HIDDEN GEM
The bakers at Bestie have spent a couple of years working in a tiny space, creating the Karangahape Rd cafe’s signature layer cakes, classic slices, cinnamon scrolls and vegan treats, but they now have a luxurious new kitchen to call home. Owners Emma Lyell and Tane Williams describe their new outpost, Baby, as being like Bestie’s cousin. It will have cabinet food, a small menu (including housemade muesli and comforting jaffles) and Eighthirty coffee, but the main focus will be on supplying Bestie’s cabinets with baking.
Open from this week, Baby is in the former home of Bluebells Cakery in Eden Terrace (which has shifted to Kingsland) and they’ve put their colourful, eclectic stamp on what was once a crisp, simple space.
“When we got the new space we were like, ‘oh my god, this is massive!’,” says Emma. “There’s not a single bench in the new place that’s as small as the bench we work on at Bestie.” Emma says the main thing she learned from the first venture was taking things slowly and adding in new challenges when they felt ready. “Now we do make everything ourselves, like all the pickles, and we’ve made our own cups and done fun collabs that we couldn’t have done if we’d tried to do everything at once,” she says.
Although she’s spent a long time in hospo, Bestie was Emma’s first management role and says the experience was a “trial by fire”.
Plus, when Tane and Emma opened, they were taking the space of long-standing cafe Alleluya. Emma remembers people coming in and turning up their nose, assuming the pair were developers rather than owner-operators taking a risk on their first business.
Her partner Tane looks after a lot of their cafes’ design and she says it makes it easy that they’re completely on the same page. “It’s kind of like any ideas we couldn’t do [at Bestie] we’re like ‘Oh yeah let’s do that!’.”
They plan to split their time between the cafes, with Baby initially open on weekdays. The extra bakery means they’ll be able to offer “more exciting” sweet baking, savoury options such as hot pies and catering is also on the cards. — India Essuah • 67 France St South, Eden Terrace. Open Monday to Friday 7.30am-2.30pm. Find them on Instagram @Baby_akl.