Wellington restaurant Hillside Kitchen & Cellar closes for earthquake strengthening

The building Hillside operates out of has a New Building Standard rating of less than 15 per cent. Photo / Anna Briggs

Hillside Kitchen & Cellar is temporarily closing its doors for earthquake strengthening, but is opening a pop-up restaurant in the meantime.

The Tinakori Rd establishment is just across the road from the Prime Minister's residence in Thorndon.

Jacinda Ardern has even been known to meet journalists at Hillside for interviews.

Its pastel-coloured exterior with a black and white awning is cute and quirky but, like many buildings in the capital city, it is earthquake-prone.

A building is considered earthquake-prone if it is less than 34 per cent of the New Building Standard (NBS).

The building Hillside operates out of has an NBS rating of less than 15 per cent. The deadline for completing the seismic work expires in 2027.

It's one of 468 buildings in Wellington which need strengthening this decade. The expiry dates peak in 2027 when there are 215 deadlines.

Wellington City Council chief resilience officer Mike Mendonça said the spike of expiry dates in 2027 reflected the extensive number of earthquake-prone building notices issued 15 years earlier, along with a recent shortening of deadlines.

New legislation that came into effect in July 2017 meant some buildings in high and medium-risk areas have to be remediated in half the time because of their construction, type, use, or location.

No 241 Tinakori Rd is considered to be in an area of high seismic risk.

Hillside is closing for earthquake strengthening work. Photo / Anna Briggs

Owner and chef Asher Boote said the strengthening work was set to go ahead last year, but the Covid-19 outbreak delayed it.

"This is something we've known about for a long time, it's just kind of part of being in an old building in Wellington."

It's usually difficult to know exactly how long earthquake strengthening projects will take because things can change once engineers actually get to examine the bones of the building.

Boote said they would be closed for at least three months but he was prepared for six.

"It is a big unknown and that's obviously really risky in business but we've always been a pretty agile business."

Hillside is a plant-based restaurant on Tinakori Road in Thorndon. Photo / Anna Briggs

While the Tinakori Rd building is closed, Hillside is opening as a pop-up restaurant at 99 Victoria St in central Wellington.

"As big of an interruption as this is going to be, and it kind of sucks because we're a busy little restaurant that's doing quite well, but given how the last year's been and what we've done in the past, we're kind of excited to shake things up- sorry about the earthquake pun", Boote said.

He is familiar with such operations after running The Ramen Shop as a pop-up restaurant for its first year in business.

Hillside's offering will still include a multiple course tasting menu with wine matches.

It won't offer brunch at its pop-up premises, but it will be open for lunch five days a week including a limited a la carte menu.

Boote hoped it would provide the opportunity for some new people to find the restaurant before heading back to Tinakori Rd in time for spring.