About The Owners
The most familiar face to our customers is that of co-owner Josh Pointon who runs the front of house team. Josh joined us in 2009 when he returned from Sydney which had been his home for 5 years. There he had been working at the prestigious Forty One Restaurant and then went on to manage the busy inner city bistro and wine bar, Fix St James. At ‘Fix’ he furthered his passion for wine under the mentorship of owner and top sommelier, Stuart Knox. Josh is a proud Wellingtonian who brings 10 years of hospitality experience to Polo, ensuring that he and his team provide friendly, professional service.
Local resident Valentina Dias took over the former Edwards Jones Café back in 2006 and when joined by David Thurlow a year later, extended the hours to open for dinners. The name Café Polo was chosen to reflect its focus as a part of the local community and the history of the area, the old Polo Grounds being just down the road. Valentina is also the founder and producer of Pudding Lane, a Cuisine magazine top 100 Company. Pudding Lane pork pies are available from Café Polo. During Christmas, the range includes Christmas puddings and mince pies, all made by hand to centuries’ old recipes. www.puddinglane.co.nz When not at Polo, Valentina can be found at the new Roxy Cinema and Coco Restaurant in Miramar in which Valentina is an investor and co general manager ( hopefully further enhancing the local neighbourhood and giving diners another place to go when Polo is fully booked! www.roxycinema.co.nz )
Chef/Owner David Thurlow is “living the dream”. While honing his skills with such names as Logan Brown Restaurant, Government House NZ & The Savoy Group London, David dreamt of a place where he could work with like minded people producing and serving great local food. With a leap of faith to the suburbs he has made the dream come true. David passionately believes in sustainability and strives to use organic, free range and local produce where possible. He is a past winner of several culinary gold medals, Beervana Beer and Chefs Competition 2009 and Hanz “best beef dish“2010.
We look forward to getting to know you.
Convivially yours, The Polo Team
