Paulina’s Restaurant & Bar

The simple, sustaining pleasure of sharing a delicious meal and enjoying time with family and friends is at the heart of Paulina’s Restaurant & Bar in Clyde.

“Food in a family, it should be the most important time, everyone sits together and eats and talks.”

http://www.paulinasrestaurant.co.nz/

Paulina Corvalan

Growing up in the south of Chile, Paulina’s grandmother taught her to cook and the importance of using the freshest, local ingredients. After emigrating to New Zealand in 2004, Paulina cooked at restaurants in Queenstown, did an apprenticeship at Arrowtown’s Saffron Restaurant and worked as a fine-dining chef.

The opportunity to open her own restaurant serving relaxed, international-style food was Paulina’s `dream’ next step. In August 2016, two weeks after she picked up the keys, her place was open.

“I said to my friends ‘I really need a name for a restaurant.’ One of my really good friends said ‘Paulina’s’ and I was like, `no I can’t call it Paulina’s’. I was like, well, it would identify me, but we could call it that. Because it’s your name on the door, you really work quite hard and try your best. But it counts for a lot: people ask `Are you Paulina?”

More Than Just A Nod

Central Otago Value: Adding Value

The way people connect at Paulina’s is about more than just a nod. It’s about a spirit of generosity in sharing with others, an appreciation and love of good food and fine company in a welcoming, cosy atmosphere. It’s smiles, laughter and quality interactions amongst customers and staff.

“We always wanted to have a family feeling so that people would feel welcome and come and eat here and enjoy themselves. It’s also about the opportunity to share food – having dishes where people could share and have the whole experience. It’s a bit like an extended family. It’s more staff interaction than just serving food.”

From Garden to Plate

Central Otago Value: Having Integrity

Acting with integrity is a cornerstone for Paulina’s business – it’s about being community-minded but also about where-ever possible, sourcing only the best, local ingredients and skilfully combining them to create delicious, flavoursome dishes. Paulina is the head chef supported by a great team of friendly staff.

“We have our own garden and we like to provide people with something from this area, instead of it coming all the way from Christchurch or Dunedin. This means being able to provide some fresh produce that we grow ourselves and put it on the table.”

“It’s also about working with what we believe in and protecting this beautiful place. It’s not just about making money out of the business, our theme is like a family and it’s doing everything we do, we try and see the consequences that comes with it.”

Caring for the Environment

Central Otago Value: Making A Sustainable Difference

Paulina runs the business according to her own values. This means looking after both people and the environment. Restaurant waste is saved and fed to the pigs, all peelings are composted. Where possible business decisions are made in harmony with the natural environment.

“I think it’s very, very important that we are conscious of how we run our business. If you run a business, you can make some changes for the environment and for people. We only use free range pork, we make our own cashew nut milk, we don’t buy milk that comes in those boxes that you can’t recycle, we use packs that are compostable not plastic. We are trying to be a business that doesn’t make a huge impact on the environment.”