Bestsellers: Finding joy at Kopi Cafe

Friday, 17 May 2024

A quick break for lunch and a coffee will bring many Hamilton CBD workers to Kopi Cafe, a small eatery on Victoria St.

Run by David Tourelle, Kopi won’t provide you with any caramel cappuccinos or vanilla iced lattes; it’s classic flat whites mostly, and the cafe doesn’t do flavour shots.

But it’s quality over flair at Kopi. Tourelle is known by all his regular customers, who not only keep coming back for the coffee, but for his bright laugh and humour. Flat whites go out the door the fastest, and Kopi’s bestselling meal is their Sri Lankan Dahl.

A special hot chocolate Sumin Gurung made for our reporter.

Tell us about your bestseller

The real bestseller is coffee. Flat whites. At the end of the day that’s the thing on the till the most. Some people don’t like that we don’t do any flavour shots, some of them think coffee comes from caramel. They actually walk out sometimes, not often, but sometimes.

But foodwise, it’s the parippu Sri Lankan dahl. Our chef is from Sri Lanka, and his grandmother taught him how to make it. He cooks it with herbs and spices, and it comes with some garlic toast.

Why do you think it's so appealing?

The dahl is appealing because it’s delicious. Once we talk them into it, they always come back. It’s got cinnamon, cumin, mustard, and turmeric.

Kopi Cafe's bestselling meal is a Sri Lankan family recipe, passed down to the chef by his grandmother.

Once we put something on the menu, it gets popular, and we never take it off. People complain if we do. We change our board on the wall but the written menu stays the same.

Who's attracted to it?

We get everyone but we mainly get office workers. In this building, and in other buildings around here. Anyone that likes good coffee and good food should come here.

It’s so important to build bonds with people. It’s so amazing, some of the stories you get from them. Do you know the best way to get happiness, and get joy out of life? It’s to give it away.

How much is it?

$15 for the dahl.

What's your favourite item/product?

Porridge. I love porridge. We do it with roasted feijoas.

People give us feijoas around this time of year, and we bottle them. We peel them, put them in brown sugar, cinnamon, and roast them with some water in the oven. So we have them for quite a while.

The secret ingredient for that is just a cap of apple cider vinegar. It really makes it work. And it’s so yum.