The owners of El Humero head hunted us to undertake the construction of their consented project for a Colombian style BBQ restaurant. Having close ties to Colombia, the owners explained that they were having real difficulty in explaining their design to an architect for what they had in mind.

Having lived in Colombia, South America for just over a year, I knew exactly what they were wishing to achieve, so along with a chosen architect, I guided him in the design aspect, which was complex. The reason being, everything would be cooked over charcoal or timber embers for the wood oven, to give it that smoky taste. The issue, fire control. The New Zealand building code is not easily set up for open fire cooking in restaurants, so there were some serious hoops to jump through.

This project was also under a huge time restraint, and the complexity of the design meant, we literally finished it one day before the big media launch of the new Melbourne like food lane.

But with careful and thoughtful planning, the design and creation of El Humero started to rise from the ashes and come together, and now stands proud inside the Takapuna food hub of ‘Fortieth & Hurstmere’.

Please go check it out for yourself, you won’t be disappointed!!