What makes a cafe/bar/restaurant a place to you want to return to over and over again? Simple. It is people, it is people, it is people. And these are some of the finest people in town.

Customs Brew Bar

Cus­toms’ large range of single-ori­gin cof­fees and exot­ic ways of brew­ing cof­fee may seem a little daunt­ing for the aver­age espresso drink­er, but the staff will take their time to explain this bold new world of cof­fee. Not only that, the cof­fee is expertly brewed and presen­ted with care.

Cus­toms Brew Bar: 39 Ghuznee Street

The owners of the caravan on Ghuznee Street

The CaravanThe cara­van mys­ter­i­ously showed up next to the Prin­cess’s Bed­room cara­van in the empty yard on Ghuznee Street. It’s staffed by a really lovely couple who pre­pare their range of takeaway noms with care and love.

The Cara­van: 44 Ghuznee St

Jonny at Cuckoo

Oh Mr McK­en­zie, we’d fol­low you to the edge of the uni­verse – or at least to Lamb­ton Quarter (and prob­ably to Miramar now too)! Jonny estab­lishes fant­ast­ic bars, and then makes sure they stay full by provid­ing that extra level of atten­tion. He knows cus­tom­ers’ names and how they have their mar­tinis, and is always ready to offer sug­ges­tions about what to try next.

Cuckoo Cock­tail Empori­um: Kumutoto Plaza

The boys of Monterey

Monterey in New­town is all kinds of won­der­ful (their interi­ors fea­tured in Urbis magazine dontcha know) but their ser­vice is truly pitch per­fect. You know when someone is truly present and attent­ive but not all up your grill try­ing to dazzle you with their per­son­al­ity? Ever calm, sweet and thought­ful the boys at Monterey give you the space to unwind, doodle on the table or get absorbed in a game of scrabble but if you need guid­ance choos­ing a drink or nav­ig­at­ing the new menu they will be there for you. And like a lov­ing par­ent, they’ll even hold onto all your works of art and hang them on the refridger­at­or inter­net.

Monterey New­town: 4 Rintoul St, New­town

The crew at Hashigo Zake

Image by Jed Soane

When there’s elev­enty hun­dred beers on offer, you’re going to need some guid­ance. Just as well then, that the fine people at Hashigo, led by the mighty Domin­ic, are well happy to let you sample what’s on tap before you buy. They offer dis­counts to SOBA mem­bers and occa­sion­ally geeks – in fact, they’re so geek-friendly that if you want the air con­di­tion­er turned up, you can just tweet them and ask instead of fight­ing your way to the counter when it’s busy!

Hashigo Zake: 25 Tarana­ki St