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.