Vot­ing in the Fourth Annu­al Wel­ling­tonista Awards is open from Decem­ber 1–15. Then come find out the res­ults at our Awards Night at Mighty Mighty on Decem­ber 17!

To vote, vis­it this page.

Wel­ling­ton runs on cof­fee, but only a few places are truly award-worthy. When we get cof­fee, we want the option of hav­ing some­thing to eat with it. We want a good selec­tion of read­ing mater­i­al while we wait. We want witty banter and/or eye­candy from the barista. And nat­ur­ally, the cof­fee has to be excel­lent as well!

Green Land: One of the few redeem­ing fea­tures of being a pub­lic ser­vant in the soul­less Moles­worth Quarter is get­ting your daily cup of hot good­ness from the lovely Jane and Paul. Served in bio­de­grad­able cups or at a 50 cent dis­count if you bring your own, this Havana brew is strong and feisty, and occa­sion­ally may con­tain just what you need to power through anoth­er day.

Mojo Old Bank: Could this be Mojo’s year? We received more nom­in­a­tions for Mojo cafes than any oth­er – and the most pop­u­lar among these was one of our favour­ites, Mojo Old Bank. This oper­a­tion is wedged into the pointy end of the Old Bank Centre at the south­ern end of Lamb­ton Quay, a spot where earli­er, a lonely out­post of an Auck­land cafe roast­ery had tried and failed to make a go of it. These days, Mojo Old Bank’s land­mark loc­a­tion makes it a favoured meet­ing spot, while the con­sist­ently great cof­fee draws the takeaway punters in droves. Matt, the own­er, is a top bloke, and is often to be found on Twit­ter where he has been known to con­duct the occa­sion­al giveaway. In light of this, we won’t hold against him the fact that he some­times cheers for cer­tain Aus­sie sports teams.

Martha’s Pantry: There are times when we don’t actu­ally want a cup of cof­fee (there, we said it) and at that very moment there’s no sub­sti­tute for a lovely cup of tea; or even bet­ter, High Tea at Martha’s Pantry. Martha’s Pantry is a lovely little place at the top of Cuba Street that has old-school tea­cups and all kinds of girlie pretty stuff on dis­play. But fear not – if you simply  must have more caf­feine, they also do a lovely Supreme cof­fee.

Peoples, Gar­rett Street: The smal­ler, north­ern branch of the New­town café and roast­ery that was an award win­ner last year. Impec­cably loc­ated right beside Glob­al Fab­rics (mean­ing there’s a place for your non-fab­ric-mad kin to get some cof­fee for you while you shop up large), it looks out onto Glover Park. The sun streams through the opened roller door, lend­ing a warm and cheer­ful air to the place that is improved fur­ther when Liz remem­bers your order even though you haven’t been there for a month. And the cof­fee? It’s very, very good.

French Kiss Café: Some­times, on those brisk days, you want a cup of cof­fee that’s mur­der­ously strong and hot, teamed with some­thing warm and filling for your stom­ach. That’s when you head to the French Kiss Café trail­er  in Post Office Square, where Mat­thieu and Lise, a couple of impossibly good-look­ing French new Kiwis, will serve you some Havana cof­fee. And while you wait, they’ll also make you one of the most authen­t­ic and tasty galettes  you’re ever likely to find this far south of la Métro­pole.