Greenery, eggs and coffee for CBD cafe
One time, baristas Ostoja Pantic, 21, and Gabrielė Baranauskaitė, 26, tried to count all the plants in the cafe they worked in, Kākāriki Coffee on Customhouse Quay.
They got as far as 60, Baranauskaitė said. With its green walls and multiple plants, the the small cafe and eatery, named “Green” in Te Reo Māori, was designed to be a comfortable place people would want to spent time in, owner Thobias Joby said.
With its murals of lush forest life, hanging plants, and minimalist aesthetic, the cafe won a Resene Total Colour Commercial Interior Public + Dining Award at the end of last year.
Whose job was it to water the plants? Us,
Pantic and Baranauskaitė said.
Baranauskaitė has been working as a barista for seven years; Pantic, two and a half.
While coffee was important, working with people was the best part of the job, Baranauskaitė said.
“You’re just talking to people, and you meet so many interesting personalities. They end up being your friend,” she said.
Pantic, who said he started making coffee as a 16-year-old in Serbia, agreed, saying he enjoyed working with people over the coffee its self. “I just like working with people. I also worked as a bartender. It’s not the coffee, it’s the customers and the customer service. It's awesome,” Pantic said.
What was the strangest coffee someone ever ordered? Baranauskaitė said someone once ordered a shot and a half of coffee – a single shot of coffee, than another shot, run through the same grounds. It was ... unique, she said.
Joby, who is a fully trained chef, said he opened Kākāriki Coffee 14 months ago, after moving down to Wellington from Auckland, where he quickly learned that everyone loves coffee in the capital, he said.
After working for a few cafes in Brooklyn as a barista, he went on to work for Mojo. Before he knew it, he had opened his own cafe, Joby said, after meeting a Pynenburg & Collins architect while driving his Uber.
Within two months, Kākāriki Coffee was open for business.
Why did he pick the name Kākāriki? Joby said he loved the colour green. After asking for ideas for the look of his cafe, plants were suggested to him: fitting with the sleek, minimalistic, modern look he wanted.
“I told the architect, ‘I need a lot of plants for my cafe’. She said, ‘okay, we got it’.”
The plants helped create a “friendly” atmosphere, he said, which helped people enjoy themselves and relax. He didn’t want a cafe “like a Christmas tree”, with too many things stuffed inside, he joked.
In the 14 months since the cafe opened, Joby said there had been a good response from the surrounding businesses and ministries, with a steady stream of people coming in for their morning coffees and lunch.
Flat whites are of course the most popular coffee order: with long blacks a close second.
With the Mojo Roastery just across the road, the beans were amazing, he said – super fresh and ready to be ground into coffee.