The Steaming Bean

21 Years on the Lakefront: The Story Behind The Steaming Bean

If you’ve grabbed a coffee near the lakefront in Taupō, chances are you’ve queued at The Steaming Bean. It feels like it’s always been there and with 21 years behind the counter, it pretty much has.

Fun fact: The concession started with Carol Burbury, whose father ran Burbury’s Cafe on the lakefront. Carol did the hard yards with the council just to earn the right to be there, a trial year with one condition: no complaints, or the concession didn’t continue. She ran it for eight years before selling to Brent and Wendy, who ran it for 12 more, before Daniel and Phoebe took the reins a year and a half ago.

“There’s a very limited amount of concession sites along the lake,” Phoebe says. “It’s a real honour to have it.“

Coffee’s in the blood

Both came into the business with hospitality well under their belts. Phoebe’s been in it since 2009 and moved to New Zealand from Australia in 2018. Daniel’s story goes back further, front-of-house at his parents’ hotel while still at school, a second job as a waiter for extra cash, then making the jump to coffee when his parents bought The Steaming Bean. He’s been pulling coffees on that same spot for 13 years, with a detour into agricultural fertiliser work along the way.

Buying the business wasn’t all smooth sailing. “Things never line up, there’s always something to drag it on,” Daniel says. “It’s just about persevering through it.” For both of them it came down to a simple truth: after years working for other people, independence and being plain stubborn, got them through.

More than just a coffee stop

I asked who their customers are and the answer’s basically “everyone“: travellers, locals escaping the summer crowds, and around 300 regulars who keep the place ticking. Daniel reckons he’s got about 100 photos of customers’ dogs on his phone.

Big local events bring their own chaos and charm.

World Ironman Day sees crews setting up speakers for an impromptu rave outside the cart. On Taupo Marathon day, the more relaxed runners stop mid-lap for a coffee, sit for five minutes, then head back out to finish. Daniel ran the 5km himself last year – and found a crowd of regulars there just to support him. “You don’t know until someone does something like that,” he says. “It’s reciprocal, too.”

Built by locals, for locals

The current cart itself, nearing six years old, was built to get people out of the wind and cold in winter because cold feet were never going to bring people back. True to Taupō Local form, it was built almost entirely by local trades: chassis, shell, windows, electronics, all done in town. The coffee’s local too.

I ask who’s helped them along the way and it’s a familiar theme – the Council’s Parks and Reserves team (special mention for Billy), Brent and Wendy still lending a hand on busy weekends, and a network of local sparkies, builders and tradies who turn up whenever something needs fixing.

When Daniel and Phoebe took over, they were deliberate about one thing: not changing much. “It was important to us to not change that much,” Phoebe says. “That’s why it worked.” Why fix something that isn’t broken, as the saying goes – they extended the opening hours, but otherwise kept the cart doing exactly what had made it work for the 20 years before them.

What’s next

I asked what they’d change with unlimited time and money, and it’s all small, thoughtful stuff: plant boxes for a bit of separation from the footpath, a few more tables, maybe bringing back the events cart for weddings and functions. But the big picture hasn’t changed, keep it consistent, keep it welcoming, keep showing up. They’ve even extended their hours (7:30am–4:30pm, every day) simply because everyone else in town was closing early.

As Phoebe puts it, channelling some wisdom from Wendy: “If you’re closed one day and people turn up and see you’re closed, you’ve lost them.” So rain, hail or Ironman chaos, The Steaming Bean opens its doors because that’s what 21 years of showing up for Taupō looks like.

What running The Steaming Bean has taught them

We ask everyone we feature this same question, what’s one thing this journey has taught you about yourself, or people, that you didn’t expect?

For Daniel and Phoebe, the answer came easily:

“…people’s generosity goes a long way.”

When a regular’s bike frame snapped, leaving her walking to work, another regular,  a gruff dude who’s always cracking jokes, quietly welded it back together for free. And when a customer’s dog passed away, she prepaid treats for the next 20 dogs through the door,  other customers paid it forward until three days’ worth of dogs had scored a free treat. “Her generosity was multiplied“, Phoebe says.

It’s stories like these that stick with them most. Not the busy weekends or the Ironman rushes, but the quiet moments where the community shows up for each other and, it turns out, for Daniel and Phoebe too.

Next time you’re on the lakefront, pop in and say hi to Daniel, Phoebe, and the crew and don’t be surprised if a regular’s dog gets more attention than you do.