Cuba St cafe stalwarts call for support amid mounting economic challenges
Thursday, 23 July 2026
The owners of a celebrated Wellington cafe say the city’s hospitality sector is being squeezed to exhaustion and are calling for more support from local and central government as successive crises threaten its reputation as New Zealand’s coffee capital.
Midnight Espresso’s Amanda McMillan and Hamish McIntyre have navigated nearly 30 years in the industry on Cuba St, but are now openly questioning whether they can keep battling constant economic shocks.
Despite being part of what made “the city tick” they, like many in the sector, are finding it tough, noting the disruption of Covid, followed by the Middle East war’s impact on fuel and supply chains, soaring inflation, rising costs, escalating insurance premiums and sky-rocketing property rates. An expected post-Christmas recovery never materialised.
Body corporate, rates and insurance alone were $25,000 a year.
“To be honest, we’ve been fighting for survival since Covid. Everyone is fighting for survival,” McMillan said. “It’s not because we’re not good operators, everyone's in the same boat. It’s like ground zero.”
When household budgets tightened, discretionary spending on hospitality evaporated first. The ripple effect damaged not just cafes, but their entire supply chain: vegetable suppliers, milk producers and grocers were all affected.
While several new operators had moved in to the street recently the pair believed that without targeted support some of the smaller venues might not survive.
“I can tell what the economy's been doing the last 28 years just by working behind my counter. I know when it's coming out of the shit, I know when it's going into the shit.
“People have money in their pocket, they spend. You take $50 a week out because of petrol, there goes their coffees.”
They are urging both council and central government to step up with practical support that focused on immediate, cost-effective improvements, rather than pumping money into years-long projects like the now-canned Golden Mile or big corporates such as Fletcher Building, which had just received $60 million in financial support for its cement arm.
McMillan said it wasn’t about hand-outs, but about recognition of an industry that clearly mattered to the economy ‒ hospitality directly employs nearly 200,000 people (6.7% of all jobs), while the GDP contribution in the year to March 2025 was $9.1b ‒ and the community.
Suggestions included a few hours of free parking on Sunday mornings, basic street maintenance and reducing or eliminating fees for busking and street entertainment that once drew crowds and created the vibrant atmosphere the street was known for.
The couple had been heartened by the response to a social media post they wrote last week highlighting Midnight’s place in Wellington’s hospitality history and the importance of the sector to a thriving city.
In it they said: “Wellington has more cafes, bars and restaurants per capita than New York. We're not just businesses, we're part of what makes this city tick.
“This place isn’t just a business it's family. It's sleepless nights and early mornings. It’s 363 days, It's raising children between tables and counting coins to keep the lights on. It’s 27 years of sacrifice, dedication, and love from one family who believed in this dream…”
Retail expert Chris Wilkinson said the fact that people weren’t spending was a general trend across New Zealand.
“It’s not isolated to Cuba Street at all. This is across the board in premium areas of Auckland, country areas, provincial areas ‒ it's a very similar theme, and obviously we're looking at looking at inflation, increased cost of living.”
However, Cuba St continued to be Wellington’s food and beverage hub, with its consistent hospitality hours adding to its destination value. Where Courtenay Place skewed towards weekend patronage, Cuba St was “very much an evening and weekend destination”.