On the 21st December 2023, Route 6 Café and Bar in Lumsden will cease operations, 11 years to the day since it opened its doors for the first time.

Owner, Rob Scott won the Southland District Council mayoral elections in October last year and the pressure of the job proved too much when combined with the demands of running a business and rearing a young family.

Scott and his wife Jane moved to Lumsden in 2006 where they started two successful businesses, a print shop named Canvart and the Route 6 Café.

Initially the two businesses were in a close proximity to one another. The café started off as a small operation in a building next to Lumsden’s PGG Wrightsons.

“We set it up as a boutique café selling takeaway coffee. We weren’t sure where it would go, but we knew we were onto something, so we took a leap of faith, bought another building and went full throttle,” Scott says. 

The new building, also in the main street of Lumsden, which happens to be on State Highway 6, had to be fully refurbished.

The Scotts had done it in style. Their inspiration came from the American Route 66.

The centre piece in the café is a vintage Cadillac car body converted into a bar with a surfboard mounted on its side as a counter. The new premises opened in 2014 and proved to be an instant hit.

After taking on the job as the Mayor of Southland in 2022, Scott stepped down from managing the café and employed a manager. Yet the demands of the mayoralty proved to take up all of his time, while the café still required his attention. 

“Having a young family [the Scotts have two children, 13-year-old son Levi and 8-year-old daughter Mia, means I also need time for them. I have to consider the wellbeing of my family,” he admits.

So, a year after he became the Mayor of Southland, Scott had to make a really tough decision.

“It is with a lump in the throat, and a tear running down our cheeks that we have reached the hard decision to close the doors for the foreseeable future on the 21st December 2023,” Scott posted on the Route 6 Café and Bar Facebook page.

“There has been some interest in taking it over,” he says.

He is grateful for the support of the locals and visitors over the years, and hopes that this isn’t the final chapter for Route 6, as there is still the option for someone to buy or lease the business.