The owners of boutique coffee shop and bakery the Annex Café on Putiki Road are delighted that Metro magazine has named it the ‘Best Destination Café’ in Auckland.
The magazine’s December issue will reveal its influential list of top-50 cafes, with the Annex making the top 10 overall as the best café in a destination area.
Jane Burn, who owns the cafe with husband Stephen, was delighted when told. “I was really excited. It’s quite a big deal. I didn’t realise how much of a big deal it was until I told all the girls at work and everyone was very, very excited.
“It’s a really nice reward for a team effort. Little Tart Bakery, which is next door, is very much part of the whole thing at the Annex – they do all the baking. So it’s very much a team effort from our exceptional staff.”
The Annex, a converted cottage with an all-white interior, only employs the owners and four staff members.
“It’s very pretty and unique, there’s nothing else like it,” Jane says. “We have old furnishing that I had at home, walnut tables, bits and pieces, and I made it to my aesthetic.
“It’s very tiny, but it’s got a really nice feeling within it, which I think appeals to a lot of people.”
The magazine ranks cafes on a combination of food, drinks, service, atmosphere and location.
“We’re only open four days a week but it’s very much a labour of love. All of us who work here treat it very much as our own, so it’s great.”
Jane and Stephen have sold coffee on Waiheke for 21 years, having first founded Island Café and following up with a small espresso bar behind True Blue in Ostend. • Richard Jones
