The concept of a restaurant that roasts its own coffee beans would turn few heads in the capital of New Zealand. Wellington now counts more coffee roasters than surfing instructors amongst its population of 180,000.

“Actually there are no good waves in Wellington,” says chef Miles Kirby (at right in photo), co-owner of Caravan, a new restaurant roastery on London’s Exmouth Market.

“Bit cold in Wellington for surfing,” adds Chris Ammermann, Kirby’s partner and fellow expat.

Who knew?

Perhaps thwarted in their search for surging breakers between the banks of the Thames, Kirby and Ammermann have caught another kind of Antipodean-ridden wave – the third wave of coffee in London. They’ve installed a 10-kilo coffee roaster in the basement of Caravan, making it the first restaurant in the UK to also practice trade as a coffee roaster, shop, retailer and wholesaler.

Caravan has already made world-class coffee connections. Kirby and Ammermann source their green coffee beans from Mercanta, a leading importer of speciality coffee, and rely on a champion-calibre barista to extract their most desirable characteristics. Caravan’s coffees, once roasted and rested, are brewed in-house on Tuesdays, Wednesday and Thursdays by 2010 UK Latte Art Champion Neil Le Bihan of Exchange Coffee.

Kirby’s approach to both food and coffee is global. As chef or roaster he’d never limit his inspiration to a single continent. His favourite coffee of the moment is the Rwandan Musasa Cooperative (red bourbon varietal). Its tropical fruitiness informs Caravan’s Brazilian-anchored espresso blend (and Le Bihan’s hanging tulip latte) yet is best appreciated on its own, as filter coffee slowly cooling in its cup. The flavours evolve.

From late morning through lunch, the Caravan coffee experience is influenced by greasy, smokey fumes blowing into the restaurant from the sausage stand directly out front on Exmouth Market. Kirby and Ammermann applaud the improvised fusion. Downstairs, another unplanned mingling of cooking vapours is taking place. Air currents push the exhaust from the coffee roaster back towards the kitchen and its sizzling frying pans.

How would Kirby feel if his cooking oils absorbed the roasting fumes, imparting coffee notes to falafel and soft-shell crab as they fried?

“If it happens,” responds Kirby, philosophically, “great!”