Wellington’s Cuba St eatery Ekimburger set to close

Monday, 12 May 2025

An iconic eatery in the heart of Wellington, Ekimburger, is closing after its owners revealed the lease would not be renewed.

The eatery’s closure was “just another really sad story around the demise of Cuba St,” one of its owners said.

The owners of the eatery - Ashleigh and Dion Price - revealed the “bittersweet news” in an announcement on social media.

“After only 6 months of trading as the new owners, Ekimburger will close for good on Monday 19th May,” they said. “Our landlords, in their wisdom, have chosen not to renew our lease.”

Ashleigh Price told Stuff that they bought the Cuba St venue in November with the understanding the lease would be renewed in late April.

“So for the last sort of 6 months we’ve been working really hard, tidying the place up. We repainted the bus with new signwriting, we bought all new furniture for for the place,” Price said.

“It’s been a really, really exciting time for us, and we are gutted that we are now having to undo everything that we’ve just done.”

Ashleigh said the closure was “really devastating” for staff, as they had just employed a “gaggle” of university students, and the manager was just a year and a half short of retirement.

But she said it was a bad time for Wellington, because many public servants had lost their jobs - causing a lack of foot traffic on Cuba St, which Price said was an iconic venue for tourists.

“It used to be so Bohemian and interesting and vibrant, you know, and Ekimburger contributed to that,” she said. “Now it's just another really sad story around the demise of Cuba St.”

Price said they’d invested a lot of money into the business, but won’t get any of it back.

They bought the business not knowing if it would be profitable due to rising costs from suppliers.

“We would have really liked the opportunity to see whether we could have made a go of it, to see whether we could have turned the business around and made it profitable,” she said.

“But we weren’t given that opportunity and we’re certainly not going to make any money. We’re gonna lose money because it’s just been six months.”

The landlords had given Ekimburgers until October to vacate the property, after what is expected to be a tough winter.

“If we’d been able to negotiate a new lease … we had big plans for having more covered areas and installing heaters so that we could be profitable during winter,” Price said. “There’s no point basically in doing any of that now.”

Price said they’re not looking to relocate the business due to the bus they operate out of being immobile. They had explored their options, but the high cost of getting a new venue was “sky high,” she said.

“We’re going to cut our losses,” Price said. “If anybody comes up with any miracle suggestions, we’re certainly all ears.”

The last day to have a feast at Ekimburger is this Sunday.

“If anybody wants to try an iconic burger, you’ve got a few days left,” Price said.