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, and about a third of the time the two actively fight each other.
Worth thinking about for a moment, given you are going to 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 same way we choose everything else, on taste rather than cost. Our espresso menu runs from short and long black through macchiato, piccolo and cortado, so there is room to move in either direction. On a warm day, an iced coffee or an affogato does the job instead.
The bar is open-plan, so you can watch it being made — which is either a pleasure or a liability depending on how much you like watching people work.
The basic pairing rule
Milk-forward coffee wants a cake with acidity or fruit. Black coffee wants fat and sugar. A flat white against a rich chocolate ganache is two heavy things competing; the same flat white against something citrus or fruit-led lets both do their job.
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, and it also comes as a single slice if you want it alongside an actual flat white, which is a more enjoyable experiment than it sounds.
The New Zealand shelf
Our New Zealand Classics collection is the one to browse if you want something familiar done properly — Apple Crumble, with its cinnamon sponge, walnuts and buttery crumble base, and Jaffa Orange Chocolate. The Jaffa is the one that holds up best against milk coffee, because the citrus cuts through where a plain chocolate cake would just pile on.
If you do not drink coffee
We take the alternatives seriously rather than treating them as an afterthought. There is organic New Zealand-grown Zealong tea by the pot or as a tea latte, an authentic masala chai, and a Swiss-Belgian hot chocolate in New York or Paris style. There are 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
If cake before lunch feels wrong, our artisan savouries cover the gap — quiche, sausage scrolls and warm Brazilian cheese scones, all made with no added gluten, and the scones pair 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.
Where to find us
Inside The Welder at 20–26 Welles Street — an 1880s character building, one block south of the Bus Interchange and about seven minutes' walk. Parking across the road, behind the building and along the side; bike racks at the side entrance. Open 10am to 6pm Tuesday to Friday and 10am to 3pm on Saturday.
Bring the dog — there is a water bowl, and the tables have metal legs for clipping a lead to. Bring the kids too: there are two low tables and high chairs. Browse what is in the cabinet by the slice or the full menu, and read more about the patisserie. There is more on the building itself in this piece.
