New Zealand's 'rudest cafe' facing closure - report

The so-called "rudest café in New Zealand" might soon insult its last customer.

The building which houses the Springfield Store and Café in Canterbury is being sold, Stuff reports, and it's not clear what the new owners plan to do with it.

The café made headlines earlier this year when the torrent of bad reviews and complaints led police to investigate.

"Extremely rude, aggressive, and threatening conduct. Disgusting!" one Google Review read. "The rudest - nastiest - people behind the counter you will ever met - Don't bother to go there!" said another.

"The woman deadset handed me my coffee and then farted. When I raised an eyebrow, she replied, 'What? It's natural!'" a review on TripAdvisor claimed.

Former Selwyn Mayor Bill Woods, who owns the building, said he's accepted an offer to sell it, and the new owners want cafe operators Karyn and Donald Cullingford gone.

"They are not interested in leasing it to the [Cullingfords] - they want it for themselves," Woods told Stuff. 

The sale is dependent on the prospective new owner coming to an arrangement with the café's owners, he said.

"They have given me no indication of what they want to do with it," Woods told Stuff. "They might pull it down and do something else. It's a bit of a mystery to me."

The Cullingfords, who took over the cafe nearly a decade ago, reportedly turned down his offer to buy the building - saying they were too old.

Police visited the cafe earlier this year and reportedly gave the owners "customer service advice".

Despite the complaints, the Springfield Store and Café has won awards for its food.

Newshub.