Massive end for King Size's final weekend

GONE: Trev Murfitt and Sue Abbott had a massive weekend to end their 25 years of running King Size Burger Bar. PHOTO/STEPHEN PARKER A_240117sp1.JPG

King Size Burger Bar owners Sue Abbott and Trev Murfitt haven't exactly eased into retirement.

Their final weekend owning the iconic takeaways on Fenton St was spent cooking hundreds of meals and dealing with queues of people out the door - perhaps the ideal send off for the self-confessed "workaholics".

The couple have owned the business for 25 years and plan to retire after their lease ran out at the weekend.

Ms Abbott has worked at the burger bar for 37 years, buying it after 12 years of working there.

She said a lot of the customers at the weekend were there to say goodbye and wish them well.

"Quite a few came in especially to get their last supper," she said.

"It was a busy long weekend too with lots of sports on. It was flat stick. There were queues of people. They had bottles of wine and flowers."

They were so busy, they had to put the closed sign up early, about 9pm on Sunday, because they ran out of food.

The Rotorua Daily Post broke the news to most of the customers on Saturday, prompting nearly 100 comments the Rotorua Daily Post Facebook page from people wishing them well.

She said one special customer popped in to say goodbye - a man who had gone to King Size every year for the past 25 years on February 14 - his wedding day and Ms Abbott's birthday - for a lime thick shake.

"He is a collector of things and he wanted to know if I had some memorabilia of the place he could have so I found a laminated certificate of when we got highly commended in the best chips competition. He said he would treasure that."

She said he and his wife were sad the takeaways would close but were happy for them in their retirement.

The building's landlord could not be reached for comment and it is unknown what will replace the takeaways.

Tony Betti from Remax-One in Tauranga said the building, which included the neighbouring former massage parlour and a shooting gallery business at the rear, was for sale.

He said it was currently under contract but he wasn't sure what the potential new owner's plans were.