Calliope Road Café

Posted Friday, September 16 2011.

Salmond Reed staff members are now able to get their coffee fix close at hand, thanks to the dedication of architect director, Rosalie Stanley and her right hand man, architectural graduate, Dixon Fong.

From an initial design concept developed by director, Jeremy Salmond, Rosalie and Dixon have detailed and managed the conversion of part of the local dairy / superette into a fashionable café which is already popular with the neighbourhood within just a few weeks of its opening.

Calliope Road Café on the corner of Huia Street is run by Jian and Tracy Yin who formerly operated the equally popular Devonport eatery, Ice-it Café.

The existing superette had occupied two buildings, a Category B scheduled two-storeyed shop and dwelling and single-storeyed shop on the corner. The single-storey shop was the original grocery shop with the two-storeyed shop and dwelling constructed by the grocer’s wife in the 1920s. As well as providing groceries to the locals in the pre-supermarket days, the shop also served at one time as a butchery outlet prior to becoming the dairy / superette. With the changing demographic of the area, the building owners saw the wisdom of investing in this conversion to embrace the currently popular café culture.

The new décor preserves original elements such as the blue-bordered white tiled wall, original brick walls and the pale green painted ceiling with cast iron ties. These features have been augmented with new lighting and furniture.

New bi-fold windows on the Huia Street elevation give loads of natural light, outlook and ventilation and a contribution from North Shore Heritage Trust Fund is assisting the building owners to reconstruct the old verandah to provide shelter for outside seating in the coming summer months.