\u201cYes, absolutely.\u201d<\/p>\n
C\u0101nt\u012bng went into voluntary liquidation this week. The 130-seater that opened in late 2024 as a contemporary Chinese restaurant in Auckland\u2019s Commercial Bay is Watt\u2019s third business collapse.<\/p>\n
True Food and Yoga, the Tamaki Drive food and wellness venture he owned with his now ex-wife, closed in 2018 owing a reported $2.4 million. Japanese-Peruvian restaurant Inca, part of Westfield Newmarket\u2019s rooftop complex, was liquidated in 2023 owing $1.1m.<\/p>\n
On Friday, liquidators Waterstone were still reviewing C\u0101nt\u012bng\u2019s company records but early indications showed debt was about $500,000, including $273,085 to Inland Revenue (IRD), $39,019 to trade creditors and $263,532 to a landlord (who had not yet claimed in the liquidation).<\/p>\n
True Food And Yoga was part restaurant and cafe, part yoga and wellness offering. Photo \/ Guy Coombes<\/p>\n
The Herald understands there is some IRD debt associated with Inca Ponsonby, which continues to trade and is not in liquidation. Waterstone said it was \u201cin the low six figures\u201d, a level it said was small \u201cconsidering the industry and size of the restaurant\u201d.<\/p>\n
Sample social media response to the latest closure: \u201cMust be nice to just constantly run up debt at the expense of your minimum wage employees, the taxpayer and other unsecured creditors and then just not pay, and start again.\u201d<\/p>\n
Watt has always read the comments. But this is the first time he\u2019s responded to them so directly.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m very, very private. I\u2019ve always had the belief that silence is dignified.\u201d<\/p>\n
For the record, he says he paid fair market wages. Only \u201cvery, very junior staff were paid just above the minimum wage, as anybody would pay them\u201d. C\u0101nt\u012bng\u2019s restaurant manager had worked with him across three venues over eight years and he\u2019d had the same head chef since opening.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s certainly not time to hang up my boots. Absolutely not. I love what I do. I\u2019ve got great teams that love what we do, and we\u2019ve got a really, really loyal customer base that love what we do.\u201d<\/p>\n
Last Sunday, at 11.36pm, he processed all outstanding wages and holiday pay. At 11am on Monday, he assembled C\u0101nt\u012bng\u2019s 19 staff and told them the restaurant was closing. In previous weeks, he had restructured his remaining restaurant, Inca Ponsonby, writing off some debt and maintaining it would be \u201cbusiness as usual\u201d for staff and suppliers.<\/p>\n
And now it\u2019s Tuesday. Tonight, 110 restaurants will be named in the inaugural Michelin Guide New Zealand, at a ceremony soaked in caviar, truffles and hopes for the future of hospitality.<\/p>\n
This morning, Watt sits in his restaurant Inca, trying to explain how he ended up with three failed businesses on his bottom line \u2013 and just how hard it is out there right now.<\/p>\n
The 53-year-old father of two earned the \u201ccelebrity chef\u201d label when he came home from London to open SkyCity\u2019s Japanese robata grill restaurant Masu and fronted a six-episode television show Testing the Menu.<\/p>\n
Masu launched in 2013. Prime Minister John Key helped crack open the ceremonial sake barrel; media reported chopstick table settings would be aligned with laser beams and, at the bar, deoxygenated ice cubes would be chipped by hand. Watt was described as \u201cmeticulous\u201d. A man who kept track of the details.<\/p>\n
Guests at the 2013 Masu opening included newsreader Simon Dallow (left) and then Prime Minister Sir John Key, pictured with chef Nic Watt. <\/p>\n
\u201cTrue Food and Yoga … it was 75% yoga and health and 25% food … the yoga model, the yoga studio, couldn\u2019t sustain that venue and, as a result, the cafe component went down with it,\u201d Watt says.<\/p>\n
\u201cI guess there was a lot going on. There was a marriage break-up. My kids were a priority. My daughter has lived with me since she was 12 … I guess I go back to that \u2018silence is dignified\u2019 thing, and wrap my arms around my kids and look to rebuild.\u201d<\/p>\n
In 2019, when he opened Akarana Eatery (on contract, as a consultant) and Inca Newmarket (as a co-owner), Watt told his daughter 2020 was going to be \u201cour year\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cCovid arrived. I\u2019ve got two brand new hospitality venues and the landscape has forever changed.\u201d<\/p>\n
Akarana is still standing. Inca Newmarket was five months old.<\/p>\n
\u201cHuge, huge, huge rentals … with the landlord and the conditions and the demands, Covid killed that.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Auckland team he\u2019d worked with to set up the restaurant was made redundant; all requests were now going through Westfield\u2019s Sydney office and even when customers could come out, they didn\u2019t.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe would walk around the roof terrace and in every restaurant combined there was not enough people to fill one venue. But our lease said we were supposed to open seven days, for lunch and dinner.\u201d<\/p>\n
Nic Watt’s first iteration of Inca, on the rooftop of Westfield Newmarket. Photo \/ Babiche Martens<\/p>\n
Other restaurants did survive Covid. Other restaurants didn\u2019t make headlines when disgruntled staff complained they were out of pocket, even as their former boss went on to open another restaurant.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am very sorry about what happened with the staff,\u201d Watt says. <\/p>\n
\u201cI made an after-liquidation payment through the liquidator of everything that I could. And I\u2019m sorry it wasn\u2019t enough, but I did everything I could. And as my daughter reminded me this morning, you know, we had to sell our house.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve never said that publicly and I don\u2019t want to. Maybe now\u2019s the time. I\u2019m not trying to play a violin. I guess the one thing is the people who know me … I\u2019ve got lots of beautiful messages from my staff at the moment with everything that is going on.\u201d<\/p>\n
At Inca, the front door opens and a delivery man wheels in stock. \u201cHi Nic, invoice is in the truck, I\u2019ll just go grab it.\u201d <\/p>\n
It is very much business as usual here, and also back in the SkyCity precinct where, in the past five weeks Masu has sold out 10 events, including its spectacular seasonal \u201cart of tuna\u201d where chefs carve and cook an 80kg whole bluefin tuna.<\/p>\n
Watt was born in Australia but his childhood moved back and forth across the Tasman. His father was a director of a multinational pharmaceutical company. His mother worked in fashion design and retail. <\/p>\n
\u201cDad was always trying to get back to the Hauraki Gulf … he used to dive for scallops, shuck them and while they were still wriggling, my party trick was to eat them. This is way before I knew about sashimi. I love fresh seafood. I had a passion for fresh seafood.\u201d<\/p>\n
He went to Macleans College and studied hospitality at Manukau Polytechnic because he wanted a ticket to international travel. He worked part time at Parnell\u2019s Oak and Whale and, one day, it included a shift in the kitchen.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s it. I stayed in kitchens.\u201d<\/p>\n
Nic Watt cemented “celebrity chef” status with his television show Testing The Menu.<\/p>\n
At 21, Watt was head chef at Ponsonby Rd\u2019s Chorizo (now Mekong Baby). He worked in Sydney and then followed his seafood passion to Tokyo, staying there two years and becoming fluent in Japanese. Spain was supposed to be next, but he couldn\u2019t face learning another language. London? Gordon Ramsay and Nobu Matsuhisa\u2019s restaurants accepted him for a \u201cstage\u201d (hospo speak for an unpaid trial). Both offered him jobs.<\/p>\n
\u201cNobu was a 180-seater, serving all these crazy celebrities. Shared plates, fast expediting kitchen and I just thought \u2018that\u2019s me\u2019. I\u2019d found my home.\u201d<\/p>\n
Watt went on to Roka, now a global group specialising in robatayaki cuisine; he opened two in London, and one apiece in Hong Kong, Macau and the United States.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut there was a calling to come home. I had two beautiful kids and figured, if I didn\u2019t come home soon, I\u2019d be the expat who never came back.\u201d<\/p>\n
According to credit agency Centrix, hospitality business liquidations are up 47% year on year. In Auckland, recent higher profile casualties include Lesley Chandra\u2019s Sidart, Namu Group\u2019s Gemmi, Gochu and Honeymoon Avenue, and Mimi Gilmour\u2019s BurgerBurger (in voluntary administration but still trading across five sites and on the market for sale as a going concern).<\/p>\n
It was 2023 when Commercial Bay\u2019s Precinct Properties (\u201csupportive and fantastic landlords\u201d) first approached Watt about opening another restaurant.<\/p>\n
\u201cI said no. I had enough going on. I didn\u2019t have the bandwidth … and then there was another discussion in 2024 … the belief from myself and Precinct was that if we opened at the end of the year, we\u2019d get that nice end-of-year lift, and then just gently ride that improved market to a better environment.\u201d<\/p>\n
Remember the meme \u2013 survive till 2025? <\/p>\n
Two \u201cAsian-inspired\u201d restaurants (The Poni Room and P\u014dni) had already closed in the space that became C\u0101nt\u012bng but Watt says Precinct\u2019s research suggested Commercial Bay needed a modern Chinese offering and he had the international experience to deliver just that.<\/p>\n
Mixed dumplings on the opening menu at C\u0101nt\u012bng restaurant in Auckland’s Commercial Bay. Photo \/ Babiche Martens<\/p>\n
The first menu included lemon chicken, black bean beef and duck pancakes alongside mixed dim sum and prosperity rice.<\/p>\n
\u201cI love that style of food, I have a background in it, and economically, it was supposed to be improving. All the logic, all the data, suggested that was the right move,\u201d Watt says.<\/p>\n
\u201cSadly, 2025 didn\u2019t improve. It was harder. It was bleaker … and we tried everything in our power to adjust.\u201d<\/p>\n
The menu shifted from being \u201cbroadly, modern Chinese\u201d to bao buns with Korean fried chicken and sashimi salads. He cut the roster to two chefs and two front-of-house staff. He tried to find a joint venture partner. He developed an entirely new brand \u2013 new name, lower price point, and more casual \u2013 but never got a chance to roll it out.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe really, really dug deep into what that could do and how that could be, but in today\u2019s market … that venue\u2019s just too big.\u201d<\/p>\n
On a Saturday, the restaurant would serve 100 customers; on a Monday, 10 or fewer. The post-Christmas summer was very quiet but autumn was always going to be better for an indoor restaurant. And then America went to war in Iran.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was the start of March and suddenly there is a fuel crisis and hospitality is so linked to consumer confidence. It\u2019s so intrinsically linked. If people feel confident, they will go out for dinner, they might have another glass of wine,\u201d Watt says.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf they\u2019re worried about filling their tank, or the cost of milk or butter, they stop spending in restaurants. And we felt that, and saw that. I was absolutely gobsmacked that one man on the other side of the world could affect my dumpling sales with a single move \u2013 but it\u2019s true.\u201d<\/p>\n
Two weeks ago, Watt knew he had to close C\u0101nt\u012bng.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you have exhausted every possible option, and in detail, then you need to say, \u2018okay, it\u2019s not working\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n
He paid his staff because, he says, this time he could.<\/p>\n
\u201cStaff are key. They\u2019re vital and I am loyal. Despite what anybody thinks, I am loyal to my staff.\u201d<\/p>\n
He recently read a comment suggesting that, perhaps, he didn\u2019t want to do the hard yards.<\/p>\n
\u201cLast year, I had eight days off,\u201d he counters. \u201cPeople have no idea. But, you know, silence is dignified.\u201d<\/p>\n
Perhaps, unsurprisingly, he brushes off too many personal questions. His mental health is \u201cgood\u201d. His friends are \u201cincredibly supportive\u201d. And his current focus is Inca and Masu. <\/p>\n
\u201cI would just implore Auckland diners to continue supporting their restaurants; their neighbourhood restaurants and their CBD restaurants. And remember to be kind. Because we\u2019re all trying to do the best we can.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kim Knight joined the New Zealand Herald in 2016 and is a senior reporter on its lifestyle desk.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cYes, absolutely.\u201d C\u0101nt\u012bng went into voluntary liquidation this week. The 130-seater that opened in late 2024 as a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":508500,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[74,95,138,249957,17400,15557,13840,37113,5342,20494,111,139,162117,2551,69,3111,384,17213,122496],"class_list":["post-508499","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-after","tag-and","tag-business","tag-cntng","tag-collapse","tag-hospitality","tag-like","tag-looked","tag-losses","tag-mounting","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nic","tag-night","tag-nz","tag-out","tag-people","tag-speaks","tag-watt"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/508499","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=508499"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/508499\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/508500"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=508499"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=508499"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=508499"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}