Story: Restaurants and food outlets

Auckland's La Boheme opened in 1956 and, like the Gourmet, was a fashionable restaurant at the time. It was small, which reinforced its exclusivity. Its intimate surroundings seemed to encourage romance and risky behaviour – in later years the owner, Bob Sell, recalled that some well-known businessmen would bring their girlfriends to the restaurant on Friday evenings and their wives on Saturdays. The staff must have been souls of discretion.