Cobb & Co. (restaurant)

Cobb & Co. is a New Zealand family restaurant chain.[1][2]

Cobb & Co.
Limited
IndustryRestaurants
Founded1973 (1973) in Auckland, New Zealand
FounderNew Zealand Breweries
Headquarters
New Zealand
Number of locations
9
Websitewww.cobb.co.nz

It is New Zealand's oldest surviving family restaurant chain,[3] having opened its first branch in 1973.[4] Its name derives from the Cobb & Co stagecoach business originally founded in Australia in the 19th century by Freeman Cobb, although the chain has no direct historical connection with that company.[5][6]

The chain's trademark feature is a stagecoach theme with red saloon-style doors. It offers a casual dining menu with steak, hamburgers, seafood, and similar items.[1] It is known for its non-alcoholic mocktail drinks.[7][8]

History

The chain was created by the hotel division of New Zealand Breweries (now Lion). Their first Cobb & Co opened in 1973 in their Auckland South Pacific Hotel.[9][2]

At its peak in the 1980s there were 37 Cobb & Co restaurants around New Zealand, but as of 2020 the chain had shrunk to nine branches: seven in regional towns and centres in the North Island (Levin, New Plymouth, Porirua, Rotorua, Taupo, Tauranga, and Whakatane), and two cities in the South Island (Christchurch and Dunedin).[10][11][12][4]

In the 1980s it ran a series of comedic television commercials featuring British actor David Jason.[13][14]

In 2012 the chain was purchased by Sue and Ben Gower, who had originally been franchisees of the Tauranga branch.[4] In 2016, plans to re-expand the chain were announced.[4][1]

Controversy arose in 2017 when a newly relaunched branch located in the historic Dunedin Railway Station[15] applied for a licence to include slot machines on its premises, with the Problem Gambling Foundation criticising the presence of gambling machines in a family restaurant.[16]

gollark: Ah yes, stop using what's basically the cleanest power source which is actually practical while carbon dioxide emissions are a huge problem, intelligence 1000.
gollark: I kind of want to know what stuff got deleted now...
gollark: <@128643042537111552> Incognito mode just stops your *browser* from putting stuff in the history on *your computer*. It stops absolutely nobody else.
gollark: Because of stupid political stuff nobody seems to actually want to *fix* that sort of problem, and politicians just go "More good things! Less bad things! Outgroup bad!".
gollark: That sounds problematic. I hope it's fixable.

References
  1. Anthony, John (7 October 2016). "Cobb & Co planning a comeback with up to 30 new restaurants". Stuff.
  2. "Cobb & Co restaurant, Auckland, around 1974". Te Ara: The Encyclopedia of New Zealand. New Zealand Ministry for Culture and Heritage Te Manatu. Retrieved 2 February 2019. NOTE: this source gives the founding year of the chain as 1974, but the majority of sources state 1973.
  3. "Full range of options among Taupo offerings". The New Zealand Herald. 28 June 2014.
  4. "Cobb & Co's big comeback". The New Zealand Herald. 7 October 2016.
  5. Little, Paul (29 May 2018). "A brief history of Cobb & Co". Noted. North & South.
  6. "This Month in History". Heritage New Zealand. Archived from the original on 24 January 2019. Retrieved 4 February 2019.
  7. McSweeney, Philip (12 October 2016). "Everything you ever wanted to know about Traffic Light drinks". Stuff.
  8. "Toni Street shocked by birthday surprise". The New Zealand Herald. Spy News. 6 September 2017. Archived from the original on 8 February 2018.
  9. "Cobb & Co Restaurants Nationwide". Signal Group. Archived from the original on 4 February 2019. Retrieved 3 February 2019.
  10. Fallon, Virginia (26 February 2020). "Bring on the traffic lights: Cobb & Co returns to Porirua after more than two decades". Stuff.
  11. Mitchell, Paul (23 July 2019). "Cobb & Co's grand comeback will no longer extend to Palmerston North". Stuff.
  12. Clayton, Rachel (6 October 2016). "Cobb & Co lives on with new Dunedin railway station restaurant". Stuff.
  13. Belfield, James (9 May 2016). "Actor David Jason on Cobb and Co and his love of NZ". Stuff.
  14. Jason, David (2014). David Jason: My Life. Penguin Random House. p. 212. ISBN 9780099581161.
  15. Lewis, John (6 October 2016). "Cobb & Co to open railway station restaurant". Otago Daily Times Online News.
  16. Loughrey, David (27 June 2017). "Restaurant gambling machines 'appalling'". Otago Daily Times Online News.
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