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Cobb & Co. (restaurant)

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

It is New Zealand's oldest surviving family restaurant chain,[2] having opened its first branch in 1973. 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.[3][4]

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. It is known for its non-alcoholic mocktail drinks.[5][6]

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.[7][1]

At its peak in the 1980s there were 37 Cobb & Co restaurants around New Zealand, but as of 2026 the chain had shrunk to eight branches: six in regional towns and centres in the North Island (Levin, New Plymouth, Porirua, Rotorua, Taupō, and Whakatāne), and two cities in the South Island (Christchurch and Dunedin).[8][9][10][11]

In the 1980s it ran a series of comedic television commercials featuring British actor David Jason.[12][13]

In 2012 the chain was purchased by Sue and Ben Gower, who had originally been franchisees of the Tauranga branch.[11] In 2016, plans to re-expand the then-dwindling chain were announced.[11][14]

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]

See also

  • List of restaurants in New Zealand

External links

References

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