RISING STAR

Two coffee-loving mates are making Miami mornings brighter with their new venture

PLAYING footy in New Zealand, 13-year-olds Andrew Madgwick and Dylan Nesbit had no idea they’d own a Gold Coast cafe together 15 years later. But fuelled by mateship and a serious love of good coffee, here they are at Daymaker Espresso, making people’s day one cup at a time.

“We’ve actually known each other for a long time, we played rugby together when we were 13 over in the Hutt Valley, just outside Wellington,” Andrew says.

“We definitely didn’t talk about owning a cafe together at that point, we were just trying to stay out of trouble.

“Dylan moved to Australia when he was 15, I came over when I was 18.

“My first barista job was at Max Brenner at Robina and I got Dylan a job there and that’s where the coffee started.”

Andrew travelled Australia for a couple of years working in farming and mining, while Dylan continued to master the caffeine craft at local coffee icons including Paddock, Blackboard and Borough Barista.

When Andrew returned, one thing led to another and upon finding the right location in August, Daymaker was born.

Andrew says they took an old op shop with countless problems — both the boys had to be put on the asbestos exposure register — and created an identity that was centred around a few key elements. “We knew what coffee we wanted to use, Axil Coffee Rosters, that was what we wanted to do and that’s the side we’re really confident with,” he says.

“As for the build we basically had to rip everything out and make it a shell, so we just designed as we went with that.

“We wanted to keep it modern but pretty rustic and we ended up recycling a lot of old bits and pieces like the ladders the vines are wrapped around. We were actually second guessing it for a while because we knew it was going to be a really big project, but we were really confident in the location.

“We love being in Miami — we looked from Brisbane to Brunswick and then it happened to be half a kilometre down the road. It was a bit of a gamble but we took the punt.”

With the menu only dropping on Thursday, the crew are all still finding their feet, but their drool-worthy dishes are classics with a Daymaker twist.

“Our French toast croissant has been popular already. It’s basically on there because a friend of ours kept harassing us saying ‘You better have French toast!’ so we were like ‘All right mate’,” Andrew says with a laugh.

“It comes with a berry compote, wild berries, maple syrup and vanilla bean whipped cream.”

“You can’t have a menu without acai anymore so we did our best to make it different and it actually is.

“We’ve also got a rosti with confit tomatoes, spiced avocado mousse, charred asparagus and sweet shallots — and that’s made without butter so it’s vegan too.

“With our menu we’ve tried to be really inclusive so we’re almost 50/50 vegan and not vegan, and all the vegan stuff you can add eggs or bacon to.

“We’ve tried our best to source locally too, all our bread and stuff is from Burleigh Baker, who uses olive oil so all his products are vegan, and all our meat comes from the Nobby Beach Butcher, who is amazing as well.”

Despite only being fairly fresh, they’re already finding their groove, open from 5.30am for breakfast and lunch daily.

Daymaker Espresso, 44 Pacific Avenue, Miami