The Grand Plan for the Provincial Hotel gets underway despite being interrupted by Christchurch's 7.1 earthquake. Nick and Sarah sort their future kitchen and test the new menu while Graham and Stephen crunch the numbers and work closely with the builders to make sure the budget is tracking. The building is made safe and the real work can begin to bring their grand design to fruition.
The demo crew is only days away from the old hotel being strengthened and ready for the real build to begin when the magnitude 6.3 earthquake on February 2011 devastates Christchurch and brings the weakened Provincial hotel to her knees. Despite Steven Cohen's best efforts the building can not be saved. Nick and Sarah turn their attention to their original restaurant in Lyttleton which has been severely damaged.
The aftershocks continue but Nick and Sarah keep working to get a bigger and better Freemans Restaurant re-opened in Lyttelton. They finally open on December 23rd 2011. Their insurance comes through five minutes before the 6.0 tremor strikes at 1.50 pm, and they start cooking pizzas in their new oven two hours later. By the end of January their hard work is paying off as the combination of their new layout and business model and the limited number of restaurants open in Christchurch means their turnover is twice what it was pre-earthquake.