New­town may or may not be a bit shit, but their right-on cof­fee com­pany People’s Cof­fee (sorry, I could­n’t res­ist adding the apo­strophe) cer­tainly know their shit. Their pres­ence in cent­ral Wel­ling­ton is expand­ing, and two recently-opened cafés proudly stock the People’s brand: Meow and Mon Ami.

Meow, seen from its TV

Meow has taken over the space of the former (and much lamen­ted) Roti, next to Quoil in Wil­lis St. The decor’s only had a mild makeover, but the retro kitschy kiwiana theme is pretty con­sist­ent, with the usu­al Tretchikof­fesque prints, orange lamp­shades and ’70s TV aug­men­ted by some nice chunky crock­ery. I haven’t eaten there yet, but the brunch menu included some inter­est­ing vari­ations on the stand­ards, such as pinen­ut & saf­fron scrambled eggs, cashew & cran­berry rosti with haloumi and rock­et, and all sorts of things with “wild” bacon.

In Bond St, a French café called Mon Ami has also recently opened. It’s inter­est­ing that while many French places in down­town Wel­ling­ton emphas­ise the styl­ish urb­an theme (e.g. Simply Par­is, Le Met­ro­poli­t­ain), Mon Ami is full of out­doorsy magazines, and their web­site goes on about “tramp­ing, sail­ing, kayak­ing, bik­ing, paraglyding”. The decor man­ages to look both rus­tic and sterile at the same time, but even if that’s not your thing, dishes such as rab­bit ter­rine and roque­fort & sul­tana loaf (at reas­on­able lunch­time prices) should be enough to tempt you in.