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Is the bottomless cup really on the way out?

Matt Holden

Are 'unlimited' coffees really on the way out?
Are 'unlimited' coffees really on the way out?Supplied

The bottomless cup of coffee, often a mug, and refilled as soon as you put it down by a hard-boiled waitress in a starched uniform, is a staple of American popular culture.

The coffee might not be great, and the price makes you wonder if what you're really paying is rent on a diner stool.

Forbes magazine reported last year that the bottomless cup may be on the way out thanks to the rise of specialty coffee, which is just too costly to give away.

But a couple of Melbourne cafes are heading in the other direction.

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The Queensberry Pour House in Carlton offers a bottomless cup of single origin batch brew, roasted in house by owner Ben Stronach (and served in beautiful ceramic cups made by his mum in Newcastle).

"It's nice to get topped up," says Stronach. "It's a different style of coffee. It's nice to be able to linger over it.

"The most I've seen someone drink was eight," he says. "But we don't serve bottomless takeaways – not near the university!"

At Green Park Dining in Brunswick East, waitstaff offer to refill you with the batch-brewed house blend, a tasty mix of two Colombians and a Brazilian.

A 21st-century variation has appeared in the form of a new app, UpShot, just launched by two young Melbourne developers. UpShot promises "unlimited" coffee for a weekly subscription of $15 ("unlimited" means one coffee an hour).

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As the app is new, participating cafes are few – among them St Ali in South Melbourne, and Paleo Den, Isit and Market Lane in Prahran.

UpShot's Jerrold Poh says, "We want it to be as simple to pay for food and drink as it is to get a ride with Uber." Users order their coffee on the app, then hand their phone to the barista, who verifies the order. Payment is transferred to the cafe, with UpShot taking a 3 per cent cut.

Poh says he and business partner Bash Shabanipour are working to sign up more cafes, and are also trying to get roasters involved, though he is being coy about who until they sign.

"This changes the way you think about coffee," says Poh. "You don't have to think about how much you spend – you just go to your favourite cafe and have coffee. Coffee becomes a solved problem."

If "unlimited" sounds like too much, you can add credit to the app instead – "bottomless" becomes "purse- (or wallet-) free".

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