#1493 ... Lamson

There are many many ways to make a decent cup of coffee. We are seeing some of these alternate methods returning to commercial use around Wellington’s more interesting cafés: the Swiss Gold; the Chemex; the V60; the cold drip… and the siphon.

Dave Lamason, formerly Peoples Coffee’s barista trainer, is passionate about the siphon. So passionate he’s opened a new café dedicated to this most theatrical of coffee-making methods. This is Lamason, Wellington’s only siphon-brewed coffee bar. (Others do siphon, it’s true: Memphis Belle, Customs Brew Bar, and for a short while Mojo Origins – but Lamason is the first to make this method the centrepiece of their café experience.) Lamason is underneath the carpark in Lombard Street – that’s the odd little street running between Bond Street and the former Manners Mall.

Inside there’s a lot of bare concrete, with the dominant feature being a very large wooden bar. And on the bar is The Apparatus.