End Of An Era - Espressoholic To Close

[Tama]

Another Wellington institution is on its way out. After 18 years in the same Courtenay Place location, Espressoholic cafe has been given a month's notice by its landlord to close up shop, manager Leighton Dunlop says.

For Mr Dunlop, who has managed the cafe since it opened 21 years ago on Willis St, it is the end of an era that began when "real coffee" first came to Wellington.

Damn, that's a piece of Wellington history right there

[JohnnyC]

Aw that place was really cool, I went there when I was up at New Years. Sad to see it go

[Monolith]

Stink one. As much as I like to be trendy and cool, I still find myself in there for brekky prolly once a week for a fruit platter and short black

[dented]

Wow, I remember the place well. Somewhere to call in for half an hour at 2am on a Saturday morning, before going further down Courtenay Place for a greasy burger. Always liked the funky scene inside, dark and messy.
Wonder what the landlord has planned?

[skint]

I still remember when it was on Willis St, and the only other cafes open past 5pm were Insomnia (RIP), Midnight, and Kenny's Diner. Sad.

No doubt will be bulldozed and turned into an apartment block as stunningly ugly as the green and red one next door.

[Jono]

Yeah. Wasn't anywhere near as good when they shifted from the old lido site on willis street. Still, I'm sad to see it go.

[michael]

Pretty cool place, there's a fair bit of empty real estate around at the moment though, I'm sure they can find somewhere to go, maybe without so much character though.

[happybaboon]

Why the hell would any landlord be kicking out a long-term client at this point in time? There's empty shops all over the show in Wellington right now...

I'm not too concerned. It was a decent enough cafe, but nothing all that amazing really. And surely they can just go somewhere else.

[pissface]

never really liked the atmosphere there much, but they do a huge bowl of coffee and the "garden" area is funny.


perhaps the landlord has sold the building? wants to run their own cafe?

[sifter]

never really liked the atmosphere there much, but they do a huge bowl of coffee and the "garden" area is funny.

The huge bowls are nice. I'm a bit partial to the mega hot chocolate which seems to be able to revive me from the dead!

[happybaboon]

Most cafes can do a huge bowl.

Most cafes, except for the ones in Palmerston North... The only cafe that'll do a decent sized bowl here is stupidly overpriced and way too crowded

[bugle]

The original space on Willis is part of Welli lore, the current/closing version never had the old core cred but a shame to see it go none the less. The stories I could tell about both...

[michael]

Why the hell would any landlord be kicking out a long-term client at this point in time? There's empty shops all over the show in Wellington right now...

Its probably a fairly cheap time to build (if you can get the money to do so)

[pissface]

Most cafes can do a huge bowl.

Most cafes, except for the ones in Palmerston North... The only cafe that'll do a decent sized bowl here is stupidly overpriced and way too crowded

"can" and "do" are different things.

[one_uknw]

RIP. Thanks for all the good times. Sadly the number of good cafes on Courtney Place is reduced to Sweet Mothers, and thus it's cultural diversity is reduced even further, to convenience stores and shitty bars