NEW ZEAL AND
MALOVELLOUS With a fresh approach to the bountiful food and wine of Hawke’s Bay a new Havelock North restaurant is fast carving out its own niche from within a bold new hospitality development.
The new five-star Porters Boutique Hotel is owned by the families of David Mackersey and Andy Lowe, two Hawke's Bay businessmen with a vision for the future of the region. As well as 32 rooms and 10 suites the $25 million development has a retail hub, commercial office space and, at it’s heart, a plush new restaurant and bar – Malo. “It’s certainly different from what’s been there in the past,” says David. “We wanted to make a name for the restaurant as much as
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for the hotel. It (Malo) needed to match the quality of the five-star Porters. In other words, it had to deliver more than the standard hotel breakfast, lunch and dinner.” “One of the main initial focuses was therefore coming up with a sophisticated, clean interior finish in the restaurant and an equally tidy and usable space in the kitchen,” says David. The two developers had considerable experience to call on when scoping the restaurant for what was needed, and where. After starting off at Craggy Range’s Terroir Restaurant, Jackson Smith moved to Sydney in 2012 to work at the acclaimed Gastro Park. Shifting back to the Hawkes Bay with his young family Jackson again took up at Terroir before the opportunity to run the Malo kitchen arrived.
| Connection Q2 2017 |