Coffee and cake is the most ordered combination in New Zealand hospitality and the one people think least about. You get whatever coffee you always get, and whatever slice looks best in the cabinet. About a third of the time the two fight each other.
Worth a moment's thought, given you will do it several hundred times this year.
The coffee
Ours is 100% fair trade organic, roasted by C4 Coffee Co. here in Christchurch, chosen the way we choose everything else: on taste, not cost. Our espresso menu runs from short and long black through macchiato, piccolo and cortado. Room to move in either direction. On a warm day an iced coffee or an affogato does the job instead: espresso over vanilla bean ice cream, the ice cream collapsing into it while you watch.
The bar is open-plan, so the whole thing happens in front of you. A pleasure or a liability, depending on how much you enjoy watching people work.
The basic pairing rule
Milk coffee wants acidity or fruit. Black coffee wants fat and sugar. A flat white against a heavy chocolate ganache is two rich things shouting over each other, both of them coating the roof of your mouth. The same flat white against something citrus-led lets each one finish its sentence.
The cake made of coffee
We took the pairing problem literally and built the coffee into the cake. The Flat White Coffee Cake is our tribute to the drink itself: bold coffee sponge, a smooth milky custard through it, the proportions of the drink rebuilt in layers. It also comes as a single slice, so you can drink one and eat one at the same time. Sounds silly. Works.
The New Zealand shelf
Browse our New Zealand Classics collection for something familiar done properly. Apple Crumble brings cinnamon sponge, walnuts and raisins over a buttery crumble base that grits pleasantly against the teeth. Jaffa Orange Chocolate holds up best against milk coffee, because the orange cuts through where plain chocolate would only pile on.
If you do not drink coffee
The alternatives get taken seriously here. Organic New Zealand-grown Zealong tea by the pot or as a tea latte. An authentic masala chai, real leaves and organic spices, no syrups. A Swiss-Belgian hot chocolate, New York style with a toasted marshmallow rim or Paris style with the cream on the side. Low and no-sugar options too. The full list is in our drinks collection, and the coffee specifically in hot and iced coffee.
Something savoury first
Cake before lunch can feel wrong. Our artisan savouries cover the gap: quiche, sausage scrolls, and warm Brazilian cheese scones that squeak faintly as you pull them apart. All three quiches and the cheese scones are made with no added gluten. The scones go with coffee better than almost anything sweet. One honest note: our kitchen is small and without exclusive production areas for all of our different recipes, so traces may occur, and nothing is guaranteed safe for severe coeliac disease.
Come and sit down with someone
Find us inside The Welder at 20–26 Welles Street, an 1880s character building one block south of the Bus Interchange, about seven minutes' walk. Parking across the road, behind the building and along the side. Bike racks at the side entrance. Open 10am to 9pm Tuesday to Saturday.
Bring the dog: water bowl provided, and the tables have metal legs for clipping a lead to. Bring the children too. Two low tables, high chairs. Sit an hour over two coffees and one slice cut in half. Better morning than a takeaway cup. Whole cakes and trays need two days and are collected here, never delivered. Browse what is in the cabinet by the slice or the full menu, and read more about the patisserie. More on the building itself in this piece.
