Manic in the cafe

Never short of choice for a good coffee in Wellington, the city is renowned for its celebrated cafe culture. Early coffee lounges and shops started popping up around the city in the 1950s, although it wasn’t until the 1980s and 1990s that coffee really took off. Take a look at some of Wellington’s well-known cafés that have made their mark on the coffee scene.

The French Maid Coffee House

Opened in 1940 at 356 Lambton Quay, the French Maid was one of Wellington’s earliest coffee houses. Owner, Arthur Singleton, exhibited New Zealand modernist works on the walls, attracting left-wing, intellectual types.

Monde Marie Coffee Bar

This folk cafe opened in 1958 on Roxburgh Street by the granddaughter of former New Zealand Premier, Richard Seddon. A combination of exotic international food and folk music performances made the Monde Marie a popular hangout for the bohemian crowds of Wellington.

Suzy’s Coffee Lounge

Suzy Van der Kwast ran this busy Willis Street cafe for 23 years after opening in 1964. New Zealand artist Rita Angus often ate here.

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Midnight Espresso: hookers, boot boys and Winston Peters

If you’re in search of a coffee at 1am everyone knows the place to be is Midnight Espresso. Opened on Cuba Street by Geoff Marsland and Tim Rose in 1988, their (in)famous business has thrived ever since. Amy Hackett chatted to Geoff about Midnight’s beginnings on Cuba Street for the exhibition Cuba Character.

When we opened, we were right where the red light district was. It was all the transvestites and the hookers, it was quite dodgy and underhand. We opened this cafe called Midnight Espresso and there was nothing like it. New Zealand hadn’t seen anything like it - now New Zealand is full of cafes but it was an unusual and weird thing that we’d opened - the way you could go there late at night and we weren’t about alcohol. We worked on it for two weeks and when we opened the doors it was like the whole of Wellington came, a massive party. We cleaned up and opened the next day, and from that moment it was just a string of people. For the first three or four months it just never ended, every day it was busy, busy, busy. I remember just being so busy, and all sorts of people would come: there’d be hookers, boot boys, Winston Peters - every sort of person used to come. It was just a real community, every day you’d see all sorts of different people sitting together.

Friday nights was the huge one, where you knew it’d just be manic in the cafe. I’d walk in when it was about 10 o’clock and just run it, full noise, until about 3 in the morning. I used to be able to pick up that cafe and just control it, with the lights swinging and smashing and have it totally chaotic. People loved it, it went off. It was like the whole of Wellington was waiting for it.

I think if Midnight hadn’t been on Cuba Street it might not be there now, it’s definitely part of why it was successful. I think it’s probably made Cuba Street successful too now there’s probably 70 espresso machines on Cuba Street now and the more that came, the busier we got. When we opened Midnight, for the first 2 or 3 years you could fire a gun down Cuba St at night. But we had the hustle and bustle. It would be colourful and burning and everything else was just dark.

There were just so many magic times, you know? The people, it’s just all about the people. It was just amazing people, anything goes, and you’d never be surprised about what you saw.