Is Christchurch our food capital?
Is Christchurch snatching the title as the foodie capital of the nation?
Last year the city saw more than 2000 food licences registered or renewed – a quarter more than in the previous year. These include cafés, restaurants, bars, takeaway outlets and food trucks, with one registered or renewed for every 200 people in the city.
Amongst them is Brewda, a modern Korean restaurant, which opened late last year in central Christchurch. Owner Cian Curtin said Christchurch was becoming known as “a hospitality hub”, a crown held by Auckland a few years ago.
He said the quality of places opening in Christchurch was more unique than it had been. “There are a lot of foreigners in Christchurch, and it’s cool to see their culture start to come through.”
Curtin did not believe the city was “oversaturated”. Instead, restaurant, café and food truck owners were “finding gaps in the market, and filling them”.
While not everybody would survive, “that’s up to us”, he said. Despite the economic downturn, “people don’t mind spending the money if they see value”.
University of Canterbury researcher and Professor in Marketing Sussie Morrish, who tracked hospitality numbers in Christchurch after the earthquakes until 2016, said she had continued to watch trends in the industry.
She was “very surprised” by the rapid pace at which hospitality had bounced back after the quakes and Covid. “The Christchurch rebuild is a hotbed of entrepreneurial opportunities where new entrepreneurs have emerged.
“We have probably the most modern type, contemporary-style and new concepts restaurants. You can just find everything in Christchurch.”
Morrish said consumers were spoiled for choice, but operators faced stiff competition. She noted the trend towards hospitality entrepreneurs owning more than one outlet.
Cocoa Black owner Yong Ren is about to open his fifth café in Canterbury, and number six is under way. He believed the region had enough cafés but they were not all done well.
He said those coming into the industry did not always understand the challenges of hospitality. “Lots of people, they think it’s really easy to get into hospitality. Some investors have money and they come here and buy a franchise. They have no experience, no background, then they run the business down.”
The latest figures come from the Christchurch City Council’s record of “food registrations”. The council, with a population of about 400,000, issued or renewed 2014 food registrations in the 12 months to the first week of May, a 26% leap on the previous 12 months, when just under 1600 registrations were issued.
These figures do not include registrations for food outlets such as dairies, early childhood centres and service stations.
Wellington, which once boasted that it had more eateries per capita than New York City, currently has fewer than 1200 eateries registered with the city council, including 838 eatin, 273 takeaway and 83 mobile businesses. It said the numbers had remained stable in previous years.
Auckland Council, with a population of about 1.7 million, currently has 7651 businesses operating with a food control plan. These include restaurants, cafés, caterers, food trucks and takeaways.
Hospitality spending is also on the rise across Canterbury. The Restaurant Association’s latest figures for the region show $517.8 million was spent in cafés, restaurants, bars, takeaway outlets and clubs and on catering during the last quarter of 2023, up 3.9% from the same time the previous year.
Across Canterbury, the association recorded 2487 outlets in 2023, a modest 1% increase on 2463 in 2022. With a region-wide population of nearly 630,000, this equated to about 250 people per restaurant.
Association chief executive Marisa Bidois said the total number of council licences issued did not take account of places that had closed or changed hands. Despite this, “the overarching narrative remains one of growth and opportunity”.
She said those businesses that embraced innovation adapted to changing tastes and prioritised customers would thrive. Prior to Covid, the hospitality sector had experienced consistent growth, indicating its resilience and adaptability.
Lisa Levy, co-owner of fine dining eatery Inati and Canterbury branch president of the Restaurant Association New Zealand, said she did not perceive an overload of outlets.
“We have restaurants, bars, clubs, food trucks, fast food ... so saying hospitality is overloaded is quite difficult when you put all those genres together.
“We all offer something different.”
She said there were challenges, “and winter is notoriously hard here in Christchurch”, but the sector was “fairly optimistic”.
Her business experienced a strong final quarter last year, with 70% of the customers being tourists. “We’ve seen a huge increase in tourism with cruise ships and direct flights... they all helped us.”
Xiangrui Yang recalled that there were only four Chinese restaurants in Christchurch in the 1970s. But now, he feels that “almost every single day there comes a new food operator on Riccarton Rd”.
He opened his first restaurant in 1979. “It was a disaster. My food was new, it was fine dining, but it was not well accepted because it was so different,” he said.
Yang’s current restaurant, Dragon Express on Riccarton Rd, has “almost the same menu” as his first restaurant, but the acceptance of it had increased enormously.
“Some of my customers even knew more about Chinese regional cuisines, such as those in Northern China, than me,” he said.
From a business owner’s perspective, more restaurants meant fierce competition, Yang said. “Running a restaurant is hard work and requires long working hours.”
Former Australian politician Bob Carr has yet to make good on a threat of legal action against Winston Peters for allegedly defamatory comments.
A week after Carr, a former Australian foreign minister, had his lawyers send Peters a letter saying he was seeking “immediate commencement” of legal action in New Zealand, the promise of court action remains unfulfilled.
Calls, texts, and emails to Carr and his Australian lawyer this past week have not been returned. The Auckland and Wellington High Courts have not responded to inquiries about Carr filing legal proceedings. And Peters has yet to be served.
“Isn't it marvellous? Look at the headlines you made with Chumbawamba – nobody’s ever replied to me on that. And on this matter, no,” Peters told reporters on Thursday, referring to a prior legal threat he received from a British band over the use of their hit Tubthumping.
Peters last week sparked Carr’s ire when, during a radio broadcast, he attacked the former Australian foreign minister for his criticism of New Zealand’s interest in the contentious Aukus defence pact.
After an initial threat of legal action, Peters refused to back down from the claims he made about Carr, including under questioning by the Labour Party in the House.
Labour leader Chris Hipkins called for Peters to be removed as foreign minister for the affray, but Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has stood by his deputy prime minister.
“They’re not comments I would make. I’m sure Bob Carr as a seasoned politician would understand the rough and tumble of politics,” Luxon said.
Carr, a former Australian Labor politician, visited Wellington in April to speak at an anti-Aukus event held by the New Zealand Labour Party.
At the event, Carr called the Aukus defence pact “fragrant, methane-wrapped bullshit”.
The pact between Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States – which will have Australia acquire nuclear-powered submarines in the coming decades – and the New Zealand Government continues to “explore” participation in aspects of the agreement that involve sharing cutting-edge military technologies.