I'm quite excited about this. Maybe a little too excited, but we're talking coffee and food which are two of my favourite things. And I love this place too, so anything breathing new, very cool (I hope), life into it is on my radar.
One of our favourite coffee/brunch/lunch spots on the Kapiti Coast was Lembas. It holds a special place in our hearts because we've been going there since we first started looking for a home on the Coast - we went there on one of our flying house-hunting visits down from Auckland, we went there after moving to the Hutt just because, we went there when we came searching for the beach house, and then we just went there once we moved here because it was 5 minutes down the road (sweet!). It was one of the first places that really got us thinking about the culture in the area, and how we might fit into that lifestyle.
Change though, is going around, and we saw in one of the locals a while back that Lembas was to change hands at the end of last month (so then we had to go for goodbye brunch. Twice). It's a bit poetic and awesome that our spot (because it really does feel like our spot and always will I think, as long as there's coffee there. No coffee = no spot though. Unless I end up taking my own and sitting on the roadside. That's do-able, and then it would still be a spot of sorts. Just possibly a bit of a weird spot. We won't think like that though - definitely not. Not about the weird, about there being no coffee. I'll do weird till the day I die) is starting a new life at the beach as well.
So, it's become a bit of a thing to sneak past and check in - see how it's all going, if we're out that way. Although you can't see a damn thing because they've done a really good job of covering the doors and windows. Very unsporting. Not even a crack to peer through if no one's looking (although how you'd know that no one was looking before you peered through said not-there crack, I'm not sure). It's reassuring though, to know they're in there, busy, giving our spot a new beginning. And we're counting down too because the indicative time frame for renovations was 4-6 weks from memory, and that means end of the month or so, the clock will be ticking.
Just to keep us on our toes though, on Saturday we drove past and there was - GASP! - a coffee cart outside! Woop! It would've been woop-woop if anyone in law enforcement had been in the immediate area - the husband hit the brakes and did a 180 on the spot so we could get coffee. Bless him, he didn't even see it I don't think, I just started banging on the window yelling coffe cart! coffee cart! and his caffeine-seeking reflex kicked in. So, we got cofee, and damn them if they didn't have a heavy blanket over the door, so that no matter how hard I tried I couldn't see a thing except dark and feet. I think we're going to be great mates though, us and Raumati Social Club - I like their style. Their new coffee machine arrived, so they banged up a cart out of recycled timber and did what they appear to do very well - coffee.
There was food too, so obviously I had to try that as well. The husband and I went halvsies in a berry friand (beautiful) and, taking a stab, a chocolate/coffee fudge cupcake. Awesome. You see, the tricky thing for us is that the husband makes a pretty good coffee (and he's doing it on a baby class Gaggia too - me? my coffees taste like crap) and I make pretty good treats (I think - definitely as good as some of the cafes I've been trying (and good enough that I can see when a cafe has not done well, so I just leave - snobbish much?), although I'd much prefer they were awesome, so I'm working on that too) so we kind of require not to be disappointed.
So far so good - on a cart in front of a construction site, with reggae cranking and the sun shining, I had good coffee and I can't wait for them to be done. And then, I'll have an eggs benne I think. And another one of those cupcakes ... holy moly.
(I really wish I'd gotten a shot of the cart - it annoys me that I dropped the ball like that)
4 comments:
A memorable visit to the South Raumati social club for all the wrong reasons.
I have visited this establishment now three times since it's opening.
I now know why it's called South Raumati Social Club as it is a club but the only members are the staff who think they are more important than the customers.
I congratulate them on creating a better physical space but it's a shame that when they came from Melbourne or wherever they hail from they did not leave their egos and attitude behind in the special bins customs have for banned goods.
I was very hungry.
After some timeI I saw a breakfast appear on the kitchen bar and the cook ring the bell for some one to deliver it.
I hoped it was my breakfast. I watched for another five minutes, (I timed it) salivating as the breakfast sat there and the chef again rang the bell, another two minutes went by and a person finally picked it up and yes, it was my breakfast......when he delivered it I said that as I had seen it sitting getting cold for seven minutes he had better wait until I found out if it was a suitable temperature for me.
Immediately on the defensive he rationalized the time it took to deliver my breakfast by saying that the chef screwed up my daughters order and they were waiting to bring them out together, whilst I was happy they went to the extraordinary trouble to get my daughters breakfast correct it still did not make my breakfast any warmer.
This silly small man with huge ego told me he didn't care what I thought about it and walked off.....and did I hear you mutter asshole under your breath?... Yes I think so and just because I questioned the temperature of my breakfast...WOW.....remind me not to take a holiday in Melbourne.
If I had a cafe, I'd make damm sure I weeded out any staff member who thought he was more important than a customer.
Boy I wish I was as cool as you but I'm just a loser local .....with a web site that had 3 million visits last year......and one million albums sold and I eat breakfast often in LA and London and last week in Colombo, Sri Lanka where I do not come across such stupid egocentric disgraceful attitude.
The breakfast was mediocre, bland and cold and delivered by a very rude man who plainly does not give a hoot about service or what a customer may think.
The last breakfast I had there was hot but just as bland and they also forgot the hollandaise.
The best thing that can be said about this place is that they do make a nice coffee.
The warm welcoming friendly Lembas is missed, opposite the RMC is Vallhalla, not as cool or trendy but better service and friendlier people, go there instead.
Wow!! All I can say is you took immense time to write an extremely negative review.....amazed that a high flyer who is constantly jet setting around the world releasing albums and counting website hits has time to string together so many negative sentences. I too have visited the Raumati South Social Club....I was thrilled that the new owners took time to stand out in the cold and offer coffee before renovations were complete. After just one visit the friendly chap remembered my coffee order from 7 days prior. He was polite, cheerful, unassuming and genuinely the most pleasant character that has ever served me coffee....and might I say that man makes a fine cup! I have since visited for breakfast, where again I was wholly impressed by the staff who went out of their way to provide me a gluten free breakfast. (Awesome I reckon that they can accommodate us allergic customers). In closing, I wonder if perhaps staff were rude to you in response to a less than polite demeanour that you demonstrated? I personally salute anyone who decides they they won't be spoken to like crap just because they work in the service industry. !!
Double wow! I hope you realize your contradictory comments only highlight YOUR immense egotism! Your need to profess your "apparently impressive" status to all an sundry only suggests severe insecurity. Perhaps before you try to characterize and stereotype "melbournites" you should first read "Status Anxiety" by
Alain de Botton. It should help.
Signed
Nicky Campbell
Plain ol' satisfied RSC customer
i hardly doubt a meal had been sitting in your view for 7 minutes.
lots of exaggerating here . guy is an idiot and clearly has a a vendetta against a cafe doing well on the kapiti coast.
take time to enjoy life a little more
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