Van-tastic coffee hits Shepparton

The van is a new venture for the couple, having only purchased and opened the van in October 2024.

“We love coffee, so when the opportunity to buy this van came up, it’s something that we’ve wanted to do for quite a while, so we thought ‘why not, we’ll go for it’ and purchased the van,” Mr Papadatos said.

“The day we bought it, we applied for our council permits, and the van came already equipped ... so it was ready to go.”

The van is a new part-time gig for them, attending events and popping up along The Boulevard, when they’re both not working at GV Health, where Mr Papadatos works as a theatre technician and Ms Riddell works as an after hours manager.

Working in the van provides a welcome change of pace.

“That’s why we like doing the coffee. People are quite happy when they come to get their coffee,” Ms Riddell said.

“The hospital is quite a stressful job for us both, so doing the coffee is quite a nice relaxing thing to do.”

Keeping things local, their brew is sourced right here in town, from Evolve North.

“All our coffee is made and roasted here in Shepparton,” Mr Papadatos said.

“We get our cups, our syrups, everything from them ... they’ve been good to work with.”

There’s no charge for any extra shots, alternative milks or syrups, making for an affordable cup of joe.

“What we pride ourselves on is we’re not charging anything extra for syrups and alternative milks,” Ms Riddell said.

“So just because someone’s on a restricted diet, we don’t want them to have to pay more for coffee, we’re not increasing our prices.”

Since reopening in January, they have been back on the grind, serving up at a TAC event in Balmattum, Greater Shepparton’s Australia Day awards, as well as their usual pop-up on The Boulevard.

“We’re doing the Shepp Swans home games for this season, so we’ll be at Princess Park,” Ms Riddell said.

“It’s been very hard to establish a regular customer base at the moment, just because we haven’t had that regular opening time and people don’t always know where we’re going to be.

“So we’re trying to update our social media pages and let people know a week in advance where we’re going to be opening.”

To stay up to date with where Coffee Shots will be next, visit its Facebook page.

If you’d like to get in touch with owners Linda Riddell and Steve Papadatos about Coffee Shots attending your event, you can contact them on coffeeshotsshepparton@gmail.com or call 0491 023 414.