Colourful doyen of restaurant industry dies at 96

Pioneering restaurateur Bob Sell was well liked and knew how to make people laugh.

One of Auckland's trailblazers in the restaurant industry, Bob Sell, has died.

The 96-year-old passed away peacefully at the Edmund Hillary Retirement Village on Monday.

His name was one many people, particularly in Auckland, knew of in the late '50s, '60s and '70s.

Considered one of the city's pioneer restaurateurs - alongside others including good friend QSM Otto Groen and Lada Ourednik - Mr Sell wanted to give people a dining experience that at the time was not being offered in New Zealand.

"He was one of the doyens of the industry," Mike Egan, president of the Restaurant Association of NZ said.

"When he started, New Zealand was a restaurant wasteland. The only place you could dine in was a hotel dining room and that was it.

"He was one of the doyens of the industry and when I started, it was 1981. We were just young kids, we were just waiters and it was like: 'Wow, that's Bob Sell'."

Mr Sell opened La Boheme, in Wellesley St, in 1956. He later started The Colony nightclub - at which he organised gigs from local bands and musicians; including a young Kiri Te Kanawa.

He is also known for the Hungry Horse, in Elliott St, as well as being the original owner of the Fisherman's Wharf restaurant.

"He was a character and he liked the good life," said fellow restaurateur Tony Adcock. "He could make people laugh and was really a larger than life character."

Later he ran a late-night radio talkback show for then Radio Pacific - a show that was hugely popular.

For the last decade Mr Sell lived out retirement in Rarotonga, where he was loved by locals. He returned to New Zealand late last year after falling ill.

He married twice and had a daughter to his first wife; but only found out about his child years after his marriage had ended.

His second wife, Jean Sell, worked alongside her husband in Auckland for many years. The couple never had children and later separated but remained good friends until her death about 20 years ago, from cancer.

Long-time friend and executor of Mr Sell's estate, David Appleby, described him as a risk-taker who had a great passion for the restaurant business - as well as the ladies.

"He never divorced Jean and it sort of suited him a little bit because he could always say to the young ladies: 'Look, I'd love to marry you but I can't because I'm still married to Jean'," he laughed. "He was a very colourful character ... and inherently quite a kind and gentle sort of a person."

Mr Sell will be farewelled this morning at the Beit Olam Prayer House, at the Waikumete Cemetery, Auckland.

QSM Robert "Bob" Sell
• One of Auckland's pioneer restaurateurs; alongside QSM Otto Groen and Lada Ourednik.
• Opened the hugely popular La Boheme restaurant, in Wellesley St, in 1956. One of very few new dining experiences in Auckland at the time, it was considered very trendy and romantic.
• Later opened other businesses including Hungry Horse, The Colony nightclub and Fisherman's Wharf.
• Lived in Rarotonga for about 12 years before returning to New Zealand late last year after falling ill.