Restaurants think outside the box

Nelson restaurants are getting creative with their cuisine as coronavirus deters customers eating out.

Takeaways and deliveries are being offered up at some restaurants in the Nelson Tasman area to ensure they stay afloat, and food cart operators who would normally trade at markets are also taking their food straight to the door.

Nicola’s Cantina owner Nicola Cantrick said she was taking steps to keep the Mexican restaurant going, including having fewer tables to allow more space between diners, enabling Paywave to limit passing germs during eftpos transactions, increasing takeaway options and starting a home delivery service.

She said it was all about coming up with contingency plans.

One challenge in getting takeaway containers, Cantrick said, was the lack of options. When biodegradable containers ran out, going plastic may be the only alternative. ‘‘It’s catch 22.’’

And she said customers using their own containers wasn’t an option. ‘‘It wouldn’t get certified because they would have to be totally sanitised.’’

But during these unsettling times, she said all restaurateurs were talking to each other.

‘‘It’s the nice thing about New Zealand and particularly Nelson, the sense of community.’’

The popular doughnut and meat destination in Motueka, The Smoking Barrel, also has plans for delivery and offered up their first takeaway option last week.

The Smoking Barrel owner, Josiah Smits, said he was ‘‘trying to think outside the box’’.

On Thursday, the restaurant began providing takeaway vacuum meat packs of their smoked barbecue and the buy-in was ‘‘off the Richter scale’’, he said.

‘‘We’re struggling to keep up with that at the moment, which is fantastic. ‘All of our meat is smoked first for 12 to 15 hours. Then we chill it, vacuum pack it, then it’s just heat and eat. A taste of The Smoking Barrel at home.’’

He said he was looking at initiating a weekly delivery to Nelson and Richmond, with a possible collection point or home delivery.

Meanwhile, the premises was taking extra precautions, including regular sanitising, removing cutlery from tables and avoiding packing out the restaurant.

Nelson plant-based food truck V Burgers regularly has queues of customers at events, including Isel Park Twilight Market but, since gatherings over 100 were banned, owner Leila Byrd has tweaked the business model.

Thursday night was the first trial of her burger delivery service and it was a great success, she said. ‘‘It was crazy, I can’t believe how many [people] wanted to do it.’’

She said about 30 orders were delivered, with several burgers on each, and there were 15 orders placed for Friday night.

But she said it was too early to see if it would take off.

‘‘It’ll be a week-by-week basis – use it or lose it.’’

It was ‘‘pretty devastating’’ for many food truck operators, Byrd said, as many relied on outdoor events. ‘‘Now we have no events booked for the winter season.’’

Nin’s Cambodian street food was also an Isel Park market regular before it closed indefinitely this week. Nin Cartwright said starting from Friday, she was offering takeaway from her home in Milton St, The Wood, with free delivery in the area.

‘‘We’ll see how it goes.’’