Whanganui restaurant Spice Guru has moved to a temporary location after a fire ripped through its premises a couple of weeks ago.
Their restaurant at the bottom of Victoria Ave has been closed since September22 after a spark from an appliance started the fire, damaging a section of the kitchen and the roof.
It has temporarily moved to 209 Victoria Ave, the former home of Food Infuzion, where its will be serving takeaways only.
Owner Raman Chauhan expects to be there for the next four to five weeks while the restaurant is repaired.
Chauhan, who has been stuck in Auckland since the start of lockdown, said it has been an extremely stressful time.
"I can't go anywhere. I am struggling because I am supposed to be in Whanganui and sorting this out."
He said he has applied for exemptions five times hoping he would be granted permission to leave Auckland, all of which have been denied.
The timing of the fire couldn't have been much worse, just weeks after leaving lockdown.
"We are struggling, but we still have to keep it going. I'm still paying rent for the old building, we are just trying our best to continue and in a few weeks we will be back."
Four full-time staff will be working over the next four weeks, with casual staff to return when the sit-down restaurant is back up and running.
"Once we get back, Christmas time will be approaching and we will be getting busy."
He applauded the work of Spice Guru manager, Nav, for steering the ship while he is stuck in Auckland.
"I have a very good manager. She has handled everything. She has handled it so brilliantly it has made my life easy with all this tension in Auckland. She has done such a great job, I am so happy I have good staff.
"We can't wait to be back."
Spice Guru will be open seven days a week at 209 Victoria Ave from 5pm till late.
