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Salt Restaurant and Bar offers both premier
dining and great ambiance. Situated on the
water at the Whitianga Marina, diners enjoy
the sights of the estuary from the deck or
the comfort of a cosy open fire indoors –
complimented by fabulous food and service.
I have often heard Salt described as “the
best restaurant on the Coromandel”.
Building that sort of reputation cannot be
easy, and we wanted to find out more about
the couple who have earned that – they
certainly deserve a ‘toast’!
–Tovi Daly
by
Kate
Palmano
Photo by Alan Duff:
www.crep.co.nzDAVE AND KELLY SIMMONDS
currently own and manage
The Whitianga Hotel and
Salt Bar and Restaurant
Continued on page 38
M
any people I encounter who come to live,
work or retire in the Coromandel have
had a prior connection with the peninsula
perhaps through family, childhood holidays or a
visit from overseas that left them in love with
the area
.
However, for Dave and Kelly
Simmonds, the story is quite different.
With no first-hand knowledge of the region or
ever visiting before, the couple moved to
Whitianga in 2005 solely for the job opportunity
of managing
The Whitianga Hotel
and
Salt
Bar and Restaurant
. A courageous move, but
as they recall on first arriving, “we had an
inkling we had stumbled into paradise”.
Dave and Kelly first met in Hamilton while he
was working in hospitality and she was
attending Waikato University. They were
flatmates first, then best friends, then, well... as
Dave says, “we stepped over the line and the
rest is history”.
While in Hamilton, Dave had always worked in
some area of the hospitality industry, and Kelly
had played major roles in several of the
businesses he was involved with. While working
full-time, he also managed to complete a BMS
at Waikato.
When presented with the option to buy into the
Whitianga businesses in 2008, they leaped at
the chance. “I had managed the place for 3
years when the opportunity came up to
purchase 50%,” Dave shares. “Working in it
allowed me to clearly understand what we were
buying, so it was a bit of a no-brainer.”
Armed with their combined experience and
confidence, they hit the ground running and,
with a lot of hard work, have molded it into the
success it is today.
Since taking the big step, Dave and Kelly have
made several modifications to the complex,
enlarging the size of the kitchen and doubling
the bar and restaurant. “We wanted to take
advantage of the prime waterside location
overlooking the marina,” says Kelly. So they
landscaped and installed decking down to the
water which created an indoor-outdoor flow –
the idyllic venue for functions and weddings.
The popular hotel pub next door, formerly the
Blacksmith Bar, was tastefully refurbished and
rebranded as ‘The Whitianga Hotel’, complete
with maritime insignia. The 140-year-old hotel
has quite a history – a central town meeting
place known for ‘serving the freshest fish and
the coldest beer since 1869!’. The Simmonds
are keeping up with that tradition, as they often
host gatherings and networking meetings.
Photo by Greg Daly
36
COROMANDEL LIFE 2015 WINTER
Experience, confidence and hard work
bring success for Whitianga’s Salt Restaurant