Coro Club: New Zealand’s ‘best airport cafe’
Aug 31, 2024 17:44:25 GMT 12
FlyingKiwi, oj, and 1 more like this
Post by Dave Homewood on Aug 31, 2024 17:44:25 GMT 12
It’s super cool’: New Zealand’s ‘best airport cafe’ is tucked away at this small airfield
Alan Granville
August 31, 2024 • 05:00am
Taking in the views at Coro Club.
Coro Club
There can’t be too many cafes around the country where people fly in especially for lunch. But that’s what happens at Coro Club, one of the few eateries situated right by a runway.
There’s another reason now to travel to the coffee house overlooking Whitianga Airfield as it was recently named the country’s ‘best airport cafe’ by a group of very discerning customers, pilots.
At the annual awards of the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association of New Zealand, Coro walked off with the prize as a “convincing winner”, said president Sue Kronfeld.
She told Stuff Travel the cafe stood out for being “definitely aviation friendly” that “worked well when overwhelmed with extra patronage”.
She added the poll of 1500 pilots found staff always had ”a smile under pressure“, as well as being ”welcoming, clean, well organised“ and, most importantly, has ”nice food“.
Manager and head chef Niklas Brandt is the man behind the dishes. The Swedish expat, from Kungsör near Stockholm, has been at Coro for a couple of years having worked at restaurants and superyachts around the world during his 20-year career.
He told Stuff Travel he washed up in Whitianga completely by chance.
“I shared a cabin with a guy from Hot Water Beach and I ended up coming down for a visit and then yeah, that was six years ago. I kinda fell in love with the place, met some cool people and decided to stay.”
Pretty good view from the Coro Club.
Coro Club
Brandt was brought onboard at Coro by owners Dave Paterson and Lucy Campbell having worked at “local hub” Blue Ginger.
Despite not having worked in cafes before, he jumped at the chance. Adapting the menu, he included some touches from home like skagenröra, a Swedish prawn salad. Although he admitted he hasn’t always got it right. An attempt to introduce herring, was “probably not the most popular thing”.
As well as regular customers from nearby Whitianga, the cafe also has visitors from much further away, with people even flying from the likes of Nelson, Auckland, Waikato and Tauranga.
One of the airlines with regular flights into Whitianga is Barrier Air and CEO Grant Bacon called the award “a great achievement” for the cafe.
“It is well deserved. It is great for our Barrier Air passengers to have a premium cafe to grab a coffee or a bite to eat prior to their flight through to Auckland Airport,” said Bacon.
“When the food, coffee and cafe surroundings are good, it adds to our airline’s offering, and it is unusual to have this at a more remote airstrip.
“You sometimes also see local residents come out to the airport just for a coffee and to watch our scheduled flight arrive even when they are not travelling.”
For Brandt, beating competitors in much larger airports is an “awesome” feeling.
“It’s super cool. We’re a little bit on the outskirts of town. This means quite a lot to us. We’re seeing lots of new customers coming in and we are just super thankful for that.”
More info at coro.club
- Stuff
www.stuff.co.nz/travel/350391293/its-super-cool-new-zealands-best-airport-cafe-tucked-away-small-airfield
Alan Granville
August 31, 2024 • 05:00am
Taking in the views at Coro Club.
Coro Club
There can’t be too many cafes around the country where people fly in especially for lunch. But that’s what happens at Coro Club, one of the few eateries situated right by a runway.
There’s another reason now to travel to the coffee house overlooking Whitianga Airfield as it was recently named the country’s ‘best airport cafe’ by a group of very discerning customers, pilots.
At the annual awards of the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association of New Zealand, Coro walked off with the prize as a “convincing winner”, said president Sue Kronfeld.
She told Stuff Travel the cafe stood out for being “definitely aviation friendly” that “worked well when overwhelmed with extra patronage”.
She added the poll of 1500 pilots found staff always had ”a smile under pressure“, as well as being ”welcoming, clean, well organised“ and, most importantly, has ”nice food“.
Manager and head chef Niklas Brandt is the man behind the dishes. The Swedish expat, from Kungsör near Stockholm, has been at Coro for a couple of years having worked at restaurants and superyachts around the world during his 20-year career.
He told Stuff Travel he washed up in Whitianga completely by chance.
“I shared a cabin with a guy from Hot Water Beach and I ended up coming down for a visit and then yeah, that was six years ago. I kinda fell in love with the place, met some cool people and decided to stay.”
Pretty good view from the Coro Club.
Coro Club
Brandt was brought onboard at Coro by owners Dave Paterson and Lucy Campbell having worked at “local hub” Blue Ginger.
Despite not having worked in cafes before, he jumped at the chance. Adapting the menu, he included some touches from home like skagenröra, a Swedish prawn salad. Although he admitted he hasn’t always got it right. An attempt to introduce herring, was “probably not the most popular thing”.
As well as regular customers from nearby Whitianga, the cafe also has visitors from much further away, with people even flying from the likes of Nelson, Auckland, Waikato and Tauranga.
One of the airlines with regular flights into Whitianga is Barrier Air and CEO Grant Bacon called the award “a great achievement” for the cafe.
“It is well deserved. It is great for our Barrier Air passengers to have a premium cafe to grab a coffee or a bite to eat prior to their flight through to Auckland Airport,” said Bacon.
“When the food, coffee and cafe surroundings are good, it adds to our airline’s offering, and it is unusual to have this at a more remote airstrip.
“You sometimes also see local residents come out to the airport just for a coffee and to watch our scheduled flight arrive even when they are not travelling.”
For Brandt, beating competitors in much larger airports is an “awesome” feeling.
“It’s super cool. We’re a little bit on the outskirts of town. This means quite a lot to us. We’re seeing lots of new customers coming in and we are just super thankful for that.”
More info at coro.club
- Stuff
www.stuff.co.nz/travel/350391293/its-super-cool-new-zealands-best-airport-cafe-tucked-away-small-airfield
