Sep 28, 2016 Cafes
Words by Kate Richards, photos by Cameron Thorp.
They haven’t quite finished building Holm, or found all of the artwork they want to hang, or worked out how to dull the acoustics. Still, it’s the sort of breezy office space you’d picture finding in the streets of a hip European city. This is due in part to thick Irish accent of barista JD Coulter (ex-Homestead and Ceremony) who will make and deliver your coffee. Then there are all the people sitting at Holm’s blonde timber tables, sipping soft brew and eating fancy pastries, looking so cool. You’ll want to look cool with them.
Co-owner Cameron Thorp has spent a great deal of time travelling to places where it is socially acceptable to pop to your local café, buy one coffee and sit there all day while you work. With his friend Steffan Levet he’s created a space that he hopes will allow Auckland to develop a similar working café culture. I asked him if he wanted it to be like Coffee Supreme’s Ponsonby café Good One (RIP) used to be; he said “sort of”.
A freelance photographer and web developer respectively, the pair has set about creating their ideal work space, in turn providing for a new generation of workers like themselves. The desks down the back are available to rent on a month by month basis, with the aim of generating a sense of a more permanent community. “It’s about giving people that permission to work and feel comfortable in the space,” says Thorp.
To begin with (actually, from next week) there will be a succinct menu of focaccia sandwiches, salads and pastries, with a balanced mix of vegetarian and meat options. “On the menu we’ll probably list the veggie options first,” says Thorp. “Weirdly they’re usually presented the other way round. Even that I think is a little statement about how we do things.”Coffee will come in your choice of espresso, FETCO, Kalita (“like a flat bottomed V60”) or Chemex.
Holm is in essence a shared office, where you can come to eat and have a coffee, with beans supplied by Red Rabbit for the time being (there’ll be a rotating menu of national and international roasters soon). For now the main front room, with plugs under every desk and super-fast internet, will cater to freelancers and those who don’t have permanent office digs. Soon there will be private rooms, a Skype booth and perhaps in the future an upstairs space, too.
Holm
295 Karangahape Rd
K’Rd Precinct
www.facebook.com/holmspace/
