Rising costs force closure of Lyall Bay cafe Elements

Tuesday, 9 January 2024

Lower spending and rising costs in everything from insurance to staffing have forced Lyall Bay cafe Elements to be added to the list of Wellington’s closing hospo venues.

The long-running Onepu Rd cafe, near Wellington’s south coast, has confirmed it will not reopen in 2024, although its gift store will open for one week from January 15 from 10am to 3pm daily to clear stock.

“In the current economic climate, passion and effort sadly aren’t always enough as the list of other challenges continues to grow,” owner Angela Slaughter said.

“All the obvious ones like rising labour and supply costs, increases in compliance, insurance, rents, decline in customer spend, through to the not so obvious ones like black Doris plums and great flaky pastry almost being a thing of the past.”

She paid tribute to the staff, past and present, for “epitomising the very best of hospitality” since it opened in 2002.

“Our place in this journey has changed but we hope that there are others behind us that will step up to the plate and continue delivering this for our incredible city,” she said.

“I will be the first one at the table celebrating their success.”

Elements is the latest Wellington hospitality venue to close in recent times. Award-winning restaurant Shepherd announced its closure in October due to rising living costs and changing dining habits as did central city restaurant Field & Green which closed in late-December. And, in August, Wishbone Cafe, with outlets around the city, went into liquidation.

But Wellington City Council spokesperson Richard MacLean said council records showed that cafe licence numbers around the city were “pretty stable” and had been slightly up in the past few months.

“We’ve had plenty of new business registrations over the last few months and equally a number of businesses are closing as well.”