Juno Miers, 31, co-owns Margot restaurant in the Wellington suburb of Newtown with her husband, head chef Thomas Adam, 32. The couple live in Newtown.
Juno:
I was born and raised in Wellington and got into hospitality when I was 14, making coffee at a local cinema.
I moved to Auckland to study fine arts, but only ended up doing a couple of days of my degree because I had two chronic illnesses so spent the next five years in and out of hospital. I still had to pay rent so I got a job in a wine bar and ended up falling in love with this industry.
I was managing director of Wellington restaurant The Bresolin when I met Tom. I’d been single a couple of years after a four-year relationship. I wasn’t looking for a partner – but when I met Tom I was looking!
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The restaurant had a big courtyard and fireplace where we’d all have a drink at the end of the night. It’s hard not to feel cosy and fall in love with someone in that setting. Tom was funny, warm and lovely. He also shared my passion for food and drink so he ticked the boxes.
I made the first move a year later. Actually, I did it a few times but it’s tricky when you work with someone. Over brunch I finally said, I’ve had feelings for you for a long time. And he said yes. We moved in together less than six months later.
We were moving to London and my twin brother was moving to Amsterdam at the same time. He visited my grandparents in Rotorua and we both realised this could be the last time we saw our grandparents alive. I thought they might never see me get married so two weeks before we left New Zealand, I organised a registry office wedding in Rotorua.
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Two weeks before the couple left NZ they had an intimate wedding in Rotorua, with just their parents and Juno’s grandparents.
We weren’t even engaged at that point so one morning when we were both really hungover I persuaded Tom to come for a walk on the beach and said, will you marry me in less than two weeks? I had a whole speech planned in my head but that’s what came out.
It was a huge rush but we pulled off the wedding – just us, our parents and my grandparents.
Tom has always talked about having our own restaurant so last August we opened Margot. We do about 80-hour weeks but every day we try to sit down for lunch together. Tom does most of the cooking at home but only because he’s faster. I tend to overthink everything and am a perfectionist so it takes me longer. But like every chef, Tom likes being cooked for and I like cooking for him.
We’re both patient people who never argue, which annoys our friends. Nothing Tom does really irks me.
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“Cooking for Juno is one of my greatest joys,” says Tom.
Thomas:
I was born in Newcastle, England, to a British mother and Kiwi father. We moved to Nelson when I was 10. That’s where I got into hospitality before training as a chef in Wellington.
I spent five years in London working for various restaurants but came back to Wellington in 2015 and started cooking at The Bresolin. I wasn’t in a great place at the time; I’d suffered a bit of heartbreak in London, which was one of the reasons I left.
I wasn’t looking for a new partner, I was focused on re-establishing my life in Wellington. But that’s how these things often happen, when you’re not looking.
When I met Juno I thought she was kind, lovely and good-looking, all those things that matter. I was happy to have her as a friend for a year, until I realised that I did like her in that way.
She may have tried to make the first move a few times but I’m as thick as a plank when it comes to that kind of thing. Because of how my last relationship ended, I didn’t recognise someone being interested in me.
We both went to the UK in 2019, but because of Covid we were only there for nine months. It seemed like a natural thing to open our own restaurant last August.
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After a 9-month stint in the UK, Juno and Tom returned to Wellington and opened Margot restaurant in August 2022.
We love working together and are a great team. I design the food and Juno designs the drinks and looks after front of house. But I value her opinion, especially when it comes to my food. Cooking for Juno is one of my greatest joys.
Juno is kind and empathetic. Everywhere she’s worked she’s managed to change the culture of the place. People come up to me and say how lucky I am to work with her and be with her. Juno is also funny, goofy, bright and bubbly.
If there’s one thing Juno doesn’t do it’s back herself enough. I’m always encouraging her to trust her instincts more because she’s an amazing person.
We’re such a good fit because we have the same interests – from hospitality to good food and wine. We work 80-hour weeks but when we have time off we like to nerd out, doing things such as playing Dungeons and Dragons.
Our values and what’s important in life are the same. For example, we have no great desire to be rich and we value experiences over material things.
For us it’s the little things that make a relationship work, going the extra mile for that person doing things such as bringing them a coffee in the morning. Making your partner happy by doing those small things then makes the big decisions easier.