In a historic building bursting with character and charm, Dan Bregmen and Abby McErlane are doing what they love.
Their new cafe, an all-day breakfast and brunch bar, opened last week, but they say there is much more to their business, Tees St, than just coffee and food.
Mr Bregmen and Miss McErlane wanted to create something different and exciting that had never been done before in Oamaru.
''It is this ideal of convivial eating: it's lively, it's fun, it's exciting, but at the same time it is also quite humble and I guess you could call it down to earth,'' Mr Bregmen said.
Mr Bregmen, originally from Northland, has a master of entrepreneurship from the University of Otago.
He was first employed as a barista for Fluid Espresso and thanks owner Lynley Verkerk for giving him the opportunity to fall in love with coffee.
After seven years at university, he spent 10 months travelling the world.
When he returned home to Auckland, he got a job managing the Devonport and Newmarket Little and Friday cafes.
But it was working as a brand manager for a couple of clothing labels, based in Auckland, that his story with Miss McErlane and Oamaru began.
''In trying to track down Jeremy Holding at Soul Surf and Skate [in Oamaru] to find out orders, I got chatting to the girl who worked in the store - Abby McErlane,'' he said.
During a sales trip to Oamaru, they met for the first time.
Numbers were exchanged and a few phone calls, visits between Oamaru and Auckland and a company restructure later, Mr Bregmen decided to move to Oamaru.
The initial plan was to stay in Oamaru for four months and go back to Auckland, but that changed when he met Cucina 1871 owners Lynn and Keith Stevens and Mary-Claire and Andy Anderson.
''A relationship was built and eventually the conversation was had that they had this space available ... and here we are,'' he said.
It was an exciting time to be opening a new business in Oamaru, a town with real soul and personality, they said.
''There's this thirst out there for new and interesting stuff [in Oamaru] and the whole town has this real buzz - I feel more of a buzz here in Oamaru than I did in Auckland,'' he said.
Miss McErlane grew up in Oamaru, but left at age 19, living in Melbourne, London and then Spain, where she worked as a stewardess on 100-foot luxury yachts.
''That gave me the money to travel the world [more],'' she said.
''Then I made the decision to put some roots down, because I was seeing the bright lights of 30 and I came back to Oamaru, bought a house, started working for Soul Surf and Skate and then I met my dreamboat.''
Work on the Tees St building, which previously housed Almost All New Zealand Books, started in July.
In the construction process, they discovered an Oamaru stone and marble archway hidden behind a piece of hardboard, the stonework dating back to 1871.
It was the original frontage of the building and has become a centrepiece of the cafe.
Mr Bregmen, a self-confessed coffee geek, said he would be experimenting with different methods of brewing coffee, including soft brewing.
''It's a slower, softer brewing method which allows us to really enjoy and experience single-origin coffee.''
They have employed two floor staff, and three kitchen staff, including chef Ashley Baty, whose experience includes working at the Hermitage Hotel, Mount Cook, and Pen-y-Bryn Lodge in Oamaru.
''We feel very lucky with Ashley and her skill level and her experience - I guess the journey now is having to deal with Abby and I and transfer our semi-pedantic and varied food ideas into a bit of magic on a plate,'' he said.
