Parkes said she ended up recognising him as he was wearing the same hat as in the Instagram photo – and black and blue gumboots he had just been gifted.
“He was really nice and very polite.
“He said that he was [in New Zealand] for work, but was very generalised about it.”
Parkes said Helberg ordered the chicken salad and “a couple of beers”, opting for Asahi over Waikato Draught.
She said although the team were “really excited” about Helberg’s visit, she wouldn’t be surprised if Helberg didn’t notice he had been recognised by staff until the end of the night.
“I kinda treated him like everyone else. It wasn’t until the end, when he walked up to pay, that I asked if he was okay to take a picture with us.”
Parkes said Helberg had mentioned he might return to the restaurant, but she said he might just have been polite.
Regardless: “It certainly makes for a good work story.”
Restaurant co-owner Krystle Fabish told the Waikato Herald the celebrity visit had been “quite a buzz” for the team.
“It was a pretty cool surprise for us ... We’ve had well-known personalities visit us before but no one of this calibre.“
Fabish, who runs the restaurant with her business partner Matt Wright, said neither of them had been working that evening, but Helberg had been in Parkes’ capable hands.
“Khrystal was the perfect person to have served Simon ... [Despite] the fact she recognised him ... she treated him and served him just the way she would any other customer.
“She didn’t make a fuss over his celebrity status and instead allowed him to enjoy ... having dinner in a foreign country with friends and largely having anonymity from the rest of the world.
“[She]... never [even] referenced The Big Bang Theory or his TV character Howard.
“[It was] all very professional but cool, calm and casual – just how we like to operate!"
Danielle Zollickhofer is the Waikato news director and a multimedia journalist at the Waikato Herald. She joined NZME in 2021 and is based in Hamilton.
