A closed-door grand opening
When people get to taste the food from Ha¯wera’s newest cafe, it won’t be the way owners Renate and Heimo Staudinger envisaged.
The pair owned Stony River Boutique Hotel, 28 kilometres south of New Plymouth, for seven years and were scheduled to open Upside Down Eatery on April 11.
However, coronavirus and the lockdown threw a spanner in the works.
The grand opening will now happen behind closed doors, when the country moves into alert level three today.
The level four lockdown ended at 11.59pm yesterday, after which the country stepped down to level three for a further two weeks before the situation will be reviewed.
Bars and restaurants cannot open their doors to customers until New Zealand is down to alert level two, but they can offer contactless takeaway pickups and deliveries.
‘‘We did takeaways at Stony River quite successfully so will do the same concept here with kerbside pickup and probably even delivery service,’’ Heimo said. ‘‘We don’t know if it will be over in two weeks, it might be longer, so we have to bring some revenue.’’
The Staudingers put Stony River on the market in October, but couldn’t sell so closed the business permanently before lockdown and cancelled the lease on the Okato building.
Heimo said it was a hard decision but it was time for a change.
The staff from Stony River are transferring to the new venture in Ha¯wera, with some new members joining the team.
They were able to claim $103,984.80 on the wage subsidy grant for 16 employees.
‘‘Even if they hadn’t worked a day for us, they get paid, because they were all already on contracts.
‘‘We had a business plan with an expected turnover and our turnover was zero, so we were down 100 per cent rather than just the 30 per cent loss needed to be eligible.’’
Stony River Hotel was known for bringing European traditions to rural Taranaki with schnitzel nights, harvest festivals, and Christmas markets.
Heimo said where Stony River was old-fashioned and very traditional, Upside Down Eatery would be brighter and modern but still with an Austrian European influence.
‘‘Of course we have our schnitzel on the menu, there’s no way without that,’’ he said.