O’Connell St Bistro owner Chris Upton believes every cloud has a silver lining, even after the award winning restaurant is expected not to reopen until August after last month’s kitchen fire. The silver lining is that other businesses and charities are destined to benefit from O’Connell St Bistro’s misfortune.
The restaurant’s kitchen was gutted during the fire and the bar and dining area sustained significant smoke damage.
Until the reopening, Upton and his team will keep busy with a range of initiatives.
“We’d like to look at assisting other businesses and charities by way of donating the O’Connell Street Bistro team’s skills to worthy causes and businesses while we are closed,” said Upton.
The initiatives Upton and the team are working on include, the team supporting the Flavours of Fiji emergency food and cultural fundraising event in aid of Cyclone Winston, staff have been deployed to other Auckland restaurants within the neighbourhood two days a week, up skilling staff with master classes from the Bistro’s food and beverage suppliers and helping with vintages at various vineyards around Auckland including Waiheke.
Photo credit: Hannah Morgan
