{"id":442837,"date":"2026-05-24T10:12:10","date_gmt":"2026-05-24T10:12:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/442837\/"},"modified":"2026-05-24T10:12:10","modified_gmt":"2026-05-24T10:12:10","slug":"green-parrot-cafe-owner-kosta-sakoufakis-dies-aged-86","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/442837\/","title":{"rendered":"Green Parrot Cafe owner Kosta Sakoufakis dies aged 86"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Winston<\/p>\n

\nWinston Peters with Green Parrot co-owners Kosta and Chris Sakoufakis in April.
\nPhoto: The Green Parrot Cafe\n<\/p>\n

The owner of an iconic Wellington restaurant known for its frequent political diners has died aged 86.<\/p>\n

Kosta Sakoufakis co-owned the Green Parrot Cafe with his son Chris.<\/p>\n

In a Sunday night Facebook post, the cafe wrote that they “will be closed as we take time to grieve and be together during this difficult period”.<\/p>\n

NZ First Leader Winston Peters – a well-known customer – expressed his condolences in a post.<\/p>\n

“(Kosta) was always a gracious and kind person who put all of his energy and spirit into the Green Parrot,” Peters wrote.<\/p>\n

“Thoughts and prayers to his family and friends on this seriously sad news.”<\/p>\n

While the restaurant is approaching its 100th birthday, the Sakoufakis family took over the business in 1970 and Kosta became a co-owner in 1986.<\/p>\n

It became most well-known as a watering hole for politicians throughout the years, including Peters.<\/p>\n

The father and son duo listed the Cafe for sale in 2023, but they ultimately did not find a buyer.<\/p>\n

Sign up for Money with Susan Edmunds<\/a>, a weekly newsletter covering all the things that affect how we make and spend money<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Winston Peters with Green Parrot co-owners Kosta and Chris Sakoufakis in April. Photo: The Green Parrot Cafe The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":442838,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[48,47,42,43,49,46,44,45,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-442837","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-audio","tag-current-affairs","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-podcasts","tag-public-radio","tag-radio-new-zealand","tag-rnz","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/442837","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=442837"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/442837\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/442838"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=442837"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=442837"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=442837"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}