Aquaponics on display at Lyttelton’s newest eatery
With plants on the wall and fish under the bar, Forty
Two is definitely a new player in Lyttelton’s hospitality scene.
Run by Rob Fey and his partner, Shan Koo, the bar and restaurant has taken up residency in what was once Porthole, at the corner of London and Canterbury streets.
‘‘I’ve been a chef most of my life, working in various places around Christchurch, but we both love Lyttelton, we love being over here, and I think we have a pretty good standing with the locals,’’ Fey said. Porthole closed its doors in May, 2016, after becoming a postearthquake stalwart among thirsty locals. It was officially opened in December, 2011, by then-Christchurch mayor Bob Parker. Fey previously worked at the bar, helping owner Mike Dunlay build the structure out of shipping containers. He went on to work at restaurants and bars across the city, including the Twisted Hop, Welles St, and his own taco food truck.
‘‘The building here was derelict for a few years, and we wanted to do something special to it, so we gutted the entire building right back to the containers and built from there.’’
A main feature of the fit out is an aquaponics set-up, where fish and edible plants co-exist in full view of the eating public. Fey had set up a large aquarium under the main kitchen bench, with water fed through tubes up to mounted plants on the wall. Fey said the fish were an American cichlid community, and as the fish grew, so too would the number and types of plants grown.
‘‘We feed the fish in the tank, the water then gets pumped up through the wall to the plants, they clean the water and it returns to the tank,’’ he said. ‘‘So far we have lots of herbs, lettuces, fruiting things, heaps of mint, and we’ll just keep loading it up.’’
Fey said the menu would change each week depending on what produce they had grown and what was seasonal.
‘‘We’ll be doing everything from all over the world, late-night eating, designed to be eaten while drinking,’’ he said.
‘‘So far we have lots of herbs, lettuces, fruiting things, heaps of mint, and we’ll just keep loading it up.’’