With $2.50 coffees and $13 pizzas, is this Australia’s cheapest Italian restaurant?
Cafe Perri, located opposite Carnegie station in southeast Melbourne, caused a stir online this week after a photo of its menu went viral on Reddit.
Highlights from the classic Italian menu include $11 for a Napoletana pizza, $9 for a Napoli pasta and $3 for a takeaway cappuccino.
“Shops be rising prices but my local Italian still staying strong,” wrote the person who took the photo. Another replied, “Those prices are incredible in this day and age.”
Many were confused about how the tiny restaurant has managed to buck the inflation trend, as rising energy, rent and input costs put the squeeze on businesses and households.
Consumer prices rose 3.6 per cent year-on-year in the March quarter, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS). The cost of food and alcoholic beverages was up 3.8 per cent, with a 5.3 per cent increase in meals out and takeaway foods the main contributor to the category.
Cafe owner Jimmy Perri told news.com.au he had not increased his prices since moving to the Carnegie location last September.
“We opened with this policy, low price high quality,” he said.
Before Covid he had a cafe on Elizabeth Street in the CBD but moved to be closer to where he lives. Mr Perri, who has been in the cafe business around two decades, said he believed he was one of the cheapest places in Melbourne, if not the country.
“I challenge you to find anywhere in Melbourne or Australia $2.50 for an authentic Italian espresso,” he said.
“Regular cappuccino takeaway is $3, if they’re having here it’s $3.50 because we have to wash the cup. Pizza starts from $6 for a small and large from $13 or $14. Any beer, any glass of wine $6.”
The average price of a small takeaway flat white in Australian capital cities was $4.78, according to a survey earlier this year by the University of South Australia.
Mr Perri said the reason he keeps prices low is “because I am coming from the customer side”. “If I go to a place for a coffee with my friend or just to buy a pizza, I want to have the best deal, so having good quality and paying less, and I try to bring this policy here,” he said.
