Emma Ogilvie and partner Nick Landsman opened Bar Celeste in 2019. Photo / Babiche Martens
Emma Ogilvie and partner Nick Landsman opened Bar Celeste in 2019. Photo / Babiche Martens
Bar Celeste in Auckland will close in June.
The venerated eatery opened on Karangahape Road in 2019.
Owners Nick Landsman and Emma Ogilvie hinted at future projects.
Popular central Auckland wine bar and neo-bistro Bar Celeste will close next month.
After five years of operating on Karangahape Rd, business owners Nick Landsman and Emma Ogilvie announced on Instagram they were winding down the business.
“After five incredible years, Bar Celeste will be closing its doors on14 June. We’re so grateful to everyone who has dined with us, supported us, and helped make this little spot on K Rd feel like home,” they said.
“There are still a few weeks to go – we’d love to see you for one last drink and to share a proper farewell."
Landsman and Ogilvie opened Bar Celeste in 2019, taking over the space formerly occupied by Revel Cafe.
The relaxed wine bar was the couple’s first bricks-and-mortar operation, though they’d already built a loyal following in Auckland through their pop-up dinners under the banner La Peche Projects.
That same month, Canvas restaurant reviewer Kim Knight visited the eatery and described the restaurant’s signature dessert, a chocolate ganache served with flaky sea salt and olive oil, as “less of a pudding and more of a small, chocolatey bridge between how we used to eat and how we’d like to eat now”.
Though their menu largely centred around modern reworkings of classical French dishes such as carottes râpées and bavette steak with beurre maitre d’hotel and jus, reflecting their time living and working in Paris, the couple also included culinary influences from closer to home.
A version of raw fish salad ota ika was often available on the menu as an homage to Ogilvie’s Tongan heritage.
To meet market conditions during its half-decade in business, the restaurant adapted its approach a number of times. During the Covid-19 lockdowns, the restaurant operated under the name Cantine, a takeaway-only model that served burgers, sandwiches and cookies.
Bar Celeste's Oyster Happy Hour was a favourite with punters.
Last winter, the restaurant rebranded as Pizzeria Celeste, a seasonal pizza bar pop-up serving New Haven-style pizzas and organic wines.
Returning to its wine bar format in September 2024, the restaurant launched promotional campaigns to encourage business, including an Oyster Happy Hour in which the bivalves were offered for $3.50 each Wednesday-Saturday between 5pm and 6pm.
Deputy editor Johanna Thornton praised the restaurant’s adaptability and stated, “there’s no better place to enjoy a glass than Celeste’s outdoor tables in the early evening sun”.
The closure sees Bar Celeste join a growing list of venerated Auckland eateries winding down their operations in recent months.
In December 2024, a quarterly report from the Restaurant Association of New Zealand outlined that national restaurants and cafes sales reached $1.8 billion, down 2.5% year on year, “underscoring continued challenges for dine-in services as customers tighten discretionary spending”.
The report stated that 57% of surveyed Restaurant Association members reported worse or significantly worse profitability compared to the same period in the year prior.
A downturn in customer numbers was cited as the biggest challenge for operators, with 38% of respondents identifying it as their primary concern.
Announcing the closure of Bar Celeste the hospitality duo hinted at potentially re-visiting the format in years to come.
“While this chapter is coming to a close, we’re looking forward to carrying what we’ve built at Bar Celeste into future projects – and we hope to cross paths with many of you again soon."
Landsman and Ogilvie also operate Gloria’s, a sandwich deli in Downtown Auckland’s Commercial Bay precinct.
The daytime eatery first opened in 2022, a few doors down from Bar Celeste on Karangahape Rd, taking over the space that formerly held their natural wine shop, Star Wines.
