Is it possible that the owner of Leederville hangout Greens & Co thinks the more enemies he makes, the more coffees he'll sell?
Already offside with some other business owners on Oxford Street, Stuart Lofthouse has now upset two more powerful groups - the City of Vincent and Perth cyclists.
Mr Lofthouse - in business in Leederville since the early 1990 - and his partner Debbie Saunders, who runs the 50ml cafe further up on Oxford Street, attended a council meeting on Tuesday to voice concerns against plans to install a $2.5million bike network along Oxford Street and Leederville surrounds.
The pair argued the proposed bike lanes would mean less parking bays. They then got stuck into Vincent mayor John Carey, calling him "worthless", before a fight broke out when council rangers tried to escort the unruly roasters out of the chambers.
Police were eventually called after Mr Lofthouse said he wasn't going to leave "unless someone makes me". Witnesses described the pair's conduct as "disgusting".
On Thursday Mr Lofthouse inflamed the incident further by hanging a massive sign off the roof of his cafe which read: "VINCENT COUNCIL STAFF ASSAULT RATEPAYER AT COUNCIL MEETING."
Now in case Mr Lofthouse hadn't noticed, his cafe already backs onto the biggest carpark in Leederville, and Greens & Co also sits at the T-junction of Newcastle and Oxford streets, so there are no parking bays in front of his cafe anyway.
And regarding the "worthless" mayor, Mr Carey is probably worth more to ratepayers than any mayor before him, if only for his tireless fight to keep Vincent a stand-alone council in the face of the state government's cost-cutting council amalgamation.
What makes Mr Lofthouse's behaviour even more bizarre, is that his cafe is the number one destination for cyclists pedalling through the area. On any given day, you'll see them clad in lycra, sipping on Lofthouse's lattes on one of the many little crates the council lets him place on the Oxford Street footpath.
I wonder what they think of his coffee den now?
In Mr Lofthouse's defence, he does say he supports the bike path plan, just not in its current format (he supports one of the initial council options for the bike path, which involved removing the median strip on Oxford Street, but this option was subsequently rejected by council because it disadvantaged pedestrians).
Mr Lofthouse, who did not return calls to Fairfax Media, has said in the past that several council projects have resulted in less parking bays in Leederville. But this defence of parking space carries little weight because he seems to be fighting this battle alone - especially since no other Leederville business owners contacted for this story were too concerned by the issue.
The truth is, bike path networks are widely used and wildly successful in cities like New York, Paris and Amsterdam.
Putting the motorist versus cyclist road debate aside for one moment (more on that another time), even Shane Warne would realise good bike paths will bring only more activity and business to the Oxford Street strip.
Not to mention make things safer for all concerned - pedestrians, motorists, cyclists and cafe owners.
