Who’d be brave enough to open a restaurant in Queenstown in 2024? These three couldn’t pass up the opportunity, writes Jo Elwin.
With a hospitality industry on life support, it’s hard to comprehend the number of new openings in Queenstown. When I suggest to Jonathan Bisley, who has owned the
Jonathan bought what was Ivy and Lola’s on Steamer Wharf knowing that he could overcome the challenge of the site’s small kitchen because it sits directly below the Flame kitchen, which can feed 22 people every 15 minutes – up to 400 people a night. It’s a beast that grills a tonne and a half of ribs and 400kg of the finest aged, handpicked steak a week, rotisseries 60 chickens a day, produces house-smoked bacon and sausages and still has plenty of room for the seafood, salad and burger side of the menu. With a past in food and meat manufacturing systems, Jonathan, who also founded the Good Taste Company, has created a phenomenal kitchen that he says is designed to make people’s lives easier. The expansive kitchen has capably taken on Sunfire’s prep requirements, freeing up the small downstairs kitchen for the finishing of dishes.
The heart of the Sunfire kitchen is a Josper. Jonathan says the Spanish charcoal oven has energised him and executive chef Shane Avant, who work together on menu development and are enjoying the trial and error of 350-degree cooking.
The Josper gives Sunfire a point of difference, which is vital in the competitive Queenstown restaurant scene. It enables the chefs to use different produce to that upstairs, maximise quality ingredients and, because the Josper imparts good flavour, elevate the more humble, such as cabbage and courgette. Supply is tricky down south and Jonathan relies on his enduring relationships with meat, seafood and vegetable suppliers.
Remarkable Mushrooms adorn a silky mushroom parfait that you would swear contained chicken livers and Jonathan also notes exceptional local strawberries and greens saying: “We source the best we can locally and head elsewhere where required – the crudo would be nothing without Ruakākā kingfish, which is expensive but caught sustainably and amazing quality.”
With 90 staff across both restaurants, Jonathan has also addressed accommodation issues by renting five houses within walking distance. He says this has made a massive difference to staff availability, making life easier for Shane and general manager Chris Hogan, who say they have a great crew that Jonathan insists works a maximum 45-hour week.
“If you let people work more hours, they get exhausted and become miserable and we have very few people on salaries to avoid anyone working more hours than they are being paid.”
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.The work environment is fun and fair, and word is out because they now have people specifically wanting to work for them. “We had no one leave the kitchen last year,” says Shane. “That’s unheard of.”
“Yes, it would have been easier not to open a new restaurant,” laughs Jonathan. “But it is a way of keeping good people – Sunfire is a way of evolving and offering personal growth. The assistant manager at Flame is now restaurant manager at Sunfire, the chefs get to cook different food and people can move around. It’s exciting and it’s testing people.”
Jonathan is a slick operator and is hoping the principles that have made Flame successful will do the same for Sunfire. “When I bought Flame, everyone said, ‘Whatever you do, don’t change it because everyone loves it.’ So we changed everything without changing anything. We worked hard on improving quality and consistency while ensuring that the food remained accessible and tasty. It’s all word of mouth, we do very little marketing and have amazing local support.”
Handlebar, Frankton
Across town on the far edge of Frankton’s industrial area, locals are also propping up Handlebar, a wee 35-seat eatery by chef Jay Sherwood, who says he too was presented with an opportunity. Landlord Henry van Asch was developing Bike Matrix – a biking community space in a new building that required a food offering. Having known Sherwood through his years heading up the La Rambla kitchen (previously Amisfield), Henry’s approach got him thinking it was time to do his own thing and it was the location that decided what that thing would be. “Henry was very patient with me,” says Jay.
“There was a lot of thinking about what would work here in a post-Covid world. It was a little bit of blind luck, but I am feeling fortunate with my location because we are not relying on tourists and facing the parking problems that town is. There are a lot of workers around here and small business owners, so we currently open Monday through Friday for breakfast and lunch and until eight on Thursday and Friday evenings for after-work drinks. We had 12 people from a joinery company having breakfast today and they’ll probably be back for drinks later in the week. It was not what I was anticipating but it works.”
Jay’s success is due in part to a menu tailored to suit these customers. Everything is made in-house, from the cinnamon rolls, doughnuts and breakfast rolls that accompany well-made coffee for breakfast to the meats and bacon cooked on the Texas-style offset smoker in the front courtyard. The brioche buns, succulent slow-cooked meats, pickles and a killer barbecue sauce that make up a selection of American-style sandwiches are all Sherwood’s handiwork, which he’s reluctant to describe as American barbecue because he doesn’t like to restrict any creativity.
Weekly specials go anywhere from Philly cheesesteaks to smoked lamb souvlaki to fish and chips – a popular choice with those Friday knock-off drinks. A small onsite brewery keeps the beer taps flowing and provides another point of difference.
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
As a Californian, the chef says he has always liked the concept of the American diner with their open kitchens and has modelled Handlebar that way.
“I like the dialogue that occurs between chefs and their customers. It happens in Japanese restaurants too. There is an openness, and I get a lot out of having conversations with regular customers, it keeps me motivated and connected. We have a lot of cool people coming in. Some work and live here, others come from Arrowtown or the wider Queenstown area. A lot of us have kids who go to school together. It feels like a community. Diners are also very egalitarian – anyone from street sweepers who kick off their dirty boots before they come in, to people rolling up in their Rangies … that is what I am craving, I want it to be very inclusive.”
Jay takes great strides to keep the menu accessible and reasonably priced. “It is important to me to provide good value to my customers. People are paying their mortgages and trying to get through and, with that in mind, doing things like making my own bacon, bread and beer helps with my margins and food costs and allows me to price things on the menu at a good value. There is no table service. You order at the till, take a seat and we deliver the food to the table. It keeps things casual and means your bap costs $16, not 20.”
Being a one-man band in the kitchen with one person helping front-of-house means a lot of early mornings for Jay, which he says he’s okay with. “I have never had a problem working on my feet and the fatigue level has not been a factor yet. I am pretty motivated with this opportunity and, just as I may struggle with other tasks, making bread in the morning and cooking all day … it’s my thing. I have my evenings back so I get to hang with my 5-year-old son before he goes to bed, and he enjoys coming to Handlebar in the afternoons – that doesn’t happen when you are working in someone else’s restaurant. I’m his dad, I am a chef and I want him to feel like this is an extension of home. It feels really good,” says the 39-year-old.
Toast & Oak, Shotover
Downtown on Shotover Street, four of Queenstown’s hospitality professionals, including Italian Giulio Barducci and Frenchman Romain Cunat, opened Toast & Oak in April just in time for a tough winter season. They laugh that they are too new to know what slow means for this restaurant, but they have received a warm welcome.
Locals who have enjoyed the team’s expertise and professionalism in other establishments have been quick to support them. They have found a regular wine industry clientele through Giulio’s expansive wine list that runs to over 350 bottles with 65 available by the glass. A fully qualified sommelier, Giulio says he’s had a lot of fun putting together a list of wines from around the world that you will not see elsewhere. “Our motto is drink wine, not labels – we want to find something that you have never tried or heard of.” Romain adds: “We don’t have an absurd amount of Central Otago wine but we have the essentials. We want to leave room for Marlborough, for France, Austria, Lebanon, Argentina, Italy … We have a Sangiovese from 1982. The oldest wine in the cellar is 1965.” There is something for everyone from $15 to $42 a glass.
In Europe, Toast & Oak would be called a wine bar but they have found that New Zealanders don’t associate quality food with a wine bar so they have settled on a restaurant that encourages people to enjoy a drink and a snack as much as a full meal. Giulio, who is also the head chef, says the food is European in style: “We put less ingredients on the plate and get the most out of them … elevating them to create very flavourful food.”
Romain, who likes to work the floor, says they are careful not to say high-end. “Casual fine dining is maybe the best description. We want people to feel comfortable and at home. Even if they know nothing about wine, we will guide them. I have a lot of passion for service and we ultimately care about giving a great experience that is seamless. We don’t think New Zealanders are looking for formal fine dining which is impersonal. Here we are creating relationships and people come back for that. We remember their name and what they drink. Our service sets us apart.”
Romain and shareholder Hayden Davison also own The Locker Room Sports Bar down the road, where Romain says they have the same philosophy. “We engage our customers, and we care about them. They know that we are happy to see them.”
Staffing hasn’t been a problem with Romain, Hayden and another shareholder Jeremy Weinberg working front-of-house alongside Jeremy and Giulio’s wives. Other staff have approached them because they were looking for something different. Kitchen staff were harder to find but Giulio says chefs are responding to what they are doing. “They have the opportunity to make food that is creative, they like that it is ever-changing and that their ideas are welcomed.”
Giulio’s evolving lunch, snacks and dinner menu doesn’t give too much away, simply listing the two hero ingredients in each dish and giving the floor staff the opportunity to talk guests through the finer details. A dish listed as “fish & courgette” is a Cook Strait kingfish expertly butchered into a tomahawk, cooked skin on a hibachi grill, with a courgette roll filled with lemon-whipped ricotta, Koji risotto, oxidized sunflower seeds, kingfish belly tartare, rooibos and aperol gel, and smoked clam veloute. “Complex and simple at the same time,” Giulio says proudly.
Prices are reasonable to encourage diners, with the pair reiterating that they want people to feel comfortable in their mid-sized restaurant that has a 16-seater private dining room; cosy, intimate dining on one side of the bar and more casual, but no less opulent dining the other with a wall of windows that takes in the Remarkables. A wine cellar with a dramatic 300kg schist table will be used for wine tastings, winemaker dinners are happening, and oenophiles are gathering. The pair are excited about where Toast & Oak could head but contain themselves.
“Step-by-step,” they say. “Our focus is on doing what we are doing properly.”
More dining out
From Auckland’s hidden gems to the South Island’s very best.
Maison Vauron Celebrates 25 Years As New Zealand’s Home Of French Wine & Cheese. Founders Jean-Christophe Poizat, Scott Gray, and Peter Ropati reflect on where they started and where they’ve come.
Jesse Mulligan: Is This Karangahape Rd Restaurant One Of The Best Openings Of 2024? St. Marg’s is on an iconic Karangahape Rd corner.
The Best Casual Eats, Drinks & Takeaways On Waiheke Island. A tour of the laidback eateries that are loved by locals is a fun way to sample more of what the island has to offer, writes Leisha Jones.
The Best Places To Eat & Drink In Queenstown, From Buzzy Bars To Beautiful Lakefront Restaurants. Jo Elwin has been surveying Queenstown’s restaurant scene to bring you this updated ‘best of’ list, which highlights old favourites and some welcome newcomers.
Where To Eat, Drink & Play In Wānaka For A Weekend. Consider this your travel guide.
