11 Oct 2021

Auckland café doing brisk trade in bacon butties

From Afternoons, 1:45 pm on 11 October 2021

Howick locals are picking up bacon butties for free at a neighbourhood café, thanks to a 'pay it forward' system kicked off by a local electrician. 

A bacon buttie from Auckland cafe The Apothecary 'paid forward' by a local business

Photo: The Apothecary / Facebook

Bacon butties are The Apothecary's way of going back to basics to generate much-needed income, says owner Ted Waters.

"We thought what's a real easy comfort food?"

Local electrician Michael 'Beefy' McBeath - a great supporter of The Apothecary - loved the idea of an outdoor barbecue, Ted says.

Now the café is pumping out ham and bacon butties (sometimes in croissants) with meat from a local butchery.

Beefy, who is on the lookout for work, had the idea of 'paying it forward' by shouting 20 bacon butties for future Apothecary customers, he says.

In return, the café flicked his business card in with each buttie. Soon, other Howick businesses started 'paying it forward'.

The Apothecary's outdoor barbecue generates a good atmosphere and quite an aroma, Ted says.

"It does tend to send a burly trail right down the middle of Howick. It stimulates the senses a bit."

Many customers are taken aback by the idea of accepting a bacon buttie for free and instead choose to pay and also pay another one forward, he says.

Despite the buttie sideline, The Apothecary is still trading at only about 25 percent of the usual rate.

"It's something, and something is a lot at the moment.”

Howick locals want all of their hospitality businesses to get through the pandemic and the businesses themselves depend on each other, Ted says.

"We all support each other. Just like car yards, they sort of all stick together, don't they?

"You take hospo out of a village and there's not much left, I don't believe."

(L-R) Carmen Holmes and Ted Waters of The Apothecary in Howick.

Owners Carmen Holmes and Ted Waters outside The Apothecary Photo: Supplied