“We were conscious of writing the last chapter of this epic novel – it was a wonderful journey that we were really proud of,” Michael Dearth says of The Grove’s closure. “We were done; we were going to scale back.”
Annette and Michael Dearth, founders of The Grove and Baduzzi and, now, Zamboni. Photo / Babiche Martens
But now, just 18 months on, a culinary sequel is in the wind.
Those phone calls kept coming, and Michael – a face familiar to many TV viewers as a former MasterChef New Zealand judge – kept answering.
He investigated possible new restaurants in places like Queenstown, Matakana and elsewhere, before talking seriously with the family behind Smales Farm on Auckland’s North Shore.
When the numbers needed crunching, he turned again to his wife and business partner.
“He said, ‘I think I need you … we’re going to have to do this together,’” Annette says.
Michael and Annette Dearth inside their under-construction restaurant Zamboni on Auckland’s North Shore. Photo / Michael Craig
Now the couple is standing amid the construction work and noise of their new restaurant taking shape at Smales Farm.
Zamboni, an ambitious northern Italian-inspired sibling to Baduzzi, is their latest hospitality venture – the Dearths are completely transforming the space that once housed The Grange bar and bistro, which closed in December last year.
And so, as restaurants contract and close during one of the industry’s most turbulent periods, the Dearths are expanding once again.
“There’s never the right time to have a baby,” Annette says. “You’ve just got to have the baby.
“I’m really excited. My brain is full – I need a pad next to my bed because I’m waking up in the middle of the night: ‘Oh, we have to do this, we have to do that. There are so many boxes to tick, but it’s great.”
“We have a fresh canvas to show people in New Zealand what we love … great hospitality,” Michael says.
An artist’s impression of the new-look Zamboni restaurant.
Zamboni is set to open in early November, and, like Baduzzi, will cater to a broad range of customers and palates, with unique fare, including a centrepiece focaccia bread that Michael first tasted some 14 years ago on a trip to Italy.
It’s called Focaccia di Recco – a cracker-thin, crispy and gooey cheese-filled flatbread that hails from the town of Recco in the Liguria region of northern Italy.
“I tried this focaccia, and I was like, ‘Oh my God, this is so amazing, this is so much better than pizza. Why aren’t we eating this in other places in the world?’
“It was really inspiring to me. I had this seed. I have never seen it outside of this little region in northern Italy. I’ve been wanting to do this focaccia for a long time, as one of the heroes of what we’re doing here.”
The Dearths, who immigrated to New Zealand from the United States in 2003, trace their own heritage back to specific Italian regions – they have been the earlier inspiration for Baduzzi.
“The best way to understand Baduzzi … my heritage is outside of Rome, Annette’s heritage is in Sicily,” says Michael.
“Baduzzi has always been [food-themed] Rome to the south, all the heroes from the south, but still with an Italian-American expression.
“So now opening up this new restaurant on the North Shore, we want to do Rome to the north … but there is a little bit more freedom with this Italian American vibe.”
An artist’s impression of the bar area of Zamboni. Image / supplied
On a trip to Italy last October, Michael, Baduzzi head chef Federico Schincariol – “a total dream” – and hospitality designer Paul Izzard travelled to the Host Milan event and to Recco.
“We went to the actual town. We did a lot of travelling. We were able to go into the kitchens to actually measure what we needed for the ovens … and for these special [focaccia] trays.
“It was a wonderful trip.
“We also need a specific cheese that comes from this region, and we found an Italian guy to make us this cheese here in New Zealand.”
A significant new operation
The new restaurant is a sizeable venture – seating some 125 inside, including a private dining room for 25 and a roomy bar area for drinks and other dining. Total seating outside, which features an outdoor fire, will be 100.
There will be a “lab” – a room where fresh pasta will be handmade into different shapes. “Just think Willy Wonka and the Pasta Factory,” Michael says.
That lab, along with a state-of-the-art Josper BBQ – “the Ferrari of BBQs” – will feature as separate showcases for all to see.
The pair think they’ll need about 60 workers for Zamboni, over and above Baduzzi’s staff of about 50. “We’re going to need a big team,” Michael says. “It’s a big space.”
What is a Zamboni?
Zamboni is set to open in November.
A Zamboni might be familiar to fans of American sports – it’s the machine that sweeps the ice during breaks in ice hockey games.
The Dearths love the name and apply it equally in social settings.
“Zamboni is a metaphor,” says Michael, highlighting a scenario where people might be eyeing the last morsels on a plate. “The food’s so good, everyone’s a Zamboni because you want to clean your plate.”
Annette: “We’ve always used that as well since we met. Michael would order too much food. We’d go out, and I’d be like, ‘I can’t eat all this – you’ll have to be the Zamboni.’ We used to say that all the time to each other.”
Annette says that while she had been looking forward to a break after The Grove, the new venture just felt right, especially after she met the Smale family.
“It all just unfolded from there … it ticked all the boxes. It just felt right. The space is great.”
Michael acknowledges it has been a tough time in the hospitality industry.
“There is uncertainty out there. Just like in anything, we’re seeing times where people are cutting back and contracting.
“We’re now expanding at a time when there’s uncertainty in the world. I know New Zealand has been kicked around a lot since Covid, and before that, the GFC … there always seems to be something that we’ve weathered over two decades.”
But he reflects on when the pair opened The Grove in 2004.
“We just had maxed-out credit cards. I called that kitchen Frankenstein’s monster – we chop off the head and put in a Rational oven; cut off an arm, put a stainless steel bench.
“We believe in the dream.”
An artist’s impression of the new-look Zamboni restaurant.
On a hoarding outside the construction site at Smales Farm, there’s a line from the Robert Frost poem Nothing Gold Can Stay.
Michael loves that opening line – “Nature’s first green is gold …”
“It’s talking about the seasons of life and the seasons of things – the impermanence. That’s just life in general – The Grove was a blink of an eye … 20 years just went by, and in that time we have our beautiful family growing.
“Restaurants are important to us, but our son was born and our daughter was born.”
He says there will always be uncertainty, no matter the industry and whatever people do for a living.
“For me, that’s this whole thing of seasons in life, this opportunity to open Zamboni … it just seemed to unfold like the unfoldings of a season, of a really beautiful season.
“You have to realise there’s going to be storm clouds and rain and there’s going to be sunshine.
“There’s going to be cold nights, and there’s going to be beautiful sunny mornings.
“So in that we’re living our life. And our life is hospitality.”
Editor-at-Large Shayne Currie is one of New Zealand’s most experienced senior journalists and media leaders. He has held executive and senior editorial roles at NZME including Managing Editor, NZ Herald Editor and Herald on Sunday Editor.