Verona Cafe & Bar on Karangahape Rd was placed in liquidation after 34 years in business. Photo / Chris Skelton
Verona Cafe & Bar on Karangahape Rd was placed in liquidation after 34 years in business. Photo / Chris Skelton
Elemeno P lead singer Dave Gibson has paid tribute to an iconic Auckland cafe that inspired one of the band’s biggest hits and was where he met his wife.
Verona Cafe & Bar, a Karangahape Rd institution and beloved venue that played host to various music acts, was placed inliquidation last week after 34 years in business.
The cafe has closed its doors, sparking an outpouring of support and disappointment from the hospitality industry and its patrons.
Singer-songwriter Gibson says he wrote Elemeno P’s 2003 pop-punk hit Verona – named after the eponymous cafe – about the day he met his wife of 19 years, Sarah.
He penned a tribute to the K Rd fixture that inspired one of the band’s biggest tunes, saying news about Verona’s closure is “genuinely sad”.
“Twenty-five years ago I walked into a cafe on K Rd to meet a friend,” Gibson wrote in a message to the Herald from New York, where he and his family are now based.
“This girl he knew quite by chance walked in. She sat down and I moved over. It was the day of her 21st party, and I promptly invited myself to it.
“I ended up writing a song about that very moment called Verona, and I’ve been with that girl ever since. We’re about to celebrate our 20th wedding anniversary.
Elemeno P (from left) – Justyn Pilbrow, Dave Gibson, Scotty Pearson and Lani Purkis, with long-time musical wingman Godfrey de Grut.
“So to hear Verona is closing is genuinely sad. It’s one of the few spots left of K Rd that reminded me of my youth, the early 2000s.
“One time, years later, I got a couple of free beers at Verona. I felt like I had truly made it.
“Thanks for [the] beers, and thanks for the memories and thanks for the song.”
Verona, from Elemeno P’s debut album Love & Disrespect, begins with the line: “When I saw you in Verona; you sat down, I moved over; pretty people, but all I saw was you.”
Verona Cafe & Bar was placed in liquidation last week by the High Court at Auckland after a petition from the Commissioner of Inland Revenue.
Kristal Pihama of KPMG, one of the liquidators appointed to JCK Holdings Limited (trading as Verona Cafe & Bar), told the Herald the grounds for liquidation included outstanding GST and PAYE arrears of about $692,000.
Pihama said they had decided to close the cafe’s doors while “waiting for further information to come in”, with the first priority being to try to sell the business.
Verona was opened in 1992 by Hilary Ord and Janet Sergeant during a “very specific and unique time”.
“What really established Verona’s reputation was that first decade or so,” Ord told the Herald.
“Because we didn’t have mobile phones, you had to say ... ‘let’s meet in Verona’. That’s kind of what happened. It became this hubbub of meetings, and films were being written there, and it was just this hub of wonderful creativity.
“We had something really special going on.”
Verona inspired Elemeno P's pop-punk hit. Photo / Richard Robinson
Ord, who with Sergeant sold the place in 2004, says “there’s a real feeling of sadness out there” about Verona’s closure.
“There is such a warmth, even if people hadn’t gone there recently. It’s been 34 years.
“I feel sorry for the new owner, that’s really tough.”
Ord says Elemeno P were regulars at the cafe and she “felt so humbled” by the song.
“The guys used to come in all the time … they were such a good band.
“Let them know I was always too shy to say thank you.”
Verona may still be handed a lifeline if a buyer comes forward, with many hoping for, as Gibson once wrote, “good fortune at the bar”.
