Hundreds of burgers, thousands of dollars at stake for Wellington on A Plate venues

Wellington venues are worried food could go to waste if lockdown is extended. Photo / Supplied

Hundreds of burgers six months in the planning are sitting in Wellington venues today, while restaurants await the news of possible local cases and alert level shifts this afternoon.

The capital was midway through its biggest month on the culinary calendar, with Wellington on A Plate running from August 1-31.

Burger Wellington – a challenge which sees more than 100 creations from Wellington bars and restaurants – begun on August 13.

On Tuesday, the festival was put on pause as the Government announced a nationwide level 4 lockdown, following the discovery of a community case of Covid in Auckland.

They were expected to make an announcement later today on whether Wellington would remain at alert level 4, although it follows news emerging of possible cases in the region on Friday morning.

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Lydia Suggate co-owns a number of Wellington businesses, including Mockingbird, Bebemos, Beach Babylon and the newly opened plant-based Pizzeria Nolita.

She said hundreds of burgers were prepped and ready to go at all venues.

Nolita owners Maura Rigby (left), Lydia Suggate and Maria Bayle. Photo / Jack Crossland

"Bebemos had just prepped up 600 burger patties to get them through the next two to three days, and Nolita a similar number," she said.

"We were expecting between 1000 and 2000 burgers through each place each week, depending on the venue – I know Beach Babylon does a lot."

They had frozen what they could, but their options depended on the Government's announcement about alert levels later today.

"If we go to level 3 we can start doing takeaways instead of just chucking it away," she said.

"We're making a plan today to decide what we do, whether we look at getting KaiBosh or similar in."

With planning for Wellington on A Plate beginning late last year, Suggate said months of planning, thought and creativity had gone into their burgers and other menu creations this year.

She hoped their efforts would not go to waste, even if Wellington on a Plate could not resume within the next week.

Wellington on a Plate runs throughout August. Photo / Supplied

Festival director Sarah Meikle had said earlier in the week there was the potential the whole month could be extended.

"That's what we're hoping, if we can somehow resurrect it in some way or another, it would be really helpful for hospitality businesses that have already put in the effort and time."

Shepherd co-owner Shepherd Elliot said they had their biggest ever event planned on the Interislander ferry on Sunday.

More than 200 guests were expected at the sell-out event and a huge amount of food preparation had been done on Tuesday before the announcement of lockdown.

"I'm guessing we've got something like 20,000 worth of stock sitting there, because we had a full week of service from Wednesday through to Saturday and we were getting ready for that as well," he said.

He said with Wellington on a Plate, August had become one of their busiest months of the year.

"Of all the months for this to happen, right in the middle of Wellington on a Plate is probably the most disruptive."

Burger Wellington began just a few days before lockdown was announced. Photo / Supplied

Sean Clouston also co-owned a number of venues participating in Wellington on a Plate, including Grill Meats Beer and Bellamy's by Logan Brown.

They had also been planning for a big weekend of burgers, especially at Grill Meats Beer.

"We did around 1000 people there in three days – the Friday, Saturday, Sunday – so we were gearing up for quite a big week and had quite a few big bookings.

"And we had 1000 or so booked at Bellamy's by Logan Brown as well."

Logan Brown had operated as a takeaway service in alert level 3 last year, which he said they had already been looking into in case alert levels changed today.

"We'd probably do that again and we've already had enquiries about it. My neighbour yelled over the fence yesterday when I was outside, 'will you be doing the Logan Brown at yours again?'"

He said that while the lockdown was frustrating, it was comforting to know they had survived it before.

"I guess we know what's going to be on the other side of it this time," he said.

"There was so much uncertainty last April with lockdown with what was going to happen next.

"Everyone was predicting recession and all this doom and gloom and then it went the other way, it went into full party mode for a year."