Coffee should be available past 3pm. Hell, it should be available at any time of night but I’m not sure y’all are ready to hear that yet. If you want to get out of your grungy flat and meet a friend, you get a coffee. Want a study break? You get a coffee. You want somewhere nice and aesthetic to study? You get a coffee. You want something warm in your small, childlike hands to distract you from the unbearable pain of being alone? You get a coffee. But come the early afternoon and the closed signs start piling up, door after door shutting in the face of the customers who just want a flat white.
It’s madness. 3pm is the perfect time to catch up with a friend— no awkward long lunch, no bleary-eyed morning chitchat, no early afternoon “really should be studying” small talk—- just two pals, shooting the breeze, talking smack about high school in the darling mid-afternoon sun. 3-4pm is postprandial dip time baby, where no work is to be done or had. The perfect coffee schmooze fest. Even in the early evening, we should be able to buy coffee. Students love to pull late-nighters at the library but we’re forced to resort to drinking iced coffee out of vending machines. Like animals.
People love to complain about students and drinking, but that’s genuinely all there is to do in this godforsaken city past 5pm. We have no late night shops to browse (don’t even talk to me about the closure of Kmart. Logically, I know it’s probably better that it's gone to protect the livelihoods of small businesses, but in my heart? I want to go into a fluorescent lit store at 8pm and feel alive.) Restaurants cost between $20-30 to eat out at. So of course we turn to drinking beer in bars and flats! But trust me, if there was a cosy coffee shop I could escape to, I would be there, clutching a long black in my hands as if it were a small baby bird.
Critic reached out to several businesses that shut between 2:30 and 3:30 just to be like: “why?” Dispensary, for example, runs the cafe based on one full time shift (7.5 hours) as they employ their staff as full time permanent employees (they also pay them the living wage, we stan). During university holidays, the cafe operates at a loss. Owner Nick says closing early is “the most sustainable way to run. We could pull in extra people during semesters to extend the hours but our service and quality would drop.” Governor’s closes at 3:30 because “we don't really get any new customers and then by 4 you start getting people who are looking for an early dinner so over the years we have found a happy medium for us”. If anyone is genuinely looking for an early dinner at 4, are you okay?
I really don’t want to be that dick that’s like “oh, it’s unprofitable for your business? Well too bad, I want it.” Obviously, if you’re going to lose money by extending hours, don’t do it. But maybe, if we the people were to show our support, things could change? Because God, do I want change. One cafe owner revealed to Critic that back in the early 2000s, cafes used to be open late and George Street was overrun with caffeinated customers. However, things slowly changed bit by bit until we’re here, in the disaster timeline. “It's a chicken egg thing, the cafes aren't open because the people aren't there, and the people aren't there because the cafes aren't open,” the cafe owner lamented. If it was done before, it can be done again. Let’s learn from our elders.
Also, some businesses transition well between mid and late afternoon. Ombrellos, Kiki Beware and Eureka serve alcohol so it's easy to still order a coffee at 5 or 6pm since others are drinking/eating. Could that be the business model of the future? I don’t know. All I know is what I yearn for in my heart. Maybe I’ve watched one too many movies about millennials living in New York and I dream the big city life for our small town. Who knows if change is possible. This isn’t even about coffee. This is for anyone who's ever longed for a foamy hot chocolate to calm them through a late night assignment, anyone who dreams of eating a lemon slice for dinner, anyone who wants to pour a pot of tea at 4pm and feel the wind of possibility. I hope our time will come.