Restaurant Association\u2019s latest report<\/a> showed total annual sales for the year ended June 2025 were a record $15.99 billion (up 1.4%), it noted the sector was facing higher operational costs. Business closures had increased 19% on the previous year.<\/p>\n![\"Gochu,]()
Gochu, one of the Namu Group restaurant’s in Auckland’s Commercial Bay, photographed in 2020. Photos \/ Sylvie Whinray<\/p>\n
Namu Group currently operates Gemmi and Gochu in Auckland\u2019s Commercial Bay, Tobi in Ponsonby Rd and Dweji and The Candy Shop (and its nighttime pop-up Guksu Shop 88) in Newmarket. Crack Chicken stores in Hamilton and Wellington offer takeaways only.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd they do great,\u201d says Cho. \u201cWhen we did the Crack Chicken in Ponsonby, what we didn\u2019t consider was that it\u2019s not a takeaway shop. It required front-of-house staff.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo matter how busy we were, we couldn\u2019t really see that much return.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cho says group chief executive David Lee has always been \u201cvery quick\u201d to act if a restaurant isn\u2019t working.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have the option to either just pull the plug and file for bankruptcy, or to keep on trying to make it work, or to change the idea and change the concept.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s no shame to the people who do file for bankruptcy, that\u2019s absolutely their prerogative, that\u2019s just not how we\u2019ve done it … we\u2019re also just very realistic when something is not working.\u201d<\/p>\n
While matcha shortages had made international news, Cho said there was a gap in the Auckland market. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019ll be hot, traditional Japanese matcha, but I also recently went to New York and LA and they had quite a different approach. White people have bastardised it a bit, they\u2019ve modernised it, and put their own spin on it. And honestly, it works because it\u2019s delicious \u2013 iced strawberry matchas, iced banana bread matcha.\u201d<\/p>\n
Honeymoon Avenue \u2013 with menu items pitched between $8.50-$12.50 \u2013 would also play into a trend towards lower alcohol consumption.<\/p>\n
\u201cI hate people that say \u2018studies show\u2019. But, honestly, I\u2019m seeing it before my very own eyes,\u201d says Cho. \u201cOwning Tobi, I was shocked at how little people drink. Either they just drink a very appropriate amount \u2013 like one or two a night \u2013 or they\u2019re just straight into mocktails.<\/p>\n
\u201cBack in my day, and I\u2019m not that old, eating was not a priority … it\u2019s not like that anymore. Kids are a little bit more self-aware and more sensible these days.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cho says Namu Group had originally planned to install photobooths (imported from Korea) at the back of Crack Chicken, Ponsonby.<\/p>\n
\u201c[But] can you honestly imagine munching on fried chicken and taking a photo? I genuinely can\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n
Honeymoon Avenue \u201cis gonna be pretty\u201d, Cho promises.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy experience of hospitality, although it\u2019s short, has proved that women are the consumers. I think this will be a nice little hub for the girls of Ponsonby. The girls and the gays!\u201d<\/p>\n
Kim Knight joined the New Zealand Herald in 2016 and is a senior journalist on its lifestyle desk. She is a former restaurant critic and holds a master\u2019s in gastronomy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cBecause of the recession right now, it\u2019s like something to eat is not enough … You have to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":91394,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[74,806,68589,68593,68590,9451,19666,68591,13845,156,37483,2109,49157,68592,1445,68588,3234,111,139,69,26894,479,1230,57343,1361,61,1533,197],"class_list":["post-91393","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-after","tag-as","tag-avenue","tag-b","tag-cheat","tag-chicken","tag-crack","tag-disown","tag-eight","tag-entertainment","tag-fake","tag-family","tag-forever","tag-fried","tag-friends","tag-honeymoon","tag-months","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-ponsonbys","tag-relationships","tag-reopen","tag-shuts","tag-that","tag-to","tag-will","tag-you"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91393","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=91393"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91393\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/91394"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=91393"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=91393"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=91393"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}