A small roastery and cafe in a green Victorian-era house on Fitzherbert Street in Petone, a few blocks back from the shoreline. House of Good Fortune is the Petone home of Good Fortune Coffee Co., which calls itself a tiny and mighty roastery. Roasting, blending, grinding and packing happen on site on weekdays, so the coffee served here is roasted in the same building.
The roasting rule is strict. Every bean is certified fair trade and certified organic, and the roastery uses nothing else. The house blend is Crystal Ball Blend, roasted in Petone from certified fair trade organic beans. Lucky Charm Blend is a fortune-themed blend of the same kind of beans. Mighty Fine Filter is a filter coffee made from certified fair trade organic beans. Solidarity Roast is the roast that carries the fair trade story most plainly, since the roastery only uses certified fair trade coffee. Decafe is a decaffeinated version of the house coffee, for drinking later in the day.
Not everything here is coffee. The Drinking Chocolate is 30% cocoa, fair trade certified, and is good hot or cold. It comes in 300 g packs, so it is also something to take home.
The shop opens from 7am to 3pm, Monday to Friday, and is closed on Saturday and Sunday.
Our pick in Petone for a weekday coffee and a bag of fair trade beans to take home.
The House of Good Fortune doesn't look like a coffee roastery from the street — it looks like a green Victorian-era house, which is exactly what it is. Sitting at 52 Fitzherbert Street in Petone, a few blocks from the shoreline, it's the home of Good Fortune Coffee Co., a self-described 'tiny and mighty' operation that roasts, blends, grinds and packs coffee five days a week. Petone has no shortage of places to get a good coffee, but few can claim a roastery inside a Victorian house — or one that tells its story in a poem rather than a pitch deck.
Inside, you'll find Dr Warren and the 'coffee elves' busily at work. The company is fronted by Matt and Freya, who introduce themselves as 'your purveyors of Good Fortune', and the origin story is told in verse: a poem that follows the beans from farmers watching the plants grow 'in faraway places', across the sea, to a Wellington roaster springing out of bed and declaring it a 'can't beat Wellington day'.
Good Fortune keeps its sourcing rule refreshingly simple: the company will only roast 100% certified fair trade coffee. That guarantee runs right to the start of the chain — the farmers, coffee pickers and bean sorters, and the co-ops they belong to, all receive a fair deal for their work — and the beans they send over the sea are farmed organically.
The care continues at home. Good Fortune pairs its fair trade, organic sourcing with a living wage commitment for its own team: 'We want happy workers to produce fantastic coffee.' After a decade in the game, the roastery marked its ten-year anniversary with a commemorative pin that now sits in the shop alongside the beans.
The coffee lineup leans happily into the luck-and-fortune theme. House blends include Crystal Ball, Lucky Charm, Firecracker, Hypnotic Eyes and Sixth Sense, alongside Solidarity Roast, Mighty Fine Filter for filter brews, the Lucky Dip and a Decafe for later in the day. Everything through the roaster is certified fair trade and organically grown, roasted in Petone then 'packed and loaded onto our truck', as the poem goes.
Non-coffee drinkers are looked after too. The Drinking Chocolate is made from 30% cocoa with fair trade certified sugar sourced from organic producers, sold in 300g packs and billed as 'good hot or cold. The kids are gunna love it!' — with an Extra Dark version for serious chocolate heads.
Beyond the beans, the House of Good Fortune sells its own merch: Lucky Mugs, tote bags, caps, hoodies, long sleeves and a run of T-shirts, including one featuring 'the all-knowing hand of wisdom'. There's the Enchanted Box Of Wonder for gifting, the Kōrero Kawhe! book now in its second edition, and even an Ottomatic Coffeemaker for home brewers who want to do it properly.
The full range is available through the online shop, which accepts the major cards plus Apple Pay, Google Pay and PayPal. Regulars can sign up for a coffee subscription and save 10%, with delivery frequencies running from weekly to every six weeks.
The House of Good Fortune opens 7am to 3pm, Monday to Friday — this is a weekday operation, so save the visit for the working week. Look for the green Victorian house on Fitzherbert Street and you can't miss it; the shoreline is only a few blocks away, so it pairs neatly with a walk by the water.
Cafes and workplaces can get Good Fortune beans through the wholesale program, with orders and customer support handled by the team at orders@goodfortunecoffee.co.nz.
That's the whole promise, really: a fair deal for the growers at one end, a living wage for the roasters in the middle, and a good honest cup for you at the other. As the company's own poem puts it — enjoy your cup. Follow your luck.