Mod­ern Opera

Opera Kit­chen, bring­ing together the best of the Hawkes Bay. Pho­tos: Brian Culy. Cover story from issue 106 with addi­tional images.

Some wag once declared that music with din­ner is an insult both to the cook and the viol­in­ist. That’s ok, because at Opera Kit­chen the music is next door, in the big room – the refur­bished Hast­ings Opera House.

Opera Kit­chen, from court­yard. Photo © Brian Culy.

That pro­ject included the res­tor­a­tion of the Theatre and Muni­cipal Build­ings, as well as the pro­vi­sion of a foyer that could incor­por­ate hos­pit­al­ity spaces. The vacant space, which, was ori­gin­ally an old lawn­mower work­shop, even­tu­ally became Opera Kit­chen.

In recent years, Hast­ings has not been par­tic­u­larly well known as a cul­tural centre, but this coup­ling of Opera House with excep­tional café facil­it­ies goes a long way to chan­ging any mis­con­cep­tions about the city. Jen­nifer Le Comte is no stranger to the hos­pit­al­ity industry hav­ing worked at Met­ro­pole and Vin­nies in Auck­land, before own­ing Cru­cial Traders in Kings­land, Auck­land. She says that when estab­lish­ing Opera Kit­chen, they “came in late”, after the phys­ical devel­op­ment of the opera house had been completed.

The col­our­ful Tototo chairs, with their odd assort­ment of bright col­ours, add a sense of fun to the space. Photo © Brian Culy.

“With the floor and walls stripped bare and the rafters exposed, the ori­ginal char­ac­ter of the place has been clev­erly pre­served and at the same time, mod­ern­ised by Roger Shand.” Le Comte didn’t use a spe­cial­ist com­merial interi­ors prac­tice to set up the kit­chen, rather she drew on the cre­ativ­ity of the “fant­astic cre­at­ive tal­ent we have in Hawke’s Bay”.

“Rakai Kara­tiana col­lab­or­ated with local artist Leanne Culy to cre­ate our stun­ning art­work, the lady boun­ti­ful, which hov­ers over our com­munal din­ing table.” That large, industrial-style table is a mod­i­fied rem­nant from a local freez­ing works. The extra large David Trub­ridge Kina light was made espe­cially for Opera Kitchen.

“At 1600mm wide its grace­ful shape softens the hard edge of the stain­less table below," says Le Comte. “The bar and counter were designed and built by Greg Rabitte, work­ing out of the Trub­ridge stable Cicada work­shop. He clev­erly used the rem­nant product from the man­u­fac­ture of our light for the counter cladding.”

Opera Kit­chen interior. Photo © Brian Culy.

Selec­ted credits:

Cli­ent Opera Kit­chen
Archi­tect (base build) Shand Shel­don
Fit-out con­tractor Mor­gan Build­ers
Win­dow and door join­ery Rab­bitte Join­ery
Graphic design Rakai Kara­tiana from Aroha Lam­our
Light­ing David Trub­ridge; James Suth­er­land
Fur­niture Thonet (chairs)
Art Leanne Culy/Rakai Kara­tiana

The march­ing girls are not Opera Kit­chen reg­u­lars, the shot was set up by pho­to­grapher Brian Culy. Photo © Brian Culy.

Opera Kit­chen — street view. Photo © Brian Culy.

– ProDesign

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