He served at then-burger bar Berkels when he first lost the mayoralty in ’95, two years after winning it in a by-election.
During that term, while I was Mountain Scene’s editor, I’d been rung by his PA saying he wanted to chat to me about recent flood events.
Naturally, I took Tim across the road to my regular haunt, where he met and rapidly befriended the owners, Sue and the late Mike Burke.
The couple "with great compassion and generosity", Tim said in his second book, took him on after that ’95 defeat.
He paid a peppercorn rental and kept the profit, if any.
In his last job "I was cooking up a storm, here I’m cooking up a breakfast," Tim told a Sunday newspaper.
A German visitor declared it the best brekky he’d had in New Zealand — Mike added: "Tim was so overwhelmed by the flattery, he forgot to charge him."
His menu included ‘Tim’s Quickie’, tea or coffee and a politically-correct croissant (from a German supplier due to French nuclear testing) and jam.
In his book, Tim says he and his partner/waitress Asha Dutt made about $50 a day "and we celebrated with a pint of stout and a bowl of soup".
To customers around the world "I was just another friendly, helpful Kiwi".
"We felt like backpackers on a working holiday."
Susan says more than once he’d chat so much with customers he’d forget what was coming to boil.
"He made a lot of friends, but I don’t think he made a lot of money."
Tim carried on for about six months, but both then and afterwards would host comedy nights with mates like Gary McCormick.
We all went to Invers in ’98 to celebrate his re-election — starting an amazing reign which only ended in 2022.
Tim, who kindly spoke at my 50th birthday party and attended my 60th, came under pressure to stand for the Queenstown mayoralty during his time here.
How things would have panned out if he’d stood, who only knows.
