About Us
Photo: Joe & Amanda, Fagaloa Bay, Samoa (2021)
The beginning…
Boy meets Girl.
Joe was born in Samoa & moved to NZ in the 80’s. He studied engineering before switching to hospo. He completed his apprenticeship at one of Auckland’s top restaurants “No. 5”, under Chef Graeme Brooks, and went on to work for a number of well respected establishments. Amanda is a kiwi girl from the mighty Manawatu (just north of Wellington, NZ). We met in Auckland in the mid-90’s while both working in hospo.
Our restaurant “Scalinis” began in St Heliers, Auckland, New Zealand back in 1999.
Scalinis means “small steps” in Italian & over the years, we have done just that - taken small steps in our business to get to where we are today.
With Joe always wanting to return to Samoa at some point, and Amanda up for the challenge, we moved to Samoa in 2009, taking Scalinis with us.
In Sept 2017, the opportunity arose for us occupy the whole building where Scalinis is situated. We renovated and built a brand new (larger) kitchen, & in June 2018 we opened our deli “The Pickled Lam” which was right next door to Scalinis, sharing the kitchen & staff.
Where possible we use local ingredients & also import our own supplies. Supply & demand can be a challenge on a remote pacific island, so we do our best to have a consistent supply, building relationships with local growers & fishermen/women.
COVID-19
Samoa’s Measle epidemic in late 2019, immediately followed by the government’s State of Emergency Covid-19 restrictions starting in March 2020, has had a significant impact on the business & the Samoan economy in general.
In Nov 2020 we made the decision to merge Scalinis with the deli, providing more options for our customers. We changed our hours, adding breakfast 6 days a week and sacrificed Saturday night dinner service, which in hindsight has been lovely. For the first time in our careers, we have two nights off a week :-)