Beat Kitchen finds a permanent home
Wellington food truck favourite the Beat Kitchen is set to open at a new permanent location this Friday, behind the Recycle Boutique on the corner of Cuba and Vivian streets.
The new site features a roof, meaning there will be shelter from the (almost) ever-present Wellington wind, along with heating, standing space to mingle, and seating for up to 20 people.
Owner-operators, friends and experienced chefs Craig Sefton and Kei Akiyama dish up a seasonal, globally inspired menu from their former library bus, making as much as possible from scratch and using local suppliers.
The other big news is that the Beat Kitchen will be open for evening trading for the first time, serving dinner until 9pm, Wednesday to Monday, with a guest food truck taking the spot every Tuesday (or any other time the pair are at a catering event).
There will still be the Friday special of brioche doughnuts, with the launch of a dedicated online doughnut shop that also offers delivery, and a $10 lunch special – with a different dish daily.
Sefton and Akiyama previously worked together at Christchurch’s popular C1 Espresso on High St. Sefton said the adventure actually started after his move to Wellington. The pair had joked about owning a restaurant together one day and, a couple of years later, a bus turned up on Trade Me.
‘‘I rang Kei out of nowhere one night and was like, ‘Hey I’ve had this really dumb idea of turning this bus into a food truck.’ And she said something along the lines of, ‘That’s a really stupid idea, Craig… I want in.’
‘‘We have both done a decent amount of travelling, as chefs, taking in flavours and techniques from all over the place, and we try to use these as much as we can in the Beat Kitchen global street food philosophy.’’