Archie Davis has been with Kickstart Expresso for about seven years and is excited to have landed in Wagga. Photo: Supplied.
It’s been 10 weeks since Kickstart Expresso landed at the Wagga Home Centre, its first location outside the ACT.
The Davis family has been running the business since 2014, which started with cafes in Belconnen and Fyshwick.
Archie Davis, who spent a good chunk of his life in Sydney, has been with the business for about seven years, and is eager to explore everything Wagga has to offer while providing Sydney-based specialty roaster Toby’s Estate coffee to Wagga residents.
While the 27-year-old works at the drive-thru coffee outlet six days a week, he can be found water skiing when he has time on his hands.
Region caught up with the business owner to discuss everything coffee, Asian cuisine and the best places to eat.
Best recent dining experience: I’ve actually been looking up the best restaurants in Wagga, because coming from Canberra, we’re pretty lucky with the culinary scene there.
I think Thaigga is hard to go past. We ate at The Oakroom the other day. It was decent, but haven’t had a chance to explore too much yet.
I like all sorts of different Asian foods. Our favourite restaurant in Canberra was actually from Asia, Rasa Sayang.
Weirdest thing you’ve eaten: I wouldn’t say that I’m super adventurous. The weirdest food I’ve eaten is nothing too crazy, maybe some kangaroo meat.
Most embarrassing pantry item: Nescafé. When we have guests come over quickly and we’re short on stock on everything, there’s Nescafé Blend 43 or whatever it’s called.
What ingredients can you not live without: Chicken stock. I use that a lot.
Here at Kickstart, it’s our Kickstart homemade relish. It’s actually a family recipe that’s been passed down, and no one knows it except for Mum.
Best coffee spot in Wagga: Definitely Kickstart. I haven’t really had a chance to explore the coffee culture in Wagga, but I have been to Meccanico, and I quite enjoyed their coffee.
Went to Larry’s the other day, it was also not too bad.
Next big thing in the Wagga food scene: From what I can picture, it’s starting to really step up. You’ve got a bunch of nice restaurants, like Spare and The Oakroom, and a few other ones that I think are starting to lift the bar for food in Wagga.
A must-try on your Kickstart Espresso menu: Probably our Tradie Special, which is a not-so-humble toastie and a coffee special. It’s one of our more popular items, and has double ham, double cheese, slow roasted tomatoes, caramelised onions and our homemade relish.
Either that, or our bacon egg roll.
A change you made at your cafe: We’ve really consolidated our menu. We’ve got what we think is a winning formula, and all our cafes have the exact same menu.
I wouldn’t say that we’ve made any major changes recently, but more so just improving systems to give the best customer experience.
My biggest culinary influences: My mum. She’s a great cook and really good at figuring out what flavours work together. She’s the architect behind our menu.
Favourite cookbook: Recipe Tin Eats. I think at the moment everyone is a Tin Eats fan.
There’s a lot of cookbooks that I used in the past where you follow the instructions and it doesn’t taste very good, whereas I think hers actually do work out pretty well.
Death-row meal: Probably crumbed lamb cutlets.
My top three coffee making tips:
- It starts with your equipment
- Then it’s quality beans. You can’t have a quality coffee without quality beans
- Getting the milk nice and smooth. When you think about coffee, it’s 90 per cent milk, so how you do the milk plays a big part in how the products end up.
