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Fair trade doesn't get any fairer than this.

The price of a cup of coffee at Coburg’s original and best café, Coffee and Kitchen, has risen for the first time in four years. It is now $2.50. That is not a typo.

Coffee and Kitchen caters for the old Coburg crowd; the elderly Greeks and Italians who moved into the suburb in the 1950s and '60s as young factory fodder and are now in their twilight years. The two newspapers most read here are Il Globo and Neos Kosmos; and, unlike most cafes, the most popular drink served is the short black, leaving the ubiquitous café latte a distant second.

Gradually supplanting the old guard of customers at Coffee and Kitchen is a new generation of Coburg families whose children love the milkshakes or kick balls around in the mall while their parents sit outdoors under big market umbrellas in hot weather. But Coffee and Kitchen is still not quite hip enough for the hipsters - ironically, because it is exactly the kind of place foodie experience-seekers travel the world to find: an unpretentious European-style café where genuine locals enjoy good quality coffee and buy coffee beans, pasta and basic kitchen items at down-to-earth prices.

During major world sporting events, Frank switches on the big screen. The café also turns brown and gold every September. Look out for a four-peat this year.

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Coffee and Kitchen
7 Victoria Street Mall Coburg

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One I photographed earlier. The newspaper dates the picture to August 2008.

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