Christchurch hospitality focus. Tancred St / Worcester St: National State-of-Emergency, 29.03.11. Exactly five weeks post 22 February 2011 quake, Under The Red Verandah restaurant restarted as After The Red Verandah, a microcosm of quaked-hospitality in Christchurch. The old two-storey restaurant was damaged by the 22 February 2011 quake & was soon demolished. While dining, some people were cut by flying glass. All that was left: a rubble-heap behind a steel-mesh-fence-cordon.
29.03.11. Orange, plastic, road cones, steel mesh fence cordon. Under The Red Verandah, Tancred St / Worcester St, demolished post Feb 22 quake, national state of emergency
29.03.11. Under the Red Verandah sign, top of demolition rubble, retrieved & nailed to After The Red Verandah fence, national state of emergency
Jake who worked at the restaurant had a lucky escape while drinking coffee outside, when a brick out-building collapsed during the 22 February 2011 quake. He pulled out the hot-water-cylinder with his bare hands & helped work-mates escape. Jake, Luke & Leah were all close to catastrophe in that quake!
29.03.11. Steel mesh fence cordon. Post Feb 22 quake renovations, Under The Red Verandah, Tancred St / Worcester St, national state of emergency
Jake's employer paid him during post-quake limbo weeks, while things restarted. Employers could apply to NZ National government to subsidize several weeks' post-quake lost wages for employees, which provided Jake's limbo wages. (Business interruption insurance). Jake's boss strung Jake along to get labour out of him, when Jake could've been looking for another job. Rotten industrial-relations hadn't changed since I'd stopped labourer work over 10 years before. NZ had a small population, a low-wage-economy. Some were supremely rich of course, stashing wealth in trusts or charities so Inland Revenue couldn't snaffle.
Others in the hospitality-industry lost jobs, especially those in the CBD, which became a NO GO red-zone, check-pointed by NZDF-soldiers & cops during the National State-of-Emergency. During the last couple of weeks before resuming business, Jake helped reshape the next-door cottage as After The Red Verandah, by recycling bricks from the demolished-restaurant, landscape-gardening the back of the new restaurant.
29.03.11. Opening of After The Red Verandah restaurant, 5 weeks post Feb 22 quake, national state of emergency, Tancred St / Worcester St
The Red Verandah wall, chalkboard notice:
AFTER THE RED
VERANDAH
temporary premises
Takeaway, coffee, muffins,
scones, hot soup & sammies.
Enjoy cottage garden
or sit inside.
We can't wait to see you.
Open Tuesday 29th...
Tues 29.03.11: We had lunch at the new restaurant: ham, cheese toasted sandwiches, muffins, tea. Diners enjoyed the new garden ambience. Two brindled, brown pups played in the garden, while people dined, socialized. The old Under The Red Verandah sign, battered, scuffed, torn, was retrieved from demolition-rubble & fastened to the back-fence. While we ate, a yellow-digger next-door dumped rubble into a truck. The digger rumbled, like aftershocks!
29.03.11. Five weeks post Feb 22 quake, opening day garden of After The Red Verandah restaurant, Tancred St / Worcester St, national state of emergency
It was good to see Jake working again, happy with work-mates, tinged with sadness, his best-friend, a pub-worker was killed by the quake in the CBD. A tribute for his friend: mates back on the job remembering him. While we ate, a camera-crew arrived, taking pics. A lady wandered the cottage looking for places to hang new art-works, as the demolished-restaurant had a gallery on the top-floor.
29.03.11. Steel mesh fence cordon. Demolition of Under The Red Verandah restaurant, Tancred St / Worcester St, national state of emergency. Revamped After The Red Verandah restaurant opened the same day
A week after opening of After The Red Verandah, Jake was sacked: smaller restaurant, less customers. Sacked when his NZ National government funded, employee wage-subsidy expired. Sacking Jake, the restaurant lost us as customers. Within six weeks after the quake Jake lost his job twice. After going on the dole, overwintering in a liquefactioned-garage with smelly chemical-toilet & after another flat move, it took Jake six months to find another hospitality job in Christchurch. Due to Jake's nadequate dole, we helped Jake & girlfriend with rent, groceries, washing & storage.
Post 22 February 2011 quake, the hospitality-industry imploded, abandoned hotels trapped in the militarized, red-zone CBD-cordon. Amongst other citizens, hospitality-workers left Christchurch, after closures of pubs, cafes, restaurants, hotels & motels. We didn't leave. Two expat- families offered us holidays in Oamaru or Nelson. But we had to return to Christchurch, as friends, education, business & work contacts were there. Our Burnside rental was intact. Hordes of do-gooders would arrive in Christchurch, helping recovery, but inflating the rental-market. And NZ National government just left the rental-market to market-forces!
*Trekked Worcester St. 17 snaps.
Content & pics Copyright Mark JS Esslemont.
That's just lovely :-) congrats all around for the tenacity.
ReplyDeleteSandy