100-year-old Auckland restaurant on the brink of shutting down for good after fourth break in

An Auckland restaurant owner is on the brink of shutting down for good after being broken into for the fourth time in two years on Tuesday morning.

In security footage viewed by Stuff, two men could be seen filling a laundry basket with alcohol from behind the bar of Toby’s Restaurant and Bar in the West Auckland suburb of Titirangi.

“They take the same thing. They take alcohol only, spirits only,” the owner, who did not want to be named, told Stuff.

“Twice they’ve broken into the side windows which are barred over, once they broke into the other side window and this time they went in the [front] window.”

Restaurant manager Rachael Hejtmanek​ said she would be reordering what was stolen and was hopeful about opening for business on Wednesday, but recalled the most recent break-in, back in March this year, when she restocked the bar the next day and the site was broken into again the following night.

Despite being two back-to-back burglaries, they count them as one incident in their break-in tally. The site was also hit in August and November, 2022.

Each time, the owner said, it cost them about $3000.

“Our insurance doesn’t cover it any more because our excess is too big, so it’s not worth it,” said the owner.

“I’ll go off and cry in a minute.”

The police have been contacted and given the footage, and while the owner is hopeful about reopening, he does not know if the site will remain open long-term, especially knowing it could happen again.

“My business partner and I have to talk about [whether we keep going], because nothing’s going to stop it. We can bar it up but it’s not a restaurant then, it’s a jail. So what do you do?”

“We’ve got to make that decision. Is it worth it?”

The owner took over the site almost three years ago when it was named the Park Road Kitchen, and at the time it, “was an empty shell” and had been unoccupied for about a year.

Toby’s first opened in 1924 and was originally named Ye Olde Toby Jugge Shoppe. It later became Toby’s, before being renamed Park Road Kitchen. And then, under current owners, it became Toby’s again.

It now serves a selection of seafood and bistro meals and the owners were hoping to reinvigorate the site and celebrate a century in 2024.

“We spent a lot of money doing it up and making it a little like it was in the day … It’s so disappointing. You put so much into it and every one of these is a massive setback.

“It’s hard in the hospo game anyway. People haven’t got money they used to have. Everything’s gone up so it’s pretty tough. Everyone’s trying to hang in there and hope things get better.”

In 2010, the restaurant, under different owners, featured in TV3’s The Kitchen Job, hosted by restaurateur Jon Palino, which aimed to save, “restaurant and cafe owners from the brink of ruin”.

Since October last year, the area has been hit with a number of burglaries and break-ins including SuperValue Titirangi, the local Post Shop and an aggravated robbery at a convenience store on Atkinson Road.