An iconic Rotorua building that has long been the Lava Bar in Rotorua is to be turned into a new family friendly low n slow barbecue restaurant run by winning TV show chefs Alia and Shaun from Rotorua.
Not long before Alia and Shaun Branson won a television reality cooking show, Shaun was asked on camera what he’d do if they won the $30,000 prize money.
“Open Rotorua’s first American-style barbecue restaurant,” was his reply.
Nearly a year after the show went to air, the foodie couple are set to achieve their dream - and in doing so will breathe life back into a former popular Rotorua stomping ground.
Rotorua couple Shaun and Alia Branson won the first TVNZ1 series Cooks On Fire. Photo / Supplied
In December last year, the Bransons were crowned the first winners of the TVNZ1 series Cooks On Fire.
With their prizemoney, they did “adult stuff” like paying bills, went on a “long-overdue” honeymoon to the South Island and invested the rest in their newly established catering business, Black Label Barbecue.
Now they are branching out to open a new restaurant, under the same name as their catering business, where the iconic Lava Bar used to be.
Cooks On Fire, which launches its second series next week, sees teams eliminated through a series of barbecue challenges to find the best backyard barbecue team until there are just two teams remaining in a final cook off.
Alia and Shaun said they didn’t think they’d “ditch their day jobs” and make a living out of Shaun’s Sunday barbecue hobby but here they were. Alia had her own events company and Shaun worked in the automotive industry.
Given Alia’s background in event management and hospitality and a love of gardening and growing her own herbs and produce, the couple feel like their new business is a natural progression.
Why open their new business at the Lava Bar?
Shaun said they were lucky to get a heads up the Lava Bar site was going on the market for lease.
Being locals, they knew the bar as it had been one of Rotorua’s most successful night spots since it opened in 1996.
For what they had planned, a lunch and dinner service from Thursday to Sunday to start with, the site was perfect.
The bar hasn’t been open since 2021 after falling victim to the tourist downturn and Covid lockdowns - impacting not only its local clientele but the overseas market that used to stay next door at the neighbouring backpackers.
The old Lava Bar signs are taken down this week. Photo / Supplied
Not long before it closed, an Auckland property investor had intended to buy the lease for the site, which included the popular nightspot and neighbouring X Base Backpackers, with the intention of leasing it to Tiny Deane’s charitable trust, Visions of a Helping Hand, and Whanau Ora to turn the area into a hub for the homeless - including a medical centre and living quarters.
The backpackers, which was formerly known as Lava Lodge and Hot Rocks Backpackers, shares the same landlord as the former Lava Bar and is now called U Hostel Rotorua.
U Hotel Group chief executive officer and founder Suresh Subramaniam told the Rotorua Daily Post the backpackers had been completely renovated and it was now marketed as a boutique lifestyle hotel that targeted visitors and families. He said it opened the week before Labour Weekend and all 25 rooms were booked out that long weekend.
The custom built smoker that will sit on the deck of Alia and Shaun Branson's new restaurant. Photo / Supplied
Meanwhile, between catering jobs Alia and Shaun have been busy turning the old Lava Bar into their dream business. They had bought a custom-built American-style smoker capable of feeding 500 people that will sit on the deck of the restaurant, slowly cooking the meat for the punters.
Alia said they already had hired a majority of their eight to 10 staff members for when the doors opened in early to mid-December.
She said while Lava Bar was a hit nightclub, their restaurant would be focused on a family-friendly atmosphere and would have things like a pool table, pinball machine and gaming consoles for children.
She joked the restaurant would wind down at the time the old Lava Bar used to come to life.
