KEY POINTS:
Top-class central Auckland restaurant Ottos has closed, citing high costs and a cloud that never lifted after the sex trial of a former manager and shareholder.
Philip David Sturm was jailed in May last year for nine years after being convicted of six charges of sexual violation and stupefaction against four men, all aged in their 20s.
Sturm set up Ottos and another successful Auckland restaurant, Cibo, and ran the upmarket Coast Bar.
Ottos won Metro magazine's restaurant of the year award in 2003.
A source said the main reason for Otto's closure was "horrendous" rent in the High St Metropolis building and overheads, but the Sturm case "never really helped anything".
"Everything went downhill since then. Everyone thought he was involved [in Ottos] ... He was basically manager. He had a small stake."
