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40 HEADSTART 41HEADSTART

Greek Cafehistory

Headst@rt takes a look at some of Queensland's forgotten café history with cultural historian Toni Risson

1788Coffee arrives in Australia with the First Fleet

1829First Greeks land in Australia. Seven Greek sailors from Hydra, convicted in Malta in 1828 for piracy and transported for various terms, arrive as convicts

19001000 Greeks are now settled in Australia

1901The White Australia Policy introduced.First Greek café in Ipswich, The Australia Café. There are four in Brisbane

1902

1910

Castrission family opens the Niagara Café in Gundagai

2000 Greeks settled in Australia. At least 10 Greek cafés and oyster saloons operate in Brisbane. 33 Greek cafés operate in 26 Queensland towns. Greeks introduce the American soda fountain to Sydney.

1915Riots against Greek shopkeepers in Sydney

1916Jack Simos opens the Paragon Café in Katoomba

1878Arthur Comino opens Australia's fi rst Greek fi sh shop, at 36 Oxford St, Sydney

1893A Greek café/oyster saloon recorded in Brisbane

1920Greek cafés operate in 52 Queensland towns

1922Migration escalates when the Turks drive Greeks out of Asia Minor

1924US imposes limits on Greek immigration, escalating migration to Australia

1930sAustralia's fi rst Italian restaurant. Baklava and Kataifi recorded in some Sydney Greek cafés

1932Mick Adams (a Greek) opens the Black & White Milk Bar in Martin Place, Sydney, widely considered Australia's fi rst milk bar

1933Census reveals that 99 per cent of the population identifi es as British

1940sInstant coffee introduced in Australia

1942Prime Minister John Curtin announces the season of austerity and widespread rationing becomes a way of life

1911Of the 400 Kytherian immigrants in NSW, 70 per cent work in food-catering

1914World War I begins

1832Aikaterini Plessos (Katherine Crummer) the fi rst free Greek settler arrives in Australia

1871300 Greeks are settled in Australia

1934Greek shops are looted and burned in riots in Boulder/Kalgoorlie

1939World War II brings an infl uxof Americansand the hamburger

194712,000 Greek are now settled in Australia

1950sFirst pizza bars in Melbourne, Adelaide and other centres

1954Peter Bancroft opens Australia's fi rst espresso café in Lygon St, Melbourne

1957400 espresso machines in Australia

1960sOlive oil is sold in chemist shops and yoghurt is available through the Greek Club.

1968Australia's fi rst KFC, in Guildford, Sydney

1970Australia's fi rst Pizza Hut, in Belford, Sydney

1971Australia's fi rst McDonald's, in Yagoona, Sydney

1972Greek-Australian proprietors report a shift in attitude with the Whitlam government's multicultural policy and new Australian terminology

1975The Newcastle Song, by Bob Hudson, popularises the Parthenon Milk Bar

1981Greeks (less than 2 per cent of population) own one-third of all takeaway shops in Australia

1988Mark Mitchell invents Con the Fruiterer and his wife, Marika

1990sMelbourne has the third largest Greek-speaking population in the world after Athens and Thessaloniki

2001Census reveals that 263,717 speak Greek at home

“

“This is an edited extract from Toni Risson's Aphrodite and the Mixed Grill.

Q & A with Toni Risson

CAFE culture . . . Ipswich’s Sydney Cafe, Nicholas St; Bundaberg’s Blue Bird Cafe; and behind the counter at Ipswich’s The Ritz CafeCLASSIC designs . . . from left the Art Deco architecture of Cafe Niagara; Dalby’s Paragon Cafe today and as it was in 1936.

Picture: State Library Image 41450

TASTE of history . . . MariaKentrotes, above and right,as a cafe bride marryingJim Kentrotes in 1958;Ipswich’s best fresh juice –George and Jim Kentrotesoutside their Regal Cafe.

FOR much of the 20th century,the ubiquitous Greek cafe routinelyopened for business before 7amand closed around midnight sevendays a week, except for ChristmasDay and Good Friday.

In addition to meals fortravellers, proprietors served hotbreakfasts for workers andmorning and afternoon tea fortired shoppers.

For country people on theirweekly trip to town, lunch meant amixed grill and a milkshake at theGreek cafe, and proprietorschatted with regular customers asthey dispensed ice cream forfamilies on evening walks and milkcoffee and toasted sandwiches forcouples after the evening sessionat the pictures or a night on thedance floor.

But for many Australians, Greekcafes were more than food outlets.

Bustling to the clatter of silvercutlery, the hiss of sizzlingsteaks, and the swoosh of sodafountains, popular cafes such asthe Paragon in Katoomba, theNiagara in Gundagai, andLondy’s in Ipswich were publicgathering places at the heartof Australian communities.

Just talk to older Australiansabout them and watch theireyes light up.

Greek immigrants beganopening food outlets in Sydneyin the latter part of the 19thcentury. Their oyster saloons,cafes, fish shops, fruit shops,milk bars, snack bars andconfectioneries soon dottedthe Australian landscape, andbefore long, the Greek cafe hadbecome an Australian icon.

Australian painter RussellDrysdale also articulates the Greekcafe’s status as a national icon inhis portraits of Greek Outbackproprietors, Maria and Joe, bothpainted in 1950.

Bob Hudson places the localGreek milk bar firmly at the centreof Aussie life in his hit song of1975: And they pulled up outsidethe Parthenon Milk Bar, andstanding outside the Parthenonwas this beautiful-looking sheila.

And in 1988, Mark Mitchell drewupon the iconic status of theGreek shopkeeping family in his‘‘bewdiful’’ characterisation ofGreek fruiterer Con Dikaletis andhis wife, Marika.

That the Greek cafe recurs insuch a wide range of textsthroughout most of the 20th

century is evidence of the extentto which it pervaded Australianlife.

But the Greek cafe is not justan Australian icon; several Greekhistorians refer to Greekshopkeeping as a quintessentiallyAustralian phenomenon. Nowhereelse did Greek migrants dominatethe food industry to the extentthat they did in Australia.

However, Australia’s Greek cafeis not widely represented inhistorical research. Information onQueensland cafes is particularlyhard to find.

Food historian Michael Symons,in his landmark treatise onAustralia’s food history, allocatesonly two lines to the topic, eventhough he attributes the MixedGrill to Greek cafe proprietors.

Brisbane historian Denis A.Conomos documents numerousQueensland cafes in an excellenthistory of Greeks in Queensland,although this forms part of a moregeneral history that concludes at1945.

As a result, few historians havedocumented the rise of thehumble Greek cafe, or its demise.Neither did the public take familyphotographs in Greek cafes.Although families frequented themand teenagers routinely hung outin them, they were not used forspecial celebrations.

But Greek cafes did change thecourse of Australia’s culturalhistory and this book seizes a briefwindow of opportunity to capturethe story of local cafes.

It is a story which will otherwisedie with the people in whosememories it now resides.

What prompted your interest inQueensland cafe history?My interest in Greek cafes grewout of friendships with threewomen who had associationswith cafes in Ipswich.Maureen Sheppard had a photoalbum documenting her time asa waitress at Londy’s in the1940s. Jo Stewart grew upbehind the counter at the RegalCafe and, after about 20milkshakes, I became friends withMaria Kentrotes, who has workedin Ipswich cafes for over 40years.I began to look into thesewomen’s working lives and asthe significance of the Greekcafe phenomenon becameapparent, I realised how littleAustralians knew about thisaspect of our cultural history.

What are your early memoriesof cafe life?Perhaps my fascination withGreek cafes goes further back.Dad comes from Katoomba, inthe Blue Mountains, and I canremember walking intoKatoomba’s Paragon Cafe as alittle girl on holidays.It was an up-market cafe and thefood was probably more elegantand expensive than the averageGreek cafe fare, so I don’t thinkwe ate there — as a family of six,we didn’t eat out much in thosedays.But I can still remember the dim,almost ecclesiastical interior, therich-timber paneling, and thesmell of chocolate.And standing before the windowdisplay was like looking into afantasy land. I think I felt aboutthat shop the way kids todaythink about Disneyland.

How did you undertake yourresearch?Once I decided to explore theimpact Greek immigrants had onthe Ipswich community, myresearch took several forms:looking at the work of Greekhistorians such as DenisConomos, Leonard Janiszewski,and Effy Alexakis; searchingarchives and council plans forevidence of early shops; lookingfor evidence of Greek cafes inpopular culture; and interviewingproprietors and their children andwaitresses.As these people kindly loaned

precious family photographs forcopying, the pictorial elementbecame a major aspect of myresearch.

You’ve traced Aussie cafehistory back to the 19thcentury. What were the earlycafes like?Cafes of the late 19th centurywere actually fish shops andoyster saloons.Oysters were popular in thosedays and were probably fairlybasic establishments.But photographs from the 1920sand 1930s are really interesting.Most show a front confectionerycounter, often with rows of lollyjars and mountains of chocolateblocks, and then a milk bar withgleaming chrome soda fountainsand milkshake machines.The classic marker of cafes ofthis era is the line of cubiclesalong one or both sides of theshop, and sometimes down thecentre, although the centralspace usually has tables andchairs.The kitchen is at the back of theshop. But each one is uniquewith antique lights hanging fromthe ceiling, potted palms, walllights, timber paneling, orleadlight front windows.The Art Deco wall mirrors andsigns with cafe names areparticularly interesting.

When was the golden age ofGreek cafes?The 1920s and 1930s were thestart and it continued until theend of the 1950s, when televisionarrived.

Can you name some of the morefamous ones?Two of the best-known cafes stillin operation — the Paragon atKatoomba and the Niagara atGundagai — are good examples ofthis classic Greek cafe style,because they were renovated inthe early 1930s and haven’t beentouched since.

What part did they play in localcommunity life?Greek cafes were the social hubof their communities.They were where people boughttheir smokes or their daily Bex,their chocolates before thepictures, and hot chips atinterval. Customers left their

belongings with cafe staff or metfriends for lunch, and olderresidents claim that despite thefact that Ipswich had about 10cafes in the 1950s you wouldwalk the streets looking for atable on Saturday nights.

Was there always a connectionbetween local cafes andcinemas?After the 1950s, their popularitystarted to wane, as did our loveaffair with picture theatres.Greek cafes enjoyed a symbioticrelationship with picture theatres.Many Australians went to the‘‘flicks’’ several times a week andcafes stayed open as late asmidnight to serve theatrepatrons. Television had asignificant effect on both.

Who created the first ‘‘mixedgrill’’?Australian food historian MichaelSymons attributes the mixed grillto Greek cafes.This combination of meats piledon an oval plate appears,however, in James Herriot’sstories of a country vet in pre-World War II Yorkshire, but Greekproprietors certainly popularisedthe mixed grill in Australia, ifthey didn’t actually invent it.A meat dish was tailor-made forthe British-Australian palate andGreek proprietors were keenlyattuned to that.

What part did ‘‘chain’’ migrationplay in creating cafes inAustralia?Most older Australiansunderstand the part Greek cafesplayed in their lives, but thesignificance of cafes for Greekimmigrants is less well known.Many Greeks migrated becauseof the poverty at home andoperating a food outlet was oneway to make a new life becauseit didn’t entail much capital orexpertise.‘‘Chain’’ migration led to a largepercentage of migrants becomingshopkeepers because proprietorssponsored other family membersto come to Australia and cafesprovided work for newcomersand cheap labour for cafeowners.Soon the newcomer had learnthow to get on in Australiansociety, and would start his owncafe, and could sponsor others.

What has contributed to thedemise of the Greek cafes here?Because Greek cafes wereintricately woven into the fabricof Australian culture, multiplefactors led to their demise. Inaddition to television,supermarkets, and pre-packagedfoods, better cars and highwaysthat bypassed towns adverselyaffected them. Even a decline inthe Roman Catholic practice ofeating fish on Friday had a bigimpact when you consider thatbetween them Peter Londy andHarry Tanos cooked more than1000 pieces of fish in Ipswich onFriday nights in the ’50s.

Do you think Greek cafeschallenged the monoculturalperception of Australian societyin the ’50s/’60s?Migrants from many othercountries arrived before theinflux of Greek migrants in the’20s, although, interestingly, thefirst Greeks got here the sameway the rest of us did — asconvicts. But, because of theircafes, Greek migrants must haveplayed a major part inchallenging the perception ofAustralia as a monoculturalsociety. There was a Greek cafein nearly every town in theeastern states — many cafes atthe centre of larger towns.Proprietors interacted with abroad section of the communityon a daily basis and mostseemed to be well liked, althoughthis didn’t stop Australianscalling Greeks ‘‘bloody dagos’’and ordering them to speakEnglish or go home.

What is your next project?I am working on a PhD at theUniversity of Queensland,mapping a cultural history ofconfectionery in Australia. Greekcafes will be part of thatresearch, but I would love tohear from readers about theirmemories of buying, making,winning, wanting, swapping,stealing, reading about, eating,and even rolling Aussie lollies.

Toni Risson is author of Aphroditeand the Mixed Grill, a homage to‘‘new Australians’’ who created

some of Queensland’s best cafes inthe 20th century. Aphrodite andthe Mixed Grill costs $49.50. To

order, contact the author on0419 760 861 or email

t.risson@uq.edu.au