Steve and Anna’s brand new restaurant adds sparkle to the village strip. Picture: Bruce Morris
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]]>It may sound an odd trek to deliver one of the world’s most popular food choices to a local audience. But Marcelo (pictured here), one of the two Brazilians behind Taco Loco café at 847 New North Rd (where Sprout once lived), reckons it will all be worth it in the end.
He left Brazil in 2002 in his mid-20s and headed for Portugal, where he got on-the-job training as a chef. Three years later, with valuable kitchen time behind him, he was back in his home country – and quickly deciding he had to get out and see more of the world.
He settled on New Zealand, coming here to learn to speak English, and found himself in the kitchen of a Ponsonby Rd restaurant for six years, teaming up with fellow Brazilian Roger Mordes.
They both loved Mexican food (taste buds provoked by Roger’s three years in Mexico) and, with cooking guidance from two Mexican friends, started testing Kiwi palates at Auckland night markets in carpark buildings across the city. But on top of day jobs, it was a lot of work for small reward.
So they turned to a cheap caravan (bought on Trade Me, of course), refitted it as a food wagon and found much more in their pockets by plying their Mexican food trade at events and markets and catering for special occasions
Long story short: the food truck became a regular at the Mt Albert Friday night food market and the lads, with supportive wives, jumped at the chance to take up the Sprout lease.
They started trading in a low-key way, serving just coffee for the first week or two. But now they’ve moved to stage two: seven-days-a-week (6.30am-3pm Monday to Friday; 8am-3pm Saturday and Sunday) for breakfast and lunch with menu items like huevos rancheros (eggs, tortilla and beans), quesadillas, tacos, chilli con carne and, of course, nachos.
Stage three is just around the corner – opening Friday nights to coincide with the regular food market and then, when summer arrives, they hope to extend evening trade to Wednesday-to-Sunday, closing about 10pm.
No liquor licence yet, but it may not be too far away. Marcelo is anxious, though, to let locals know he’s not setting up a pub.
Taco Loco (“crazy taco”) will in time be a relaxed family-oriented café where people can enjoy a beer or glass of wine with their nachos and quesadillas. He’s aiming for a bubbly, friendly atmosphere with reasonable prices where everyone is out the door by 10pm.
“The food will be everything – the best fresh ingredients with the Mexican flavours we have spent a long time perfecting,” says Marcelo. “I make the best chicken quesadillas!”
Are he and Roger just a little worried that locals won’t take to their version of another country’s cuisine?
“We started with no money and we learnt a lot as we went along,” he says. “It was a struggle. But we know the food we make is great and we also know that everything is going to be all right.”
Bruce Morris
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]]>Steve and Anna Gough went off to Port Douglas for a break away from the kids – and came back with a plan for a new Mt Albert restaurant.
Away from distractions in the North Queensland resort, they found time to bounce around ideas. Even time to check out Trade Me listings and zero in on a new lease available in the village strip next door to Triniti of Silver.
Back they came to Mt Albert (via reconnaissance missions to plenty of Port Douglas bar/restaurants) and before long had tied up a deal in a section of a building that once hosted the local post office.
The Goughs are the inspiration and energy behind Albert’s Post at 911A New North, a “pizza bar” which after months of refitting, reshaping and paperwork has just opened its doors.
The new business certainly adds more sparkle to the village strip and gives confidence that some sort of gentrification process to change the face of the town centre is not a pipe-dream.
Of course, Albert’s Post has landed right in the middle of the messy and dawdling upgrade, with work outside the restaurant’s doors likely to be a challenge to customer flows in late spring and early summer.
It’s a battle for anyone setting up a new business when wages have stopped flowing and finance costs are kicking in, but Steve and Anna are ready to ride through hard times to give Mt Albert something totally new to enjoy in the future.
A venture like this had been a vision in the Gough household for a year or two and, while many romantics eyeing their own business might have wondered at launching an expensive and wearying project with four children aged between two and seven (twins) to care for, they figured the time was as right as it would ever be.
The result: a bright, expansive, modern restaurant with an airy fit-out that focuses on simple well-cooked food, with an emphasis on pizza – and a bar specialising in craft beers.
Steve (42) is a craft beer nut (yes, of course he brews his own) who has used his finance skills in corporates like Deloitte, Fonterra and Lion. He’s a Wellingtonian by birth and, after three years in Amsterdam, came back to New Zealand to settle in Auckland in 2004, ending up in Mt Albert.
Shortly after, he met Anna, whose marketing career had brought her from Christchurch to Auckland (connecting via mutual friends at Ponsonby’s Whisky Bar if you must know) and they were engaged six months later.
After a year in Europe, back they came to Mt Albert and everything started to fit into place – house, jobs, marriage and babies.
Anna discovered the satisfaction of owning her own business when she and a friend set up a public relations company, and the move into a joint enterprise with Steve was a natural progression.
That brief holiday in Port Douglas gave them the focus, and a flying visit to Sydney to watch over a cousin of Anna’s who has her own pizza restaurant helped Steve to fill in some of the knowledge gaps from their endless research.
Behind them every step of the way has been Anna’s dad Lloyd, flying to Auckland from Christchurch every week and blending skills as a typical Kiwi home-handyman with his wide management background in the liquor industry.
Albert’s Post is a classic small business example of rolling up your sleeves and getting on with the job – right down to Anna and Lloyd doing their own parking surveys to satisfy the council the business ticked all the boxes.
It’s a risk starting any new business, certainly in the food and hospitality area, and the Goughs have plainly invested more than time and energy into their project.
Hopefully it will offer inspiration to others – following in the footsteps of fairly new village businesses like Good Thing, Retro Addiction and Vinny’s – and help lead the way to a more inviting village strip.
– Bruce Morris
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