This sign is part of a collection of objects that document Repin's Coffee Inn on Market Street. Ivan Repin (1888-1949) opened his first coffee inn at 152 King Street, Sydney in September 1930. He had arrived in Australia via Shanghai in 1925 after leaving Russia to escape the revolution. Repin's Art-Deco style cafes charged for tea and coffee at a time when these beverages were generally free with meals. This sign would have served both to suggest that customers buy iced coffee on hot days and to help create ambience in the coffee inn.

Repin's first coffee inn met with great success and many more were opened in the 1930s. Repin's success was the result of fast service, reasonable prices, good locations and excellent coffee. The inns pioneered the sale of coffee in Australia and became well-known city landmarks, frequented by office and shop workers, legal professionals, public servants and department store customers. In 1955 an article in Hotel and Cafe News said that, 'Repin ran his business on American lines - fast, clean service at a minimum price.'

Repin travelled to America in 1935-36 and 1938-39 to perfect his coffee blends. His 79 Castlereagh Street shop was the first to roast coffee at the shop entrance, and the freshly ground beans were also sold to customers. Repin's was a pioneer among the Italian espresso bars that became popular after World War II. Since the war, espresso coffee and cafes have become an identifying and dominant feature of Australia's urban culture. Their popularity is indicative of broad changes to Australian culture that have seen Anglo-centric practices give way to European influences, something that slowly began in the 1930s with Repin's coffee inns.

REFERENCES:

George Repin, correspondence with Powerhouse Museum Assistant Curator Rachel Dowling, 30 June 2007.

J. Laffin, 'The Repin Story', Hotel and Cafe News, April 1955, pp.12-15.

Nicola Teffer, Coffee Customs, exhibition brochure, Customs House Management, 2005.

The maker of this sign is unknown. It was made between 1933 and 1970.

This sign belonged to Dorothy Henry, who worked at Repin's Coffee Inn on Market Street from 1937 until it closed in 1970. Dorothy came to Sydney in 1937 looking for work and took a job as a waitress at Repin's. She later became the assistant manager.

Repin's on Market Street opened in 1933 and became a popular meeting place for city workers and shoppers. Dorothy was quoted by the Daily Telegraph in 1970, just after the coffee inn closed: '"Customers?" she said, "I loved them but they were more regulars to me than just customers." She also said: '"You should have seen the queues of them, right from Castlereagh Street to Pitt, and we had to close the doors to get any business done."'

Much of the following history is taken from Museum correspondence with George Repin.

Repin's coffee inns began in September 1930 when Ivan Repin (1888-1949) opened his first one at 152 King Street, Sydney. This coffee inn met with great success, and many more were opened in the 1930s.

Before World War II Australia was a predominantly tea drinking society. However coffee has a long history in Australia, going back to when the British came in 1788. Nicola Teffer writes that the First Fleet unloaded coffee seeds and plants collected in Brazil on the way to Australia. Sydney's climate was not suitable for producing coffee commercially, and coffee was expensive, and the colonists experimented with substitutes, with little success. In the 1870s coffee palaces appeared in Sydney but did not last long. When Repin's inns opened in the 1930s, coffee began to take off with Sydney's sophisticated set and European migrants. Some Repin's coffee inns were popular in the 1950s with members of the Sydney Push, who were intellectuals and artists. It was written in the Sydney Morning Herald that aspiring politicians such as a young Paul Keating drank there and '... he and Laurie Brereton and Bob Carr and a dozen others talked about the Labor Party and how they would change it.'

Before Repin's opened, coffee was served in restaurants as part of meals and included in the cost. At this time there were no espresso machines or instant coffee, and the coffee served was usually coffee essence added to hot water. When ground coffee beans were used, the coffee was often stale as it was brewed in advance and sometimes reheated the next day. Repin's coffee was freshly brewed, and the inns charged for it. There was initially some negative reaction to the charge but, once customers tasted the difference, they continued to purchase it. This was despite the fact that Repin's opened during the Great Depression. However, a second cup was free of charge, a practice that didn't end until after the start of World War II.

The Repin family also opened milk bars, restaurants and a coffee processing factory. When Ivan Repin died in 1949, his son George took over, and in 1955 he opened Moka in Kings Cross. George travelled to Italy in 1954 and saw the recently invented Gaggia espresso machine that was rapidly spreading in popularity in Italy. He thought the espresso machine would be popular in Sydney. David Jones installed a Gaggia in its Market Street food hall in early 1955, before Moka opened. However, George Repin wrote that Moka was the 'first specifically planned espresso coffee lounge in Sydney'. Although it took a while for customers to take to the new espresso taste, Moka was successful and the machines were installed in other Repin's shops. George wrote that, before the espresso machine, coffee at Repin's was 'prepared by a bulk filter method and kept hot in an urn. Turnover was rapid so that coffee did not sit long in an urn.' The filter method involved placing ground coffee on a calico filter and pouring boiling water through it.

Many Repin businesses closed down over the years as the buildings they occupied were sold or demolished. With escalating city rents, increased competition and individual family interests lying outside the coffee industry, the Repin family began to progressively close its businesses from 1966. The last to close was the Golden Scroll Restaurant in 1971.

REFERENCES:

'Daily Telegraph', "Coffee house era ends", 7 February, 1970, p. 10.

George Repin, correspondence with Powerhouse Museum Assistant Curator Rachel Dowling, 30 June 2007.

Hotel and Cafe News, 'Class comes to the cross', February 1956, pp. 14-15.

J. Laffin, 'The Repin Story', Hotel and Cafe News, April 1955, pp.12-15.

John Edwards, The Sydney Morning Herald, 24/09/1988 from database 'Factiva', http://global.factiva.com.ezproxy1.library.usyd.edu.au/ha/default.aspx, p.3, viewed 19/04/07.

Nicola Teffer, Coffee Customs, exhibition brochure, Customs House Management, 2005.

Sign, 'A long cool summer with Iced Coffee', cardboard, maker unknown, used by Repin's Coffee Inn, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, 1933-1970

A cardboard advertising sign for 'Iced Coffee'. It is printed with a blue and white background and features an image of iced coffee in a tall glass and white, brown and orange text 'a long, cool summer...with Iced Coffee'.

Made: 1933 - 1970


Used: Repin's Coffee Inn, Market Street; Market Street, Sydney; 1933 - 1970

No marks.

2007/106/7

1933 - 1970

506 mm

381 mm

3 mm