Great coffee, and the best homemade food

It takes a brave man to argue with David Tua. So when the New Zealand-based boxer decided Poko Hosking was going to be his barista of choice whenever the heavyweight pugilist visited the Sierra Café in Auckland, everyone was happy to oblige.
After eight years at the Sierra, Hosking is now exhibiting her espresso expertise at Café Salsa, turning roasted coffee beans into a milky elixir guaranteed to tame even the most ferocious caffeine jones.
“It would be hard to find someone like her (anywhere else on the island),” says Café Salsa owner Tony Bullivant. “That’s all she does – make good coffee. In the morning, we’ll get 10 employees from the ANZ bank in for coffee, just for takeaways on the way to work.”
Bullivant, who knows coffee can make or break a café, flies the beans in from Roasted Addiction in Auckland. He originally sourced locally-roasted product but decided the quality was too inconsistent for his liking.
“We found Roasted Addiction to be far superior,” he says. “It’s just great coffee.”
A professional barista is a good start, but the proof of the breakfast pudding, as it were, always seems to revolve one iconic dish: eggs Benedict.
New Zealanders, in particular, seemingly can’t face the day without first consuming this meal and so it behooves a café to hone this particular menu selection to perfection.
“The eggs Benedict is, singlehandedly, the biggest-selling item on the menu,” Bullivant concedes.
So, how does he rate Café Salsa’s version?
“Really good,” he says. “We use good ham and make our own hollandaise sauce. That’s important. And never a hard egg – it’s always got to be a soft egg.”
If the taste of the hash browns on your plate brings back memories of how your mom used to make them, there’s a good reason for that – they’re also prepared from scratch on the premises.
“We go a little bit further,” says Bullivant. “If you go to a lot of breakfast places around here, even the resorts, they’re all just frozen Watties hash browns. We’d rather make our own. It’s that home-made edge that’s important.”
Presentation is crucial for any restaurant but even more so for Café Salsa, what with a stream of potential customers constantly navigating through the middle of the eatery, all while eyeballing the plated offerings.
“It’s all visual,” says Bullivant. “If you think a meal looks good, you’re already halfway there to enjoying it.”

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