Located on the corner of Taranaki and Wakefield Sts, the venue has been the backdrop to Lord of the Rings parties, “top secret” coalition negotiations, and been a favourite haunt of the capital’s power brokers since 1926.
The secret to weathering 100 years in the capital’s volatile hospitality scene is working together as a family, co-owner Chris Sakoufakis said.
Now the operations manager, he first donned a white shirt and bowtie at 11 years old to help his father, Kosta, serve tables in 1987.
“I think the key is just the family, and making sure that anyone that comes through the doors has a good experience.”
Owners Chris and Kosta Sakoufakis had put the Green Parrot on the market in 2023, but ultimately stayed on, saying they still love working the restaurant. Photo / Mark Mitchell
“It’s a family effort, so we all contribute,” he said, noting his own daughters now help out at the restaurant.
“The menu has just survived all the different trends that have come and gone, it’s got longevity, and we haven’t tried to be different to what we truly believe in.”
Opening in 1926, the same year Queen Elizabeth II was born and New Zealand introduced the family benefit, the business changed hands a few times in the early years.
By the 1940s, it became popular with the American and New Zealand servicemen.
It was bought by the Greek Sakoufakis family in 1970, around the same time the politicians started coming.
The restaurant’s grill, made from melted-down gun barrels from World War I, is currently at Wellington Museum, due to be part of an exhibition about the city’s food scene.
The Green Parrot, photographed in 1980, has fed the likes of Norman Kirk, Sir Peter Jackson, and Billy T James. Photo / Wellington City Libraries, Charles J Fearnley
The dining hall’s deep red walls are adorned with framed newspaper clippings and photos of Hollywood celebrities and local legends sharing laughs over a coffee or pork chop.
Prime Ministers from Sir Robert Muldoon to Dame Jacinda Ardern have enjoyed the Green Parrot’s huge plates and stacks of white bread and butter.
It was the site of a 2012 arrest when a member of the public claimed Sir John Key, dining at a nearby table, offered to pay his bill. Key denied this and when the man tried to leave the restaurant he was arrested for the dine and dash.
But no MP has been quite as intertwined with the restaurant’s history as Winston Peters.
His favourite Wellington spot, the Foreign Minister is “still a big supporter of the restaurant”, Sakoufakis said. “The customers love interacting with him as well, which is great.”
Peters, who tends to order flounder with an egg on top but is also partial to a steak, told the Herald he has been “lucky to frequent and support this iconic Wellington business over many years”.
“The hard-working staff have consistently served great food, sticking to tried-and-true Kiwi menus that have stood the test of time and survived passing fads and tastes,” the New Zealand First leader said.
“What we’re most proud of regarding the Green Parrot is over the years it has gone from a ‘looked down on’ venue to a belatedly respectable one where even judicial officers have tasted the fare.
“Personally, I’ve been jeered for my patronage of the Green Parrot, which I put down to plain snobbery or envy.”
“The family who have run this business have been truly magnificent,” he said.
Winston Peters at the Green Parrot Cafe in Wellington, 2013, seated by a mural of famous patrons including Billy T James and Sir Peter Jackson. Photo / Mark Mitchell
Getting to 100 years has not been without its challenges, Sakoufakis said, with a depressed local economy driving people out of the central city.
Ever an optimist, he is determined not to talk down on Wellington at the risk of prolonging the city’s post-Covid business blues.
“It’s been a bit quiet, but definitely I think we’ve turned a corner,” he said.
“We’re feeling quite positive about the future.”
With the recent reopening of the city’s central library, and work underway to revive the Reading Cinema complex on nearby Courtenay Pl, Sakoufakis said the central city was starting to bounce back.
A few years back, the pair made the difficult decision to sell, but ultimately could not find the right buyer and they took the business off the market.
Not much has changed inside Wellington’s iconic Green Parrot Cafe, something that owner Chris Sakoufakis says has kept people coming back. Photo / Mark Mitchell
“I‘d hope that it would still be around another 100 years, but who knows,” Sakoufakis said.
The 100th birthday brings mixed emotions, Sakoufakis snr said.
“I’m getting old and feel a bit sad about it,” he said.
“A lot of people who we knew are not anymore with us.”
Those he used to serve as children have grown old, and some regulars have died, while others have left the city.
But the pair are not giving up on the city.
“I love it,” he said, when asked whether he still enjoyed working at 86.
“Wellington is paradise.”
The Green Parrot will officially mark its 100th birthday with a party at the restaurant in June.
Ethan Manera is a Wellington-based journalist covering Wellington issues, local politics and business in the capital. He can be emailed at ethan.manera@nzme.co.nz.