Multiple buyers interested in Auckland’s liquidated Vivace Restaurant

Iconic restaurant Vivace, located on Fort Street in Auckland, has multiple buyers interested after entering liquidation. Photo / Hayden Woodward

Liquidators of the famous Auckland restaurant Vivace have revealed multiple potential buyers have expressed interest in the business.

The restaurant, which went into liquidation on Christmas Eve last year, has been a staple of Auckland’s CBD dining scene for more than 30 years.

According to Blacklock Rose liquidators Ben Francis and Garry Whimp, the pair “are in early talks with a couple of parties and we do not want to prejudice a possible sale”.

The first liquidator’s report released today said that multiple financial challenges led to its closure.

Director Mandy Lusk invested significant personal and family money to keep the restaurant afloat, however, the economic conditions following the Covid-19 pandemic meant the company was not viable.

At the time of liquidation, the business had four shareholders, Mandy and Antony Lusk, Eugene Gibson, and Danny Phipps.

The business is in arrears with its landlord and the Inland Revenue Department.

There are 63 businesses listed as known creditors, including many suppliers of the restaurant.

Creditors include Spark, Mercury Energy, Nova Energy, and ANZ. Twenty individuals are also listed as known creditors.

Vivace’s total assets and liabilities are redacted as Francis and Whimp “are unable, at this stage, to verify the accuracy of the data”, meaning the financial position of the restaurant remains unknown.

Vivace Restaurant and Bar owner Mandy Lusk cited the change after the Covid-19 pandemic and financial issues as reasons for its liquidation. Photo / Greg Bowker

An Auckland Institution

With the restaurant entering into liquidation, it meant job losses for 20 staff right before Christmas.

Owner Mandy Lusk said breaking the news to staff on the morning of Christmas Eve was like splitting up the family, some of whom had worked at Vivace for 20-plus years.

“It’s the end of an era,” she said.

“The only great thing is we managed to pay them [staff] all their holiday pay owing and stats and stuff, and that made it a little bit easier.”

The Mediterranean-style restaurant, once described by a Herald reviewer as “warm-hearted, honest, and unpretentious”, had been running for 33 years at two sites in High Street before moving to Fort St in 2018.

Lusk said the closure stemmed from a demand by Inland Revenue. The IRD had tried to liquidate the business 18 months previously, but she avoided that by borrowing a “huge amount of money” to pay them.

“Just this last year and a bit we got behind again,” Lusk said, saying the business had lurched from the ongoing effects of lockdown, a flood last year, a quiet pre-election period and the country going into recession.

“Were it not for the IRD calling in our debt to them, we would still definitely be trying to trade … [but] we got to the point where we couldn’t pay the debt,” she said.

Vivace isn’t the first longstanding hospitality venue to fall victim in recent times, with other Auckland CBD restaurants shutting their doors this year including Homeland, Pilkington’s, and Madam George.

After 32 years in Ponsonby Road, the stylish restaurant SPQR was placed in liquidation in July for tax arrears owing more than $2 million to Inland Revenue and creditors.

Earlier this week Bar Non Solo and MoVida, located in Britomart’s Seafarer building, also permanently closed.

However, Savor Group chief executive Lucien Law confirmed that an announcement about a new leisure and entertainment offering is coming in the near future.

Tom Raynel is a multimedia business journalist for the Herald, covering small business and retail.