'Freakshow' shakes and social media drive cafe's meteoric rise

Ranging from hot chocolate packed with fudge and marshmallow to the cold Nutella shake complete with a pretzel-lined topping of the hazelnut spread and whipped cream, the extravagant drinks have taken social media by storm to the delight of the owners of seven-week-old Manuka cafe Patissez.

The invention of co-owner Anna Petridis, the Muddy Pat, Nutty Pat, Nutella & Salty Pretzel and French Vanilla shakes have led the traffic amid an impressive selection of desserts, pastries and mains, leaving those on Facebook drooling over their keyboards.

"I wanted to do some really great shakes, and so ridiculous and over the top that people just had to take a photo of it before they ate it," Ms Petridis said.

"We never imagined the response to be this big.

"I have people waiting an hour for a table, and they'll wait 45 minutes for a shake, because we put a lot of time into them and once we run out that's it for the day – all this is house made, down to the brownie and the marshmallow."

Anna, 26, and her mother and co-owner Gina Petridis, 49, first week departures from this year's My Kitchen Rules reality show, praised the creativity of husband and wife French pastry chefs Ismael and Astrid Toorawa, who they own the business with.

Gina Petridis, who owned a school clothing store for 17 years, said the Bougainville Street cafe had been more than a year in the planning and served three times the customers it expected so far. It has more than 3300 likes on Facebook, aided by regular mouth-watering updates.

While demand for the 30-seat cafe regularly spills onto the street any day of the week, the plan remains to open a second, larger store in Civic in about October.

There's gluten-free options, but this is not the place for those worried about a few calories – from brekkie burgers to mascarpone cheesecake mousse domes, generous servings from the dynamic menu mean you won't be snacking soon after.