At Your Local continues with a visit to Kind Wish in Kelburn Village, a small, tight-knit neighbourhood in the hills of Wellington, and a conversation with owner Eammon.
Since opening its doors in 2024, Kind Wish has quietly become a neighbourhood favourite. Great coffee, generous food and genuine hospitality have earned it a loyal following, but there's no sense of trying too hard. It's simply a cafe that knows what it wants to be.
For Eammon, it all starts with the ingredients. Simple Kiwi cafe food was the original idea, but done with the best produce possible. Passionate about supporting local growers and producers, he believes New Zealand grows some of the best ingredients in the world, so wherever possible, that's where Kind Wish starts. The seasons shape the menu, and the people behind the produce matter just as much as the produce itself.
It's not about reinventing the classics. It's about caring enough to do them properly. That care carries through everything at Kind Wish.
Before opening the cafe, Eammon spent years balancing hospitality with life as a musician, gradually realising it was the people, as much as the work itself, that kept pulling him back. Hospitality has a way of turning everyday interactions into lasting relationships. The regular who orders the same thing every morning. The quick catch-up across the counter. The familiar faces that become part of your week.
It's what inspired him to open Kind Wish in the first place.
"Having a cafe was my chance to make one of those spaces and provide, I guess, a community service to the neighbourhood."
Outside the cafe and family life, Eammon continues to make music across a range of projects, from psychedelic garage rock band Ghost Wave to electronic duo Team Cat Food and his solo project Malcolm S. There's a similar rhythm to Kind Wish. Thoughtful, unhurried and quietly confident. Nothing feels overworked. Just good coffee, thoughtful food and a room that people genuinely want to spend time in.
