Chris White’s legs “gave way” on Monday morning when confronted with the popular restaurant he’d just bought being consumed by fire.

Off The Track near Havelock North was razed overnight, with a fire investigator set to investigate the cause.

“I got there and saw the flames that were coming out of the side of the building and I was shaking like a leaf. When I got out of the car, my legs basically just gave way from the enormity of it all,” White said.

“You built your dreams upon this and to see it all blowing away, going up in smoke, is pretty heart-wrenching.”

The Off The Track kitchen has been devastated. Photo / Paul Taylor

White and his partner Fiona Le had poured all their efforts into making the family-friendly event venue a success since purchasing it two months ago.

He was in bed when he got a call from the monitoring company that the alarm was going off, but when he went to check his security cameras they were not working.

When he learnt it was the fire alarm going off, he immediately drove and found fire trucks and firefighters already battling the blaze.

A fire has torn through popular Havelock North restaurant Off The Track, which owners Chris White and Fiona Lee purchased only seven weeks ago. Photo / Paul Taylor

He said the damage meant a total rebuild of many parts of the restaurant would be required.

“The fire brigade was incredible. They had it under control pretty quickly, but there is nothing left in the kitchen.”

White said he bought the restaurant about seven weeks ago.

“We’ve literally put every day and every night into it, I’ve been here [from] sun up until sundown and I have had one day off in six weeks.”

“We’ve got so many functions, so many big bookings and so many people that, because of this, we are going to have to let [them] down and that is just a horrible, horrible feeling.”

Pictured is Off The Track restaurant in 2014. It has long been a popular venue for functions. White said he had been involved for 11 years, but he and his partner only purchased the business about seven weeks ago. Photo / Glenn Taylor.

The business is closed until further notice, but White promised that they will come back from the fire.

“The insurance has confirmed everything is all good, so we will be back.”

A Fire and Emergency NZ spokesman said firefighters were called to the restaurant on Havelock Rd about 12.20am on Monday and found the fire had spread through the main building by the time they arrived.

“Significant damage” was done, the spokesman said, but it was not thought to have been suspicious.

James Pocock joined Hawke’s Bay Today in 2021 and writes breaking news and features, with a focus on environment, local government and post-cyclone issues in the region. He has a keen interest in finding the bigger picture in research and making it more accessible to audiences. He lives in Napier. [email protected]