By CATHERINE MASTERS
Auckland wharfside restaurant and landmark Cin Cin On Quay is for sale.
Co-owner Tonci Farac last night confirmed that he and brother Luis were pulling out of the restaurant they started 12 years ago and which turned the old Ferry Building into an eatery drawcard.
The restaurant has a reputation
for fine dining and cosmopolitan charm but over the years it has also gained attention for events outside its control.
This year, one of its waiters was beaten and left for dead in Fort Lane. In the 1990s, British rugby league player Bobby Goulding punched two men at the restaurant.
Recently, it was listed as one of the top 10 great places to eat on millennium night by British wine magazine Decanter.
Mr Farac said he was sad to be selling Cin Cin - he and his brother had been trying to keep the news low-key.
The pair intended to franchise their America's Cup village restaurant Wildfire, hoping to establish them in Sydney and Christchurch, and perhaps Wellington and Queenstown.
"Cin Cin was a very hard decision. My brother and I thought 'God, you know, we're spreading ourselves thin - like we can't be everywhere.'
"When Sydney starts I intend going over and living there, and setting it up and running it. You can't be everywhere. There's only two of us."
Neville Waldren, chief executive of the Restaurant Association, said last night that Cin Cin was ahead of its time.
"We had nothing like it ... It was the first restaurant in New Zealand to have a 24-hour licence.
"It was the first restaurant where you could go in and not necessarily have to eat."
Said Mr Farac: "When you've been in a place like Cin Cin for 12 years, where do you go next. Where higher do you go? We just want to expand - we want to grow."
