Edouard Le Goff has done his bit to foster French goodwill in Auckland. 

The owner of popular upper Vulcan Lane bistro Le Chef, is also a director of the city’s French Festival, a four-day, mid-winter affair that attracts as many as 40,000 visitors.

That event may still get the nod by next year, alongside Bastille Day events in July, but Le Chef’s famous Nouveau Beaujolais street party will not as enduring alert level lockdowns continue in the city.

The street party, which can fill up the entire retail block between O'Connell St and High St, is generally held on the third Thursday of November, helping usher the latest Beaujolais into the world.

Last year, the party attracted about 350 locals for a glass (or two) of wine and a canapé, at a fee of $100.

As its name suggests, Beaujolais nouveau comes from the Beaujolais wine region in the northern Rhone Valley of France. 

It’s an area known for its red wines and its new, or ‘nouveau’ wines are sold only months after being pressed. In France, the wines are legally required to be released in the third week of November.

E-scargot business

In advance of the event, the restaurant had already ordered 100 bottles of the wine. Le Goff said those will now be offered to patrons online.

That could be ordered alongside a cheese or charcuterie platter or even with a dozen escargot (snails).

As with many restaurants physically closed during the pandemic response, 'click and collect' business and offering coffees and baked goods at the door has been a lifeline for the restaurant.

That's unlike the neighbouring and equally famous O’Connell St Bistro which shut its doors in May after 26 years in business.

Le Chef confirmed it claims the resurgence payment as well as wage subsidies for its eight staff – about half the staff numbers pre-covid. 

That keeps chef Abhi and the kitchen team fine-tuning the fresh, seasonal menu in the restaurant’s basement kitchen. 

While the menu will be refreshed when the restaurant reopens, it will also be more expensive for diners, he said. 

"Fresh produce, meat and other menu items have gone up a lot, like 20% in the past month alone."

Le Goff, a former bakery manager on the French Riviera, opened the all-day bistro in 2015, his second effort after Victoria St’s Le Rendez-Vous bakery and café was opened a year prior. 

Over the past six years, its popularity has seen it expand while leasing out a separate private dining area across the lane. 

Having copped a recent warning from local police for serving eggs benedict outside to a regular patron, Le Goff would like to see outdoor dining allowed under the current lockdown restrictions.

"We're ready to open whenever we can, and realistically, we'll have only a few weeks to salvage the season."