When searching for a morning pick-me-up after waking up on the wrong side of the bed, look no further than small pastry and sandwich shop Little Grump.
Created in November 2021 amid COVID-19, Owners Andrew Craig and Lisa Fierro decided to open the new café in the heart of Wellington City after the success of their other business, Goods café, which is just two kilometres away in Thorndon.
“We’ve been running Goods café for four years now, and I’ve always wanted to open a coffee shop in the city,” says Andrew.
“After downtown Wellington was hit hard by the events of the pandemic, we found this space available, and it just snowballed from there. It’s been well received by customers, and we’re happy with how it’s going despite the challenges we’ve faced.”
Andrew says everything is made and supplied by Goods café and baked fresh daily.
“Because we bake all of our own pastry on site, we felt creating another business to showcase that seemed like a natural fit,” he says.
“We only sell what we make, which is a selection of pastries in the morning, and then we evolve into fresh sandwiches and toasties during the day. We plan to expand and change that offering as we move forward.”
This is paired with Coffee Supreme’s signature Supreme blend. Andrew says this blend is based around a combination of Central American coffees which provide the core flavour elements and refined acidity.
“We use the Supreme blend through our La Marzocco Linea PB and Mahlkonig E80. We also have a Mahlkonig EK43 which we use to run our filter and decaf coffee through,” says Andrew.
“While we don’t have a huge offering, that’s actually on purpose. We want to perfect our offering before we expand.”
Andrew says the café was designed with an open layout to easily interact with the customer, and hand them a quality coffee that will turn any grumpy frown upside down.
“It’s quite open and inviting with big glass windows and white tiled walls. We tried to complement that with warmer colour tones on the counter bench and round, wooden tables.”
“We’ve also placed several plants in the café, with the plan to slowly add to the collection as time goes on.”
Andrew says having opened at such a difficult time and watching the café blossom and accumulate a regular customer base is what he’s most proud of.
“Little Grump is essentially 10 to 12 years of dreams evolving into a reality, and we’re really pumped so far,” he says.
“The idea is that it’s just meant to be inviting. We want it to be a place that people look at and decide to venture inside for a great coffee.”
Little Grump
142 Featherston Street, Wellington, New Zealand, 6011
Open Monday to Friday 7am – 2pm
This article appears in the April 2022 edition of BeanScene. Subscribe HERE.
