In 2001, the battle of the coffee machines came to Lygon Street in Melbourne. The old masters of the Mediterranean who brought their coffee-making skills to Melbourne as post-war migrants were facing a new enemy: Starbucks. Lygon Street is sacred ground for caffeinistas: it boasts a large student population, a bloody history with a spate of gangland murders, and has the highest concentration of pasta and density of latte fumes per square kilometre. In short – it's unique. Not the place for cookie-cutter American chains, complained the old guard....The Age reported: "although the list of the stores to be closed has not been released, it is believed the controversial Starbucks shop in Lygon Street, Carlton, is among them."