The restaurant at the Martinborough Hotel has been taken over by husband and wife duo Adam and Nicola Newell, the original owners of Wellington’s Zibibbo.
"We'll be changing maybe the style of the service and the style of the food, but the style of the restaurant will be staying mostly the same," said Adam, who has worked in well-regarded restaurants in London, New York, Tokyo and France. He has a Michelin star, awarded during his time at Fulham Road Restaurant in London in 1995. Taking over the newly renamed Union Square Bistro & Bar in Martinborough is also something of a homecoming – he worked there for five months twenty years ago.
"We'd been looking in Wairarapa for a while and nothing had really grabbed us, then the hotel restaurant came up," said Nicola. “The Bistro will serve modern New Zealand cuisine with a French influence and will use fresh local seasonal produce, much of it sourced from our own market gardens. We're aiming to have wide appeal; everyone from the local farmer to the international visitor."
