{"id":363766,"date":"2026-04-04T18:01:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-04T18:01:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/363766\/"},"modified":"2026-04-04T18:01:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-04T18:01:09","slug":"green-parrot-cafe-at-100-how-a-wellington-icon-survived-a-century","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/363766\/","title":{"rendered":"Green Parrot Cafe at 100: How a Wellington icon survived a century"},"content":{"rendered":"

Located on the corner of Taranaki and Wakefield Sts, the venue has been the backdrop to Lord of the Rings parties, \u201ctop secret\u201d coalition negotiations, and been a favourite haunt of the capital\u2019s power brokers<\/a> since 1926.<\/p>\n

The secret to weathering 100 years in the capital\u2019s volatile hospitality scene is working together as a family, co-owner Chris Sakoufakis said.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the key is just the family, and making sure that anyone that comes through the doors has a good experience.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"OwnersOwners 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<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a family effort, so we all contribute,\u201d he said, noting his own daughters now help out at the restaurant.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe menu has just survived all the different trends that have come and gone, it\u2019s got longevity, and we haven\u2019t tried to be different to what we truly believe in.\u201d <\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

By the 1940s, it became popular with the American and New Zealand servicemen.<\/p>\n

It was bought by the Greek Sakoufakis family in 1970, around the same time the politicians started coming.<\/p>\n

The restaurant\u2019s 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\u2019s food scene.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe 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<\/p>\n

The dining hall\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

Prime Ministers from Sir Robert Muldoon to Dame Jacinda Ardern have enjoyed the Green Parrot\u2019s huge plates<\/a> and stacks of white bread and butter.<\/p>\n

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<\/a>. Key denied this and when the man tried to leave the restaurant he was arrested for the dine and dash.<\/p>\n

But no MP has been quite as intertwined with the restaurant\u2019s history as Winston Peters<\/a>.<\/p>\n

His favourite Wellington spot, the Foreign Minister is \u201cstill a big supporter of the restaurant\u201d, Sakoufakis said. \u201cThe customers love interacting with him as well, which is great.\u201d<\/p>\n

Peters, who tends to order flounder with an egg on top but is also partial to a steak, told the Herald he has been \u201clucky to frequent and support this iconic Wellington business over many years\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe 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,\u201d the New Zealand First leader said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we\u2019re most proud of regarding the Green Parrot is over the years it has gone from a \u2018looked down on\u2019 venue to a belatedly respectable one where even judicial officers have tasted the fare.<\/p>\n

\u201cPersonally, I\u2019ve been jeered for my patronage of the Green Parrot, which I put down to plain snobbery or envy.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe family who have run this business have been truly magnificent,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\"WinstonWinston 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<\/p>\n

Getting to 100 years has not been without its challenges, Sakoufakis said, with a depressed local economy<\/a> driving people out of the central city.<\/p>\n

Ever an optimist, he is determined not to talk down on Wellington at the risk of prolonging the city\u2019s post-Covid business blues<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been a bit quiet, but definitely I think we\u2019ve turned a corner,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re feeling quite positive about the future.\u201d<\/p>\n

With the recent reopening of the city\u2019s central library<\/a>, and work underway to revive the Reading Cinema complex on nearby Courtenay Pl<\/a>, Sakoufakis said the central city was starting to bounce back.<\/p>\n

A few years back, the pair made the difficult decision to sell<\/a>, but ultimately could not find the right buyer and they took the business off the market.<\/p>\n

\"NotNot much has changed inside Wellington’s iconic Green Parrot Cafe, something that owner Chris Sakoufakis says has kept people coming back. Photo \/ Mark Mitchell<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2018d hope that it would still be around another 100 years, but who knows,\u201d Sakoufakis said.<\/p>\n

The 100th birthday brings mixed emotions, Sakoufakis snr said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m getting old and feel a bit sad about it,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of people who we knew are not anymore with us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Those he used to serve as children have grown old, and some regulars have died, while others have left the city.<\/p>\n

But the pair are not giving up on the city.<\/p>\n

\u201cI love it,\u201d he said, when asked whether he still enjoyed working at 86.<\/p>\n

\u201cWellington is paradise.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Green Parrot will officially mark its 100th birthday with a party at the restaurant in June.<\/p>\n

Ethan Manera<\/a> 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<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Located on the corner of Taranaki and Wakefield Sts, the venue has been the backdrop to Lord of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":363767,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[3548,6375,1975,138,1882,48706,15364,8458,22503,100174,6097,21040,60019,2209,2518,10938,1861,15557,221,3218,8790,22638,3025,111,43,139,69,15290,45373,9095,65160,9348,53883,1961,52,15900,102,379,1530],"class_list":{"0":"post-363766","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-zealand","8":"tag-3548","9":"tag-appeal","10":"tag-at","11":"tag-business","12":"tag-cafe","13":"tag-cafes","14":"tag-century","15":"tag-colourful","16":"tag-dining","17":"tag-discuss","18":"tag-down","19":"tag-enduring","20":"tag-famed","21":"tag-father","22":"tag-green","23":"tag-herald","24":"tag-history","25":"tag-hospitality","26":"tag-how","27":"tag-icon","28":"tag-institution","29":"tag-marks","30":"tag-most","31":"tag-new-zealand","32":"tag-news","33":"tag-newzealand","34":"tag-nz","35":"tag-operators","36":"tag-parrot","37":"tag-secret","38":"tag-sits","39":"tag-survived","40":"tag-surviving","41":"tag-this","42":"tag-wellington","43":"tag-wellingtons","44":"tag-with","45":"tag-year","46":"tag-years"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/363766","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=363766"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/363766\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/363767"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=363766"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=363766"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=363766"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}