The Green Parrot off the market and ‘just riding the wave’

Thursday, 29 May 2025

The distinguished Green Parrot did not find its perfect match.

That’s to say, the institution was put up for sale by its longtime owners, the Sakoufakis family, in 2023, in the hopes of finding someone who would embrace it for what it was and run it as such.

It didn’t work out that way. But the eatery, as you may have noticed, is still open for business and a sale may be revisited in the future.

“It just wasn’t the right climate and we weren’t attracting the right buyers and confidence in the city was diminishing,” says co-owner Chris Sakoufakis. “And here we are. We’re still here. We’re not advertising anymore, we’re just riding the wave basically.”

The Green Parrot Cafe, the Wakefield St corner haunt famous for its political heavyweight dining guests like John Key, Robert Muldoon, Mike Moore and Winston Peters, celebrates its 100th birthday next year.

Chris Sakoufakis’ father and co-owner Kosta Sakoufakis told The Post in 2023, having been searing steaks and grilling flounder for several decades, it was time to retire.

But two years later, Chris says while there was “a lot” of interest in the listing - no doubt from Winston Peters’ reported disappointment in the sale - they didn’t find the “right” buyer.

They were happy for a new operator to make “some” changes, but wanted to keep it “authentic”.

“That was important. We didn’t want someone just turning up and just changing everything.

“We feel like it’s a Wellington icon, or a national icon, and we just wanted to preserve that.”

Wander into the institution today and behold a menu featuring chicken livers ($32), whole flounder, groper steak ($44), schnitzel ($42) and bacon and eggs ($28) - that’s not too different to the 1950s menu, proudly displayed on its walls, which included fried eggs and ham. Other veritable delicacies back when: “Hangtown fry” (oysters in egg), minced sweet gherkin sandwich, and “asparagus tips mayonnaise”.

Chris Sakoufakis says the longevity of the Green Parrot is owed to its menu and while they aren’t the shillings prices they once were, the food is fresh and the meals are large.

Opened in 1926 by Richard Leckner, a sailor with experience running restaurants in San Francisco, The Green Parrot was named for the six Green Parrot lampshades he’d bought in department store Macy’s half-yearly sales, which he eventually took back to Wellington.

The eatery was then taken over by an American sailor known as “Eddie”, who went bankrupt and in 1932 sold it to Tony Marinovich, who introduced the foundation of the menu as it is today - meats cooked on a grill he had made from melted down gun barrels.

In 1970 it came into the hands of the Sakoufakis family, Spiro and Angelo, a decade before the famous Green Parrot sign would accidentally fly off into Wellington’s winds during refurbishment. Kosta Sakoufakis became a co-owner in 1987 - the menu as it was in the 30s remained - and his son, Chris, would wait tables.

Since then The Green Parrot has hosted cast and crew of Lord of the Rings, fed politicians and prime ministers - including reportedly hosting Moore supporters after he was rolled by Helen Clark as Labour leader in 1993. It was also the scene of a much written about incident that would later be recounted in court: a diner claimed to staff that then prime minister John Key, eating at a neighbouring table, had agreed to pick up his tab. He wasn’t believed and police pulled him from the restaurant, prompting him to later successfully claim he’d been unlawfully detained (Key denied he’d offered to treat).

More recently it’s seen, and been victim of, Covid, economic headwinds and a struggling Wellington.

Chris Sakoufakis is reluctant to bag the city, and he’s not pessimistic. He loves dining out in Wellington, and does so frequently. But he agrees people’s dining habits have changed following the pandemic, as the proliferation of high quality urban eateries has people opting to stay in their neighbourhoods. The closure of the Amora hotel and Reading Cinemas hasn’t helped foot traffic, neither has the Government’s cuts to the public service.

“Obviously, recession has hit the country as well. So it took a trifecta of events that’s changed the landscape of hospitality in general, across the whole country but especially in Wellington.”

Bookings had been volatile, and some customers had cancelled en route because they couldn’t find a car park, says Sakoufakis. The week The Post visits the New Zealand First party - its leader is a firm favourite guest, and the feeling is mutual - beset by urgent Parliament business, had cancelled a booking.

However, Sakoufakis says the future of Wellington, with its planned infrastructure upgrades, is looking brighter.

“I think we just need to get through this period, and things will get better. There will be a bottom somewhere, hopefully sooner rather than later.”

At some point, the family may decide to relist - but fear not, there are no plans to close altogether.

“I don’t think that’s going to be an option for us. I think that’s our duty to make sure that we carry on, you know, we’re obligated.”