From Wellington ‘dead zone’ to hospo hot spot

Friday, 24 January 2025

With new stores and cafés moving to a recently developed central city back street, there are hopes the lane will soon become a “hospo hub” for Wellington.

Finally freed from the scaffolding that covered it, the alleyway between Victoria St and Willis St has seen an influx of new tenants since construction ended including a gourmet pie shop, a pre-owned clothing boutique and a newly minted café.

The space, which runs parallel to Edward St ‒ home of Little Beer Quarter and Meow ‒ has been called one of Wellington’s most up-and-coming areas by Crown Commercial co-founder and director David Grant.

Grant said the alleyway ‒ which is opposite the McDonald’s on Manners St ‒ will turn into a new hospitality hub for the central city.

Gen Z vintage store Preloved Charlies has set up shop at its entrance. The fashion boutique will be sharing its space with Emporio Coffee from mid-February when the coffee shop moves there from its former Abel Smith St location, he said.

Grant said the shop space that used to be Life Pharmacy would be split into multiple tenancies.

The space’s two landlords are collaborating on its look, he said, stringing outdoor lights between the buildings, and there were plans to add outdoor tables, chairs and umbrellas.

Three street food operators would be added to the mix, he said.

“It's kind of got the makings of quite a strong little hospitality cluster, because when you feed through to the end of that lane, you've got Little Beer Quarter, and Tatsushi restaurant as well.

“It's kind of almost reminiscent of what happened with Eva Street and Leeds Street around there a few years back.”

The area had been “a bit of a dead zone,” he said, but was quickly becoming one of Wellington’s hot hospo spots, the real estate agent said.

“I think it’ll be good for the area.”

Emporio confirmed it would be moving to the Victoria St site, with Mojo coffee marketing manager Christian Hermansen saying the “Emporio At Home” store would open February 17.

The store would be modelled on a boutique coffee hub, and would stock Emporio’s home blend coffee and single origin coffees, also serving espresso, filter, and batch brew coffee for people daily.

“We’re excited to have a new flagship store right in the heart of Wellington,” Hermansen said.

Gourmet pie shop Salut Pies is currently based on the Victoria St lane, having moved to Wellington in August.

Owner Carey Player said the store was enjoying the capital.

“It’s really good, it’s really coming through.“

She and her partner Joe Player first started their venture in Ōtaki, where the two opened a bakery so they had a place to get a decent coffee, she said.

The couple both come from hospitality backgrounds, so opening their own eatery made sense.

The bakery’s most popular pie flavour in Wellington was the beef brisket, she said. Previously, the bakery had offered new pie flavours daily. Now, the the menu changed seasonally.

With a number of different flavoured pies on offer, including mac and cheese and eggs Florentine, there was always something bubbling in the kitchen, she said.

Opposite Salut Pies, Atrium Café opened its doors less than a week ago.

Co-owner Sam Ren said the café was currently only offering cabinet food, coffee and drinks until the kitchen was fully finished.

Ren, who has worked as a chef for a decade, said once completed, the eatery would provide “Kiwi style brunch food”.

He and co-owner Bing Wong had their eyes on the site for a while, Ren said, since the year before when it was previously Kuikui Lane gin bar.

Coffee was made from beans roasted by Good Fortune Coffee in Petone.

While Ren acknowledged the state of the hospitality industry, saying it was affected by the economy being in a tough place, he said they would work hard to overcome it.

The building’s landlord had been extremely supportive of them and the café, he said.

“Hospo is always hard, but people can make it successful. You just keep moving, keeping working.”

Preloved Charlies owner Mikaela “Mikey” Venimore said the fashion store had opened its second store on Victoria St in November.

She took on the lease due to the development of the location, and was loving it, with strong foot traffic flowing up Victoria St from other fashion stores in the area, she said.

She was looking forward to Emporio and the other eateries setting up shop.

“It’ll be nice.”