Parade Café at its fomer address, 148 Oriental Parade, Wellington.
Parade Café
Located in the heart of Oriental Parade, Parade Café's atmosphere is fun and relaxed. The clientele range from suits and families to hungry swimmers still wet from the beach or the Freyberg Pool. Since the 1920s the premises has been a tearooms, a dairy, an Italian restaurant, a fish and chip shop and now a much-loved café.
The current café opened in 1994. The design and artistic flair of the architect and original owner are still evident. With a number of different areas, as opposed to an open plan approach, the Parade caters for everything from large groups to a table for two. An upstairs room with a view of the harbour comfortably seats 20.
The indoor/outdoor seating is a focus of this seaside café, with people enjoying the sun in summer and the warm fire inside during the winter. The Parade's atmosphere mellows at night, as the focus changes from the counter foods and coffee on offer, to table service and glasses of wine.
UPDATE 29 July 2010: the building that the Parade Café inhabited was demolished in 2010 and the café moved to the former Tugboat on the Bay restaurant across the road.
Amy Donald, 2009
