Morning Magpie, Dunedin

By Kenny Mah and CK Lim


Coffee is sunny.

Certainly the Morning Magpie merits its bright and cheerful name. The café located on Lower Stuart Street, east of Dunedin’s popular Octagon neighbourhood, benefits from plenty of natural sunlight and a serious reputation for coffee. Deservedly so as owner Troy Butler left art school in Christchurch to bring his love of good coffee to Dunedin.

Walk in via the front door and be greeted by a giant mural painted by local artist Danny Brisbane behind the coffee bar. Next door customers sip their coffees, read and chat in a cosy but spacious room. The interior is suffused with light that comes in through the large windows. Perfect for people watching.

Wildflowers add colour to a long communal table, as do mismatched furniture here and there. Lights in glass jars hang low from the high ceilings. The white walls are almost bare but for simply hung illustrations. The lack of frames allow the drawings to blend in with the décor, lending a somewhat hippie-artist ambience to the café.

Butler roasts Fairtrade beans for Morning Magpie, and you have the usual Third Wave Coffee options such as espressos and cold drip coffee. Pour-overs are excellent here, especially when brewed in a Chemex for sharing. Share. There’s no feeling like pouring cups of coffee from the same brew so you can compare notes.

Locavores will love Morning Magpie’s local-where-possible philosophy with regards to their menu (at least where baked goods are concerned). Pastries come from the Tart Tin; the bread from Black Rabbit Bakery is used to make sandwiches; the scones and rolls are made in-house too. The cinnamon pinwheels are addictive.

Morning Magpie is also a big supporter of the arts, so you may walk in on a coffee cupping session on one day and an art show on another. This café is where Dunedinites gather, and a delightful stopover for a visitor or coffee lover too.

Morning Magpie ,一家位於但尼丁八角廣場附近的咖啡館。
喜歡這個名字,光聽起來就有種讓人朝氣蓬勃,充滿陽光的感覺。
我們起了個大清早,為的是來這享用早餐后,
元氣滿滿的好開始一整天的行程。
踏入咖啡館,入眼的是長吧檯和墻上的一副大壁畫,
那是當地一名藝術家Danny Brisbane的作品。

點了餐點后,穿過小門,我們來到咖啡館的另一側,
飽滿的陽光,寬敞的空間,有質感的木質家具,
配上以白色為基調的墻壁和壁上所掛著的畫,加上桌上的鮮花,
讓人舒適自在,一不小心就會坐上大半天。
和一般的第三波咖啡館雷同,在這裡除了能找到意式咖啡外,
還有好喝的手沖咖啡,如果肚子餓了,不妨試試他們的糕點,
如果你愛肉桂,那香氣四溢的肉桂圈更是不容錯過,
再配上杯黑咖啡,就能讓你有個快樂的早晨,
一日之計在於晨,美好的一天就從這開始吧!

Morning Magpie
46 Stuart St, Dunedin, New Zealand
facebook.com/morningmagpie/

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