Food rotting inside top Wellington restaurant closed by earthquakes

Dragonfly restaurant in Wellington has lost its Christmas bookings by being caught behind a cordoned-off area of the city. Photo / supplied

Owners of a top Wellington restaurant could be left tens of thousands of dollars out of pocket from last month's earthquake.

Upmarket Asian-fusion restaurant Dragonfly has been forced to temporarily close because it is close to a quake-damaged Tory St car park and inside a safety cordon; wiping out the eatery's Christmas bookings and leaving its fridges full of rotting meat and produce.

Brent Wong, who co-owns Dragonfly with his sister Tania Siladi, is devastated to have the year's busiest trading time swept off the table, having spent the past five years building the business from the ground up.

That's Christmas gone for us. We still have a chiller full of food which we can't get into. We haven't been allowed to go back in. There's a huge amount of food just sitting there, rotting away at the moment.

Brent Wong, restaurateur

"Whenever we do get back into the building, it will be one hell of a cleanup."

Frustratingly for Wong, his restaurant was structurally unaffected by last month's quakes, but it remains behind a cordon in Courtenay Central because of concerns about the neighbouring car park, which looks likely to be demolished.

The closure is part of a number of buildings and roads shut down by the quake, causing disruption to thousands of residents, business and tourists. The Wellington High Court, Defence House, the British High Commission, the council's civic administration building and Ngaio Town Hall are among a growing list of shut buildings.

Waiting for news from council, Wong has been told it could be another month before he can step foot back in his restaurant.

And he can't even claim on his insurance yet, needing to ride out another week of a 21-day quake stand-down period.

"Because there's nothing wrong with our building, it comes down to business interruption insurance. And because it's an earthquake, there's a 21-day stand-down period. So we're by ourselves pretty much," he said.

"It does put a lot of pressure on. We're a busy business so are probably more fortunate than others, but still, once money stops coming in, it makes life a lot harder."

Despite the financial pressures, Wong is sticking by his staff and still paying wages.

"We've worked out a pay package for them," he said. "Staff are half our business and to re-open without them would be an absolute nightmare. It's not their fault this has happened either and a lot of them have been with us for a very long time, so it's a matter of looking after them until we get through.

"We're going to get a pop-up site up and running so that we can offer bookings with another option. Obviously it might not suit their Christmas event, and we'd fully understand that, but we're trying to hold on to those."

Last week it was announced up to 50 Wellington businesses could get Government support, as earthquake relief packages are extended to the capital, so that hospitality and retail businesses inside cordons can pay staff. The support could last for up to eight weeks.

Wong has also been offered help by a local coffee shop, which has offered space to operate out of.

Local attractions have also been affected by the quakes, including the Rimutaka Cycle Trail's Ocean Beach to Orongorongo section being closed.

Wellington's portfolio of conference and performance venues have all been inspected and assessed as safe to occupy, minor clean-up and cosmetic repairs undertaken and are once again fully in operation.

Westpac Stadium is structurally sound and needs a couple of weeks to complete minor repairs.