Popular cafe willing to risk losing business over controversial ban
Walking the trendy streets of Fitzroy with a coffee in hand is about as Melbourne as you can get, but one café isn’t having a bar of it.
Napier Quarter is now banning takeaway coffee, urging customers to take a breather, sit down and enjoy their morning latte in the café.
The decision to move away from takeaway coffees was initially prompted by environmental concerns, however, owner Daniel Lewis said he was sick of seeing “a conglomerate of people standing around with backpacks, on their phones” that ultimately took away from the experience.
“It’s turning into a takeaway generation, it’s not what we are about,” he told Fairfax Media.
While it might make up about 25 per cent of the café’s morning business, Mr Lewis is willing to take the financial risk in a bid to restore the culture that Melbourne’s booming coffee scene was founded on.
“Taking that time, to not compromise having a moment to yourself every day. I think it is really important in that day and age instead of facilitating this really wasteful takeaway culture,” he said.
“Everyone thinks they are so much busier, but they are not. You can certainly make time to sit down and have a coffee.”
The cafe has also dropped their prices down to $3.50 to encourage customers to get involved.
