Brigand’s new lessee is a familiar face
Charlie Cunningham, new lessee at the Brigand Café. Photo: Supplied.
There’s a new face at the Brigand Café and bar – but it’s a well-known face.
Charlotte Cunningham is better known as Charlie by her friends here and by patrons of Pohara Sands, the Penguin and the Telegraph Hotel, where she has also worked since her arrival in the Bay nearly five years ago.
Charlie’s two trips back to her birthplace in Hampshire, England have been just to revisit family, and she says she’s a proud Kiwi now and that New Zealand feels like home.
The opportunity to take over the lease at the Brigand was a surprise, she said.
“When Chris Levett approached me and suggested I take over the lease I was doubtful. It was so unexpected. I’d worked in a kitchen before, I’d run a bar as well and I’d managed somebody else’s business too. I just hadn’t been responsible for all three at once. At first I thought that taking it on would change my life forever, but it hasn’t been all that drastic so far. There are some new challenges but I’m really enjoying it.”
The Brigand’s regulars will not notice wholesale changes under her management, says Charlie.
“I’m just fine-tuning things a bit. My main emphasis so far has been on making the place look appealing and welcoming and ensuring that the service is the best it can be. You can go out to eat and have the world’s best food, but if the service isn’t friendly, prompt and respectful you won’t have a great experience. Everyone in the place deserves personal attention.”
Charlie says her high standards were learned when she was 15 and being trained by a former employee of the QEII.
“He was very rigorous and taught me a lot. One of the things I think is important now is that sense of fun people get when it’s obvious that the staff like what they’re doing.”
Charlie says she is working on the Brigand’s new menu right now. It will have plenty of the popular dishes the Brigand is known for and will be unveiled very soon.
“There will be lots of different influences too.”
Neil Wilson
