What makes really great restaurant? The people. And, as we celebrate and showcase the strengths of our ever-changing hospitality landscape in this beautiful issue, there have been, and will be, a lot more talented people that find themselves unable to continue to pursue their careers and dreams in these challenging times. Here is just one story.

Dear Kelli

My husband Bruce and I opened up Stanley Avenue Wine Bar in 2020 along with Matt and Kathryn Aitchison. Our belief was the North Shore deserved to have a neighbourhood wine bar serving delicious food and offering a good selection of wines and cocktails. We were delighted to win a Cuisine hat in 2023 .

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Our timing was terrible – we opened after the first Covid lockdown thinking that was a once-in-a-lifetime situation. Little did we know we would have another lockdown and then face an economic recession.

2024 has shown us that we can’t achieve the number of diners that we needed to break even, so we have decided to close our doors.

The average weekly number of diners has fallen significantly in recent months: inflation, increasing mortgage interest rates and the economic recession has left people with no spare cash and we face continual bad stories in the media of what we should be expecting in the future.

Overheads have increased significantly: our rubbish contract is facing a 7% increase, insurance premiums have tripled, wage costs keep on increasing, power, water and rates have all increased and we needed to sign a new three-year lease with lockedin future rental increases.

A week ago we announced that we were closing and from the time that email went out we have been fully booked. I believe it’s a genuine feeling of, ‘Oh no, you are going and we love this place so much’. On Tuesday night a diner left a $1000 tip for the staff…

Our regulars can’t believe that we are closing but we are because the support wasn’t there. I think people have forgotten that they need to support local for us and others to survive.

We are gutted for our team – the joy in receiving a Cuisine hat in 2023 was amazing and they were absolutely sure they had it nailed for 2024. Jono Beattie, our chef, said that he has worked years to achieve this and it was such an honour.

Lesley Baillie

My heart goes out to the wonderful people behind Stanley Avenue. Lesley’s words will hopefully remind us all that we must not take our talented hospo teams for granted. There is no better time to support the restaurants, cafés, hotels and bars that you truly love. Don’t wait for a special occasion. Read on and eat well.