The Cave is celebrating 30 years in business this year. Owners Hikari and Matt Ludbrook tell Madeleine Crutchley how the underground restaurant captured their hearts and kept diners happy. <\/p>\n
\n If you find yourself perched up at the bar at Tanuki\u2019s Cave, it\u2019s likely your eyes will begin to wander.<\/p>\n
In the centre of the restaurant, there are bar staff in performance \u2013 pouring sake and shaking cocktails. Graceful waiters dance with small plates between the kitchen and dining room. <\/p>\n
In rare intermissions, there is the script scrawled on to wooden plaques attached to one of the walls. The plaques, called ema \u7d75\u99ac, are often used to make prayers or wishes. <\/p>\n
There is one particularly special wish for Tanuki\u2019s Cave co-owner Hikari Ludbrook. She is the daughter of the restaurant\u2019s founder Rick Littlewood, who passed away in 2018. He was the one to gather ema for use in the restaurant, which have collected many wishes from locals and tourists alike. <\/p>\n
Recently, Hikari found one written by her father. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt said something like \u2018Eat, drink and make lots of noise.\u2019 And I thought, \u2018That\u2019s just so Dad.\u2019\u201d <\/p>\n
A waiter walks past a wall of ema. Photo \/ Dean Purcell<\/p>\n
Tanuki\u2019s Cave, a yakitori and kushiage restaurant also known as The Cave, is tucked away at basement level near the top of Queen St. This year, it turns 30. <\/p>\n
It\u2019s accessed down a set of stairs, enclosed by rippled black walls, and sits beneath its older sister Tanuki \u2013 another Japanese restaurant that serves izakaya-style dishes, which Rick opened two years prior to The Cave in 1994. <\/p>\n
Before Hikari took over Tanuki and The Cave with her husband Matt, her parents, Yumiko and Rick, were at the helm of the inner-city restaurants. <\/p>\n
Her Gisborne-born father \u2013 the first to compete for Aotearoa New Zealand as a judoka at the Summer Olympics in 1972 \u2013 met her mother Yumiko while he was training in judo in Japan. They lived there together, got married and had Hikari. In 1974, when she was 4, the family immigrated to Aotearoa, settling in T\u0101maki Makaurau Auckland. <\/p>\n
Rick became enamoured with the idea of operating a restaurant, after running a Japanese food store. <\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019d never owned a restaurant before in his life,\u201d Hikari says, talking to Viva from a booth ahead of a Wednesday night service, the prep team working in the kitchen behind her. <\/p>\n
The kitchen starts service at The Cave. Photo \/ Dean Purcell<\/p>\n
Her father loved dining in sake bars, tachinomi (standing drinking bars) and yakitori restaurants throughout Kyoto. He thought the experience was missing from Auckland\u2019s mid-90s dining scene. <\/p>\n
When Hikari was first shown the buildings that would become Tanuki and The Cave, she was a little sceptical they would work as restaurants. <\/p>\n
\u201cThis whole area was quite different back then,\u201d she says. <\/p>\n
The space, Hikari says, \u201cwas painted all black [and] there was actually a catwalk in the middle of Tanuki.\u201d (Tanuki\u2019s current neighbour, The Classic comedy club, was once an adult cinema.) <\/p>\n
Hikari remembers markers of its previous life pressed into wood. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe building\u2019s really old, I love the building … The floor was completely pitted with high heel marks.\u201d <\/p>\n
While the stairs to The Cave are well trodden now, people were nervous about the descent into a then-unknown restaurant when it first launched. <\/p>\n
\u201cThey didn\u2019t want to be embarrassed by having to turn around and walk back up,\u201d Hikari remembers. <\/p>\n
\u201cMy dad and I had a serious conversation about closing The Cave because it just wasn\u2019t doing well.\u201d <\/p>\n
A glimpse of Queen St from The Cave. Photo \/ Dean Purcell<\/p>\n
But one person managed to turn it all around. A friend of Hikari\u2019s, Keeli, had just landed back in Auckland after a trip through Europe. After a bit of nudging, she agreed to run the bar. She launched tasting events, gathered patrons for a regular sake club and became a light below street level. Keeli was crucial in sparking The Cave\u2019s now-beloved atmosphere. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s been like that ever since. Every single manager we\u2019ve had has been outstanding,\u201d Hikari says. <\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re always promoted from within the team,\u201d Matt adds. <\/p>\n
Beyond an interest in excellence, there are other characteristics that contribute to The Cave\u2019s indomitable atmosphere. <\/p>\n
Location plays a leading role. The restaurant is situated within the inner-city arts precinct, and is frequented by both audiences and casts pre- and post-show.<\/p>\n
Neon signs lighting The Basement carpark behind Tanuki’s Cave. Photo \/ Dean Purcell<\/p>\n
Just next door, The Classic rises from street level to welcome audiences to a comedy club. If you were to wander out the back and down the fire escape, you could pick up a ticket for a show at Basement Theatre. Nearby on Queen St there\u2019s Q Theatre, Auckland Town Hall and the Aotea Centre. Hikari and Matt are eager to welcome another neighbour, too. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve seen the work getting going at St James,\u201d Matt says, referencing the historic Queen St venue that has been closed since a fire in 2017. After a long campaign, the theatre is finally a work site for restoration. <\/p>\n
The arrangement inside the restaurant is important, too. The bar is placed in the middle of the dining room, which means tables and booths surround it to create a cosy sense of privacy, even in an open room. <\/p>\n
The Cave cemented its place in Auckland\u2019s dining out scene in years without powerful 21st-century influence(r)s. <\/p>\n
It exists in contrast to the contemporary wave of eateries opening across the city that deliver sidewalk dining, photo-informed fit-outs and a site for crowds who want to see and be seen. The Cave, especially, is subterranean, dimly lit and inward-looking. <\/p>\n
Diners eat and drink beneath ch\u014dchin (lanterns). Photo \/ Dean Purcell<\/p>\n
Perhaps, Matt speculates, this is the reason The Cave has attracted praise from high-profile diners. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s kind of the anti-cool place to be. You come down here not because it\u2019s a cool place to be, but [because] it\u2019s super cool.\u201d <\/p>\n
Jason Momoa, Jack Black, Rose Matafeo and Chris Parker are among the celebrities who have sung the praises of The Cave. (Black once characterised the restaurant as serving \u201cdeliciousness on a stick\u201d.) <\/p>\n
Consistency and culture are a part of Tanuki\u2019s Cave longevity. Commitment is another unmovable pillar, embodied by Hikari and Matt. <\/p>\n
The couple have been at the helm of Tanuki\u2019s Cave since 2022. After Rick Littlewood passed away in 2018, Hikari and Matt, who were living in Canada, put a layer of management in to support Yumiko in running the restaurants, but it eventually became untenable with the pressures of the Covid-19 pandemic. <\/p>\n
Returning home from Canada, they bought Yumiko out. <\/p>\n
\u201cHikari wanted to save the business,\u201d Matt says. \u201cIt was her dad\u2019s legacy, so it was very important and I bought into that.\u201d <\/p>\n
So, the restaurant has continued to entertain crowds and serve signature plates. Appetites are still satiated with cabbage and mayo, yakitori straight off the grill and crisp battered vegetables. This year, The Cave celebrates 30 years of service. <\/p>\n
Hikari and Matt look forward to upcoming changes, too. They are eagerly counting down to the opening of the City Rail Link and thinking about how to attract more activity in the inner city. <\/p>\n
\u201cI think the activation, say from central government or local government in terms of funding for the arts \u2013 that\u2019s where I would say the biggest bang for the buck to activate CBD is: in shows,\u201d Matt says. <\/p>\n
They\u2019re also working to relaunch Kura sake bar, which has been on hiatus since 2020 \u2013 it will be refreshed to function as a late-night bar. <\/p>\n
\u201cThat would be something that is like [a] restart. Opening a new restaurant … scary, terrifying, but exciting,\u201d Hikari says. <\/p>\n
Right now though, as the waitstaff assemble at the bar to sort reservations and table layout, there is a brief moment for sentimentality. <\/p>\n
Top left: the card etched by Rick Littlewood. Photo \/ Dean Purcell<\/p>\n
\u201cReaching 30, for me, is about Dad.\u201d Hikari says. \u201cI just think that his legacy is so important, that he would just be so happy that it is 30 years old because it was his vision. I wish he was here to see it.\u201d <\/p>\n
She ponders the wish Rick Littlewood made for Tanuki and The Cave, now fixed to the wall for all diners to see. <\/p>\n
\u201cI honour that. I know the vision he had and that\u2019s kind of the same vision I have \u2013 you just want to be a welcoming place for people to go and …\u201d <\/p>\n
Hikari takes a breath, eyes shining … \u201chave fun\u201d. <\/p>\n
More dining out <\/p>\n
From new openings to trusted favourites. <\/p>\n