. Add in the fact that you’ll be off to Luke’s Kitchen to have pizza for dinner and there’s a high chance whoever you’re telling will now be able point to the sleepy Coromandel Peninsula beachside township on a map.
Even with a decade behind him in the restaurant, owner Luke Reilly says he’s still taken aback by its success. Despite the eatery’s reputation, Reilly is as humble and down to earth as you would expect a Kiwi bloke who lives and breathes surfing to be.
However, the truth is, while Kuaotunu might be one of Coromandel’s best-kept secrets, Luke’s Kitchen has garnered a reputation as the place to eat over the years. In fact, in the summer months, it’s not uncommon for queues to swirl around the bend in the road as holidaymakers flock from Whitianga, Matarangi and beyond, hoping to get a table in time to watch the sunset over the ocean.
So how did the surfer who admits he’s terrified of the city come to start one of the most talked about dining destinations in the region? Apparently, Reilly’s idea was to spend summers in Kuaotunu and then, as winter came, jet off to warmer climes chasing waves around the globe.
TAKING A PUNT
Kuaotunu has always been home for Reilly. But after training as a chef in Tauranga he left his hometown and spent the next few years working in Queenstown, Samoa and Australia. “I always came home for summer,” he says. “I just loved it.”
Eventually, Reilly grew tired of working for other restaurants and decided it was time to try it on his own. “I just took a punt,” he says. “I just wanted to surf during the winter, do a summer trade and then take off to Indonesia. Over the years it’s slowly
changed and progressed into this. It’s crazy how quickly it evolved.”
Although Luke’s Kitchen began with a simple caravan kitchen that Reilly and his dad got stuck into when he flew back from Perth, over the years friends, family and the local community have all chipped in, helping transform the restaurant into what it is today.
“This was literally my dad’s garage,” says Reilly. “This is where his tools were and it’s slowly morphed into a restaurant.”
There was no master plan behind the restaurant and he says the way things have evolved has been organic. “We just gave people what they wanted, essentially, and it just grew with the community and we diversified,” he says.
Even though Luke’s Kitchen attracts tourists from all around New Zealand and beyond, the tight-knit community is really at the heart of what Reilly does. “That guy there, Mark,” Reilly says, pointing to the open pizza kitchen – complete with a pizza oven that Reilly and his mates built from scratch – “he was the first person I employed.” Just last week another young bloke in his early twenties left Luke’s after starting at the restaurant washing dishes 10 years ago. “Each year a new set of local kids comes through,” says Reilly.
“They learn how to do the dishes and they learn how to do the pizza dough and then, if they’re interested in the kitchen, they can start making salads.”
A few of the local kids have grown up to become success stories in their own right – they’ve gone on to train as chefs and now work around the world.
A PASSION FOR PIZZA
As for why Reilly decided to create a menu around pizza, he says it was the communal Italian way of eating that really drew him to the idea. “I worked with a bunch of Italian guys when I was in Perth, in an Italian restaurant.”
Even though they didn’t teach Reilly their pizza-making skills, he says he was always on the grill watching them over his shoulder. “It was more the style of eating,” he says.
“It wasn’t necessarily about pizza, I just wanted to get people to come in groups and share a meal together. It was more of a social thing I was moving towards.” Reilly prefers to leave the administration side of the business to “a couple of good mates”,
but he’s very hands-on where the food is concerned. “It’s my passion,” he says. If you’re one of Luke’s regulars – and he has a very vocal and loyal group of them – you will have noticed the menu rarely changes. “I’ve been trying to get rid of some of the best-selling pizzas, but there’s always such an outcry,” he says. “I got rid of Pacific Chix – freerange coconut chicken, courgette, red onion, capsicum, kaffir lime dressing and cheese – for one winter season and nearly got murdered,” he laughs.
“I’d love to do a clean sweep of the menu and say ‘Everything’s new’. But it’s hard,” he says. “I never thought I’d leave something on a menu for so long; it’s not something I believe in.” Reilly tries to source as much local produce as possible. The bulk of the seafood comes from the Coromandel, too. Over summer, they can go through up to 50kg of Coromandel green-lipped mussels in just one night.
With two kids, one aged four months and the other two years old, and a burgeoning business, things have definitely changed for Reilly. “The surfing side has definitely been put on the back-burner over the past few years,” he says.
“The business is pretty busy. Even now, over winter, people are coming down to their baches more. It’s insane how it’s grown.”
Even so, there’s nowhere Reilly would rather be than out on the water. “I still get out there and surf and dive and do all the things I love. I couldn’t ask for more really, I get to live here.”
20 Black Jack Road, Kuaotunu lukeskitchen.co.nz