Bay Hospitality Awards<\/a> Supreme Establishment Award.<\/p>\n\u201cWe produced a style of food that people would feel comfortable with, and I think, as a business, that was very important.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Anne]()
Anne Butcher and Rick Lowe were the partnership behind Somerset Cottage.<\/p>\n
As they grew, Anne and Rick diversified Somerset beyond the restaurant floor.<\/p>\n
They launched cooking schools from the restaurant, then took the concept overseas and built a loyal following that spanned more than 25 years.<\/p>\n
Rick demonstrated recipes and cooking techniques while Anne shared stories and practical insights, before participants sat down together to enjoy the food.<\/p>\n
He said Anne\u2019s philosophy always centred on people and how she made them feel, describing her as \u201cwarm and welcoming\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople left the restaurant feeling really positive, like they had a good time, and she was like that in life.\u201d<\/p>\n
Community of Somerset <\/p>\n
Community worker Tommy Wilson, who worked for Te Tuinga Wh\u0101nau before its closure in 2024, said the impact of Somerset Cottage extended well beyond its restaurant walls.<\/p>\n
![\"The]()
The outside of Somerset Cottage before it went through some alterations over the years.<\/p>\n
He said Anne, with the support of Somerset diners, helped provide 30 children with brand-new bikes for Christmas in 2014.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a beautiful thing to see. It brought a lot of joy, and that\u2019s what Anne is well known for, her kindness and the joy she sprinkled on the community.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe was a shining star.\u201d<\/p>\n
Former Bay of Plenty MP and National Party leader Todd Muller said he made many cherished memories at Somerset Cottage.<\/p>\n
Muller recalled that he had just started university when the restaurant first opened.<\/p>\n
\u201cI can remember the first visit was a celebration of some university achievement, probably some good mark in politics.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said Somerset had \u201cwalked alongside\u201d the community and contributed to it in so many ways.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was always Rick and Anne, and that was the magic, the specialness of the environment, the warmth of the greeting and the quality of the food.\u201d<\/p>\n
A family legacy <\/p>\n
Hannah Lowe, Anne\u2019s daughter, said her mum \u201calways joked\u201d that she and her sister couldn\u2019t go anywhere without someone knowing them from Somerset.<\/p>\n
\u201cTurned out to be very true growing up. Everyone knew who Mum and Dad were and therefore, by association, knew who we were.\u201d<\/p>\n
She said there was a blurry line between customers and friends, and more often than not, those customers became part of the family.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s what I\u2019m incredibly grateful for now, the community of good friends and family, we\u2019ve seen that in the support since Mum\u2019s passed, and it\u2019s just been huge.\u201d<\/p>\n
Somerset Cottage closed on June 12, and Lowe said the sense of community could not be replicated elsewhere.<\/p>\n
![\"The]()
The family behind Somerset Cottage, Hannah Lowe (left front), Rick Lowe (left back), Courteney Lowe (right back), and Anne Butcher (right front).<\/p>\n
\u201cWalking through those doors and not having Mum greet you, it\u2019s not Somerset.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was never solely a business, it was a passion, a purpose that gave so much joy and that was reflected in the service provided.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rick said closing Somerset was a \u201chard decision\u201d, but it was the right time.<\/p>\n
\u201cSomerset was Anne and me, so with no Anne there\u2019s no Somerset. I knew straight away that was it.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said Anne\u2019s death left many people in shock, and he was overwhelmed by the outpouring of support from the community.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know how to thank everyone but there are a lot of people out there who have made Somerset special and we can\u2019t thank them enough.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kaitlyn Morrell<\/a> is a journalist for the Bay of Plenty Times and Rotorua Daily Post. She has lived in the region for several years and studied journalism at Massey University.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cWe were a good partnership, the front of house was Anne\u2019s domain, the kitchen was mine. There was…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":497081,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[74,8831,18509,8994,634,380,8127,8985,19363,3011,3259,111,139,69,1118,4604,67778,213],"class_list":["post-497080","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-after","tag-an","tag-closes","tag-cottage","tag-death","tag-decade","tag-end","tag-era","tag-founders","tag-four","tag-milestone","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-of","tag-shy","tag-somerset","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/497080","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=497080"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/497080\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/497081"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=497080"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=497080"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=497080"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}