recommended, but variable, reasonably pricey and possibly slightly more fashionable than warranted.
i don’t know why its called seize – perhaps as someone suggested from “seize the day” or perhaps “seizure” as a result of caffeine overdose. certainly the web site is non informative as to name or philosophy – just photos of a lot of serious 20-30 yr olds pretending either to be having great fun queuing, watching a floorshow of a staff member, or intelligently considering every mouthful in terms of carbon units. no-one seems to be enjoying the taste of anything.
the section of the seize website labelled “what we are about” simply says “clean eating” which might lead one to hours of internal philosophical discussion analysing the daft (designer clever) ambiguity of the phrase. certainly the vegetables arrayed in wooden bins as part of the décor are remarkably clean – far more so than anything at commonsense organics.
seize’s website portrays the café in terms of image rather than substance. the philosophy is not explicitly stated –it is left to the imagination - but its photographs convey an impression (cleverly) of everything that is currently fashionable for a younger demographic – paleo, vegan, organic etc without actually falling into any one category. it treads a clever line between health and fashionability.
it is an image that auckland knows well, but, will it wash in a more discerning wellywood? the auckland “unbakeries”, repleat with something-free or raw, tap into a fashion that is frantically groping for health and immortality, trying to abandon animal based gastronomy (questionably), cruel farm practices (obviously), genetic engineering (probably) etc. they place their woes on meat, gluten, cow’s milk, cooking, and refined sugar. yet each of these except the last, have contributed enormously to the development of homo sapiens and civilisation – you may no doubt debate that, and we are all entitled to opinions.
the café itself is vaguely nordic, clean white, pine, semi industrial with boxes of fruit and vegetables lining the walls. seating about 20 or so people inside on small and a larger shared table. chairs outside also. music pleasant, coffee – flight. the cabinet items looked very good. individual salad ingredients that could be combined, a blackboard menu of bowls that looked interesting and certainly every fashionable ingredient from the now passé quinoa to maco powder was listed somewhere. there were chia drinks as well as what must be the most on-trend drink - coffee kombucha (which is actually seriously delicious – but is basically a fermented coffee soft drink).
seize labels each item on its blackboard menu with a code according to whether it is paleo, vegan, dairy free, gluten free or free of refined sugar. so it is possible to decide which ethical/dietary item you need according to all manner of psychiatry, philosophy and pathology. it does not tell you the calorie content of anything – and this, to my mind, is the only serious thing that is likely to effect the majority of people – that and your genes. the fact that something contains no refined sugar is largely irrelevant if it contains an equivalent amount of unrefined sugar. cafes promoting well-being should start to promote low calorie deliciousness.
now the purpose of my first visit to seize (i've made three) was not to analyse its place in the world of ethical “clean” eating, but to see if it could make a cup of tea. tea is a symbol of unfashionability, simplicity and care. i am increasingly coming to the opinion that the ability to make tea is a good measure of a café’s worth.
i firstly sought to determine which teas were available.
there were libertine teas (blends), tea horse road teas, there were flavoured teas …. but the only black tea was an english breakfast tea (although tea horse do a couple of interest) … i humbly asked for it, feeling, for all the world that i was relegated to the also ran’s of cool. to save face however, on my first visit i ordered a “cacao goji macaroon.”
the service was lovely, a delightfully pleasant lady took my order and i felt awful resisting the “rock ohm” tea, or “kapow” from libertine that she was enthusing over.
i was not asked about milk.
while waiting for the tea i read a sign which seemed to come closest to some philosophical statement in that they “source local ingredients, use organic when they can [perhaps might be stretching it here based upon my observations of the back wall fruit and veg] and build relationships with local farmers.”
the macaroon came first – more like a truffle – slightly dry, crumbly and with a musty taste. i assumed the latter was intended, and was a result of the goji berries – amusing how we savour bad tastes and smells if we assume or are told they are desirable – some cheeses are an obvious example. i don’t know the macaroon’s origin but possibly house made, and possibly “little bird”.
the tea came in a rather large (3-4 cup) stainless pot, half full and containing a single tea bag. the accompanying thick ceramic cappuccino cup was warm. the young lady had no idea as to the brand and indeed i could see it had come from an unlabelled plastic container.
the milk came in a small glass and it contained three small black-brown floating bits, which, if organic, i hoped were dead – after all i was “clean eating”. i tasted it and it seemed ok.
the tea when poured was of a reasonably good colour, little character, mild astringency – it tasted like tea bag tea. possibly it was one of a variety of ebt that had better ethical credentials – fair trade and planet?. the temperature faded quickly.
on my tea scoring system (see my astoria review) i gave seize 12/30, well behind the current leaders (louis sergeant and clark's on 19, kilbirnie's the little teapot and silverstream's the fig leaf cafe on 18 and both le maquis and chocolate frog on 17).
i’ve been back twice since, trying to get a feel for quality. once for breakfast and also brunch. breakfast was the granola, which i think is brilliant. sprouted buckwheat and oats with a coating of cacao (the fashionable way of saying cocoa), and a topping of greek yoghurt, then a compote of rhubarb (on one occasion) and strawberries (on the next). it was seriously good – and it “felt” healthy.
for a brunch it was ceviche on a salad. the fish was great, just the right degree of flavour and texture, but the salad was boring – i tossed up whether to finish it – lacking in a dressing that said anything to me.
the coffee on these occasions was well made, good flavour, unburnt, enjoyable.
all in all there are some things that seize does well – clearly the philosophy is on the right track but it would be useful if it was more intelligently articulated. thefoodis good, the coffee is excellent. it's reasonably pricey and the high calorie cabinet is best ignored. basically i liked it.