Tracy Alexander’s Joker Espresso coffee cart is back after a two-year hiatus, dealing with caffeinated followers at a reshuffled location.
Previously filling customers cups, handing secret treats to dogs and inviting kids to make their own fluffies at Botanical Reserve for eight years, she’s now serving the nation’s fix and her infectious personality on the Maitai River Walkway.
“I've spent the last two years not really doing much, just walking old customers' dogs and I got a bit sick of it, and I was just trying to find another location for my coffee cart and have always felt that that boulevard along by Rutherford Park could do with a bit more life,” she says.
“I'm just really happy to be back in my cart, and a lot of the time it's not even about the coffee, I’m about the entertainment.
“I jump out of my cart and hang out with my customers when I'm not busy, and sit and talk with them.”
Despite the coffee cart’s name, Tracy insists no jokes are being told and after meeting her, her customer service is no laughing matter.
Nor does Joker Espresso take its name from the mercurial Batman villain.
Instead it originates from Tracy’s time as a Nelson preschool teacher when she dressed as the joker seen in a deck of cards to make her kids chortle.
Tracy says the new location hasn’t bittered her loyal following with familiar faces beginning to return.
She is also brewing more customers, with one cyclist now full of beans for his daily commute to the central city from Tāhunanui.
“My first customer on [16 April], he went cycling past, slammed on his brakes and came back and he goes, ‘oh my goodness, I've been looking for a coffee on the way to work forever’,” she says.
“Customers are loving the spot by the river and lots of people who I don't even know have gone past and been like, ‘oh my goodness, it's so good to see a coffee cart here, we need this place to come to life’.”
Joker Espresso is operating on a trial approved by Nelson City Council until the end of July, and if Tracy plays her cards right she can keep making her coffees and people’s days.
