Julie and Richard Sewell

Awards abound 

They take over an establishment that’s a multi award winner.

 Attempt to count them and the best guess is numerous.

Urbano’s been named Rotorua’s best restaurant three times.

At the same awards ceremony where the Sewells were personally honoured, it took  out the Outstanding Restaurant Award. 

Urbano’s walls are chocker with lamb and beef awards.

Two of the bistro’s chefs, Mark Solon included, were finalists in separate categories at this year’s awards ceremony.

Urbano’s full name covers all hospo bases. It’s Urbano Bistro – Cafe & Restaurant.

So where did it all begin for two generations of this family who’ve devoted their lives to hosting others?

Entertainment - managing bands 

The first eatery-bar Richard’s dad Herb and mother Annette were involved in was named the Five Doors and was at the lakefront.

They went into the business with three other couples who, like them, were moteliers at the time. That was in 1974.

 A year or two later the Sewells bought out their partners. They remained at the Five Doors’ helm until they sold to Wi Wharekura, an original member of the chart-topping Howard Morrisson Quartet. 

That was in 1980 the same year they acquired the then Bar-B-Q restaurant in what’s now known as Eat Streat.

Herb Sewell was a driving force in establishing the area as we know it today.  There’s more to come on that as Richard and Julie take In Profile on a tour of this largely unrecorded slice of Rotorua’s hospo history.

Like all good history stories there was a lot that went on in Herb Sewell’s life before the lengthy time he spent in hospitality. 

Richard’s earliest memory of his dad is as a musician playing a single string tea chest bass -  an instrument popular in the skiffle era of the 1950s and 60s.

A man with a musical ear, Herb Sewell became a successful entertainment impresario and musician.

“He supplied bands for 21sts, weddings. A lot of hotels used my father’s services; 

 places like Tudor Towers, the Palace Tavern, Princes Gate, Brents.  

“There were always a lot of band members around our household.  

“I have memories of many rings on the doorbell at six on a Monday morning. It was various band members coming to collect their pay, there could be up to 40 guys. They knew my dad would always pay them.

Before taking over the Aaron motel Herb worked with Ray* and June Woolliams at their Foodlands supermarket. “Mum worked at the Building Centre where Advocate Print is now.” 

From the motel the Sewell seniors went headlong  into hospitality full time.

In Richard’s words they were “hospitable people so it made sense.”

Restaurant, cabaret, after parties 

Five Doors was a lively 140-seat restaurant and cabaret that was open until three in the morning.

“Then there was the after party. Quite often when we got home the sun would be coming up.

“Because of my father’s connections we had some amazing musos coming through people like Joe Daniels, Prince Tui Teka, Gavin Bird, Bruce Garner, Ted Tuffy, Ron Slow, Bunny Walters . . .”  

Richard and Julie met in 1975 at the Five Doors while working there after school and at weekends.

They married in 1981 and have two adult sons and two grandsons.

 When Richard’s parents moved on from Five Doors the couple moved with them.

There’s yet more history coming up to add hospitality’s local archives.

Herb and Annette bought the Bar-B-Q from the late Charlie Pihera, a Czechoslovakian refugee who’d established it as Rotorua’s first European-style eatery.

In another ground-breaker for Rotorua it was the country’s first restaurant outside the main centres to be granted a liquor licence.

There was a name change not long after the Sewells took over. The Bar-B-Q became Herb’s Place – by popular demand.

“It was really the people of Rotorua who named it. My parents had a lot of close friends who used to say ‘See you at Herb’s Place’ and it stuck.”

Caesars opens

 In 1983 Richard and Julie added to the Sewells’ portfolio of eateries by opening a restaurant in Awara Street opposite the Palace Tavern. In a tilt at the famed Las Vegas Caesar’s Palace they named it Caesars.

“It was upstairs where Poco Tapas & Wine is now. They won the Best New Establishment in the hospo awards. Congratulations to them for that,” says Richard 

The Sewells are generous with praise for fellow award winners.

Before Caesers moved in the building had a varied history. After life as a bottle store operated by local identity Arthur McGill there was a mood change.

It became the city’s medical lab.  

 The Sewells introduced another vibe, transforming the space into the central city’s first fine dining establishment. It was a place with decor of its time.

“We had dark carpet, apricot table cloths, linen napkins and bronze venetians [blinds]. “

It took time to become established.

“We’d look out the window with envy and watch the people flocking into Frair Tuck on the Arawa Street-Tutanekai Street corner.

“The queues would be down the block and around the corner,” Richard recalls. 

Julie (nee Runciman) didn’t have the same background in entertainment and hospitality her husband did.

“My father Alan was a builder, my mother Margaret was a school dental nurse at Glenholme and Rotorua Intermediate when I was at them both.

“For most of my childhood and early adult years we lived in Grey Street not far up from Urbano. There was a dairy and takeaway here then.

“I used to come down here virtually every day to buy bread at the dairy and fish and chips on Friday. 

“I tended to feel I hadn’t moved very far.”     

From school she became a dispensing technician at David Meek’s pharmacy for six or seven years.

“But I have always been a foodie, I did all the desserts at Caesar’s for the 10 years we owned it.”   

Richard leaps in to tell us his wife’s a brilliant cook. Julie’s quick to deflect the compliment saying “Cooking at home is quite different from cooking in hospitality.”

At Urbano she mostly stayed out of the kitchen, becoming the welcoming front of house face.  

Richard describes his Urbano years as the businesse’s “gofer”.  

"I'd go for this and go for that."

Bar business booms

When Richard and Julie sold Caesars they joined Herb and Annette at Herb’s Place, forming a partnership. By then the business had grown exponentially and was extended to include a bar.

There was another name change - this time to Herb’s Restaurant and Bar. Establishing it was, says Richard, the impetus for smaller bars to open in Rotorua. 

“It was a seven-day-a-week business and we had a 3am liquor licence which seems a bit crazy now but then there were an awful lot of people around in the nocturnal hours.” 

The two Sewell families worked staggered shifts which, for Julie, was a godsend with their growing sons.

“Herbie and Annette would look after the kids when we worked or Richard would have them in the afternoons.” 

For many in Rotorua Herb’s became party central.

“Music has always been a big part of our business. My father was probably New Zealand’s oldest DJ, shaking his tambourine. We’d roll out the dance floor.

“We introduced spoofing, a drinking game of chance involving coins that took off all over the country. It kept our bar alive with some precariously late nights – phew. 

“One week we went through 30 kegs of beer.  The big boys in the taverns were getting through 100. Rotorua was a boozy town then.”

The fourth Friday of each month the restaurant became a lunch club with big name guest speakers brought in to entertain diners. Belonging to Herb’s lunch club became the hottest ticket in town. 

For Richard, yachting commentator Peter Montgomery was the standout star.

“Steinlager sponsored him.  Out of the blue they said ‘We’ll give you X amount of product’. We had Steinlager coming out our ears for weeks.  

“Sponsors both national and local played a big part in the lunch club’s success story. We couldn’t have done it without them.”   

Battling for Eat Streat

When Herb’s Bar opened there were four eating and drinking establishments in the same vicinity. Food festivals were popular drawcards. 

Richard tells of the protracted battle to establish that section of Tutanekai Street as a pedestrian-free area dedicated exclusively to restaurants, cafes and bars.

‘My dad, myself and two or three others from the block approached the council to widen the footpaths, lay cobblestones and provide some sort of covering.”

It wasn’t a concept that met with universal councillor approval.

“I remember going to three meetings over quite a period of time and at each we were asked the same question; ‘Who is going to pay for it?’   

“We kept saying ‘You’ve probably got $300,000 worth of rates paid by a few restaurants who virtually get nothing for it, not even our rubbish picked up.”

Several councils considered the proposal but it wasn’t until 2013 that Eat Streat became a reality.

By then Herb’s had been sold two years earlier and Urbano had been open six years.

Urbano’s slow start

Like Eat Streat Urbano wasn’t an overnight achievement. It’s now 28 years since the Sewell families bought the building.

“My dad had been at the auction where Willy Bow [fruiterer] had bought it some years before. He said to him ‘When you sell it will you give me first option?’.

“One day out of the blue Willy rang Dad and offered it to him.

“The four of us bought it. What we didn’t realise was the tenants, a dairy and fish and chip shop, had exceptionally long leases. It was 12 years before we could make a start on renovations for Urbano.”    

  The bistro’s doors opened on August 1, 2007.

Loyal customers return

Until Covid struck an integral part of Urbano’s business was delivering meals to visitors staying in Fenton Street motels.

The Sewells say it can’t be disputed that turning so many motels into accommodation for the homeless has changed the area’s character.

“There’s a different idealism here now. There are people around who don’t know how to say ‘Thank you for putting a roof over our heads,’ but they haven’t kept our loyal locals away.”

Like their counterparts nationwide, Covid lockdowns hit the Sewells hard.

They give thanks business was back to pre-pandemic levels in their final year as Urbano’s owner-operators.

Regular diners returned and they saw a slow but increasing upswing in overseas tourists.

Their gold star for loyalty goes to the local who breakfasts at Urbano five days a week. 

He’s followed by a couple who dine there up to three nights a week.

Changing times and tastes

Covid apart, has the hospitality industry altered much in the close to half a century the Sewells  spent at its core?

“Absolutely,” is their joint response.

 Topping their list of the most notable changes is the growth  in the number of Rotorua’s eateries. These are up from four or five 40 years ago to today’s 140.

Another major shift has been diners’ tastes and their dietary dictates.

At Urbano Ostrich meat now eclipses steak as the meat dish of first choice. 

“It’s absolutely stunning, Mark loves cooking it, the customers love eating it.”

On the drinks side of the menu, craft beers are nudging out products from corporate breweries and non-alcoholic wines have become increasingly popular.

Staff share award

The Sewells refuse to take sole credit for their icon status, insisting it comes on the back of outstanding team work. 

“We feel very humble and proud to be given the icon award. It also recognises the wonderful staffwe had; it takes team work to make it happen.

“They are hard-working, fun-loving people who think outside the square, they live here and contribute to our city.  

“We have had amazing chefs in Mark and Bella Manito, along with Akash and Preet at front of house who all made life so much easier. They were all long-serving and worth their weight in gold.”    

After close to half a century in the hospitality business working 95 hour weeks where to from here for this second generation of leading Rotorua restaurateurs?

It will be time out to acclimatise to life at a slower pace.

“Enjoying summer with family and friends.

 “We have made some wonderful friends, customers have become personal friends.

“Hospitality has given us a good life.

 It’s wonderful our peers kept on voting for us, recognising us [with awards] and people still wanted to come through our doors.” 

*Ray Woolliams served a term as Rotorua mayor from 1977-1979 when the city and county councils amalgamated.