Josh and Helen Emett to open new restaurant, Lottie’s, inside Faradays Luxury department store

The Emetts are set to open their third Auckland city restaurant. Here’s why they say the CBD isn’t dead. When Josh and Helen Emett first encountered the brand Faradays, they were competitors. Founders Eddie and Constance Von Dadelszen had their sights set on turning 8 Faraday St in “We loved that site, we wanted that site, and they got it instead,” Josh tells Viva, with a laugh. Now the power players are set to join forces, with the Emetts opening Lottie’s, their third restaurant in the CBD, on the bottom floor of Faradays’ new Queen St flagship store. “That is the full circle moment,” Josh says. Due to open next month, the $30 million Faradays development is a three-level, 3000sq m space at 131 Queen St that will function as a multi-purpose department store, with a restaurant, retail experiences and New Zealand brand debuts such as SKIMS. Auckland's 131 Queen Street is set to become the city's new department store, as luxury brand Faradays prepares for its next evolution. Photo / Krukziener PropertiesFaradays’ creative director, Constance, says that Lottie’s is crucial to the customer experience they want to create.“Lottie’s will be the heart of our store – a destination people visit whether they’re discovering a new designer, meeting friends for lunch or simply enjoying the atmosphere.“From our very first conversations, Josh and Helen shared our belief that exceptional retail and exceptional hospitality belong together, and we’re incredibly proud to bring that vision to life.”For the Emetts, the partnership felt like a natural progression of a relationship built on mutual admiration; the Von Daldelszens were customers at their existing Auckland city restaurants, Gilt and Onslow, and they are Faradays’ shoppers.“We’ve always been a big fan of Faradays, [and] Eddie and Constance,” Helen explains. She says conversations with them about a food collaboration began early in the planning stages of the new luxury retail store. Josh and Helen Emett are set to open a new restaurant, Lottie's, inside Faraday's new Queen Street store.“They approached us and said ‘This is what we’re going to do and this is our vision’,” Helen says. That vision: a premium food and fashion product that blends heritage with innovation. While the concept evolved through several iterations, the historic city centre location, which housed Milne & Choyce department store from 1924-1970, proved irresistible for the hospitality couple.They see Lottie’s as part of a wider revival across Auckland’s CBD, which has struggled over the last few years as the City Rail Link construction closed parts of the city, and the cost of living crisis continued. “Helen and I are really big supporters of breathing life back to the city and really trying to see it grow and develop and flourish,” explains Josh. “With the new rail system, we’re really excited about where it’s going to go,” Helen adds. “Hearing the stories from owning businesses around here, it’s just so rich with such a great history that we are really excited about bringing back and seeing the laneways and High Street start to live again, when it has been quite sad for a while.”And the proof is in the pudding: Onslow has helped turn Princess St into a hospitality destination and Gilt has injected fresh energy into nearby Chancery Square.Josh Emmett pictured at his Princess St restaurant, Onslow, with one of its signature dishes, the crayfish eclair. Photo / Dean PurcellGilt Brasserie. Photo / Babiche MartensThe couple also bought The Oyster Inn on Waiheke Island in 2020.Josh believes momentum is building across the CBD, with the CRL now confirmed to launch on September 13, major investments from luxury retailers like Cartier and Rolex, as well as established local businesses like Crane Brothers expanding.While suburbs such as Ponsonby and Newmarket have flourished, Josh believes Auckland needs a vibrant downtown core to match, and people need to fall in love with the CBD again.He says he did just that when he first saw the 131 Queen St site, long before the collaboration came about. He fell in love with the building and the stories of who had stepped foot in it in the 100 years before him. That history helped shape the vision for Lottie’s. The restaurant will draw inspiration from a tradition long associated with the great department stores of Europe and Britain, where shopping and dining were deliberately intertwined.Helen, who is originally from the UK, says the concept is incredibly nostalgic. “My grandma lived in Marylebone and one of the things she always did was take me to [department store] Selfridges, and we would walk the floors and then stay for lunch,” she says.“It wasn’t just me; that’s what people would do: you’d go to a department store and make a day of it.”Computer generated renders of Lottie's, the new Izzard and Fearon Hay-designed restaurant from Josh and Helen Emett, which will be on the first floor of luxury department store Faradays on Auckland's Queen St. Photos / Paul Izzard DesignJosh believes that concept has been executed well overseas and proved successful, but New Zealand is yet to nail it. He hopes Lottie’s will fill that gap. Customers can browse fashion, beauty or homewares before settling in for lunch, afternoon tea, a meeting, or a glass of champagne with friends.That influence will also be reflected throughout Lottie’s menu and atmosphere. ”[One] of the elements we’ll be bringing is high tea in the afternoon, which is a ritual and experience,” Helen says.Unlike Onslow, or Gilt, which were Michelin Selected in 2026, Lottie’s will focus on lighter cooking, with salads, oysters, caviar and champagne playing a major role. “You might also have things like scotch eggs, and cucumber sandwiches or those really refined little vol-au-vents ,” Helen says, adding that her British heritage and stories will be apparent in the menu. While the restaurant is likely to attract shoppers, Helen believes its audience will be much broader, appealing to those working in the CBD, as well as those seeking a destination experience. The restaurant’s design will allow for a degree of privacy, with curtains helping create a relaxed space for casual meetings and conversations.A computer-generated render of Lottie's private dining space.‘I put my hand up and committed to them and made a lot of sacrifices’ Behind the scenes, the opening represents the culmination of decades spent building hospitality brands in some of the most notoriously testing environments for a chef.Josh began his career as a chef more than 30 years ago and accrued a Michelin-star resume. He’s worked in restaurants in Melbourne, New York and London and spent a decade working for Gordon Ramsay.“I’ve opened some really amazing concepts for Gordon, and took on [projects] that were extremely challenging at the time. I put my hand up and committed to them and made a lot of sacrifices,” Josh says.One of the most influential experiences was leading the relaunch of London’s famous Savoy Grill. Looking back, Josh said that success came from understanding the restaurant’s identity rather than imposing his own.The Savoy is one of London's most luxurious hotels, home to the Savoy Grill. Photo / Getty Images“My focus was to do what was best for the Savoy Grill,” he says. “If I had gone off-piste and decided I was going to cook what was ticking my box at the moment, I would have got it completely wrong.”That philosophy still guides the Emetts today - every detail, from food and service through to design and atmosphere, must support a clear and carefully considered vision.But Helen admits there are times they wonder what might have happened if more opportunities had existed within Ramsay’s empire. “Gordon was great at running very good restaurants,” she said.“But we sometimes think, if he’d said to Josh... ‘Why don’t we do something together and I’ll give you a leg up’, we may still be working under that group,” she said. The couple have taken that learning into Lottie’s, focusing on growing their existing chefs and providing opportunities for them to expand within the Emett Group. “We can’t grow unless we have a team that wants to grow with us,” says Josh.For Lottie’s, that’s Zachariah Meads. The head pastry/sous chef at Onslow has spent four years with the group and is set to depart Onslow to lead their latest venture.“He’s really proven himself as such a hard worker and a leader,” explains Josh. From the first meeting about Lottie’s, they knew it was the perfect space for Meads. A computer-generated render of the bar and maitre d' space and Josh and Helen Emett's new restaurant Lottie's, which will open in Faradays department store on Queen St.While staff and food play a huge part in their success, Josh and Helen say building successful businesses also means understanding finance, leadership, development, and operations, alongside what appears on the plate. While balancing the competing demands of being a couple, parents to sons Finn and Louis, and business partners admittedly comes with its challenges, they say they juggle all their roles in the same way: “We work bloody hard at it,” Josh says.They divide responsibilities based on their strengths but say they rarely disagree on what defines a great hospitality business, and a great life. For Josh and Helen, Lottie’s is the culmination of years spent refining their craft. For Auckland, it could represent something equally significant: a fresh reason to believe in the CBD’s future.More Auckland CBD dining