The Town Ball Restaurant & Ball
Christchurch, New Zealand
An extraordinary venue helps Christchurch bounce back. It’s not every day a four-storey high rugby ball comes on the market. So, when Richard Bethune was looking on a government tender site to replace the two bars he’d lost in Christchurch’s February 2011 earthquake, it seemed like a ready-made opportunity.
There was still much work to be done behind the scenes to ensure the restaurant was ready for kick-off however. The ball was widely known from its previous life as a showcase for New Zealand’s assets. It travelled through Paris, London, Tokyo and Sydney before landing on the Auckland waterfront in time for the 2011 Rugby World Cup. After the victorious celebration from the All Blacks win its work as a travelling exhibition was done. Inspiring Richard, it wound up on a new central city site on Manchester Street in Christchurch.
Here, despite a planned low-key introduction, the venue has become a fashionable destination for the local crowds. Diners and drinkers can make the most of the expansive dining area, with banquette seating, a space for chairs and tables and a bar space. Additional dining can be enjoyed on the mezzanine level above.
To service this area a complex array of spaces and technology was required. Southern Hospitality’s kitchen specialist Tony Bakewell and designer Andrew Hayward worked with the chefs of the Town Ball to ensure quality meals could be delivered to the 200-plus diners the venue can cater to. They recommended Moffat equipment for the fit-out. One of the first big decisions was how to add a dedicated kitchen to the ball’s exterior. Three small portable buildings were joined to create one large 90 square-metre kitchen. A walkway connected this space to the ball for quick, easy access. Custom-built in Auckland and shipped to Christchurch, these portacoms have a unique extraction system, structural engineering requirements and kitchen layout.
In this space an abundance of freshly cooked ‘good, honest Kiwi food’ is produced. While previous enterprises have focused on the bar entertainment scene Richard wanted his new venture to deliver a more diverse range of hospitality attractions. The standard of restaurant food was key to this development. “It’s still a tourist attraction to a lot of people,” Patterson says. “It’s important to us that when people come through the doors, they understand what they can have here; that it’s a restaurant, it’s not a sports bar, but we will put the game on. They can come in for a drink or a coffee. It’s good for families, for a date, you can have a business lunch here, or come in after the game and have a few beers,” she says.
The landscape of Christchurch today is far from ordinary and the emergent post-quake hospitality scene has certainly been dictated by the adage ‘necessity is the mother of invention’. Yet even in this unique and varied environment some key sites stand out. The Town Ball, in size, scope and ambition, looms large. With a passionate team developing and delivering this project the shaken city has it’s game face on again.
The landscape of Christchurch today is far from ordinary and the emergent post-quake hospitality scene has certainly been dictated by the adage ‘necessity is the mother of invention’. Yet even in this unique and varied environment some key sites stand out. The Town Ball, in size, scope and ambition, looms large. With a passionate team developing and delivering this project the shaken city has it’s game face on again.
IN THE KITCHEN
The portacom buildings of the Town Ball were installed with stainless steel benching and kitchen equipment before being shipped to Christchurch. At their final destination the unpacking began and installation was completed. Inside the three buildings a wide-ranging line-up covers all the bases. Fryers, a griddle and chargrill and an eight burner range provide speed and flexibility to the restaurant output. Two Convotherm combi-steamers offer additional power for the chefs.
Assembling the kitchen was a complex, deadline-driven assignment. With a positive, can-do team running the project everything was completed on budget in record time.
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