=Kaffe

Equals Kaffe is run by the Erlik foundation, the organization behind the street magazine Oslo, as a working coffee bar rather than a symbolic one. Two professional baristas and two social workers train people who are rebuilding their lives after addiction or homelessness, and since opening in 2017 the program has logged more than 50000 paid work hours across more than 50 baristas. Solberg og Hansen supplies the beans and helped train the early staff, and the goal from day one was to compete on quality with the established chains, not just get by on good intentions.

The original Akersgata location closed at the start of 2025 after years of rising rent, roadworks and a run of quieter pandemic years, and the bar has since settled into a smaller weekday spot on Lovisenberggata near the hospital named for it. It keeps office hours, open mornings into early afternoon Monday to Friday and closed on weekends, and beyond the counter the team delivers coffee pots to meetings and sends out a mobile coffee bike for offices, conferences and festivals around the city.