‘Like a village taverna’: Greek cafes and milk bars of Australia – in pictures
From gleaming art deco halls to family-run takeaways, 1930s venues run by Greek immigrants introduced American-style classy casual dining to Australian cities and country towns
-
Greek Cafes & Milk Bars of Australia by Effy Alexakis & Leonard Janiszewski is out now through Halstead Press, $49.95
George and Panayiota Rongas, Pacific Cafe and Milk Bar, Asquith, Sydney, NSW, 2003
George: ‘I bought this shop in 1966 … We had five to six people working here then … Our main business is chocolates, milkshakes, ice creams, drinks, sandwiches and hot take-away – a few of the older people still buy the milkshakes. The golden period of the cafe was the 1950s to the 1970s. They were really good years. You didn’t make fortunes, but you made enough.’ Photograph: Effy Alexakis/'In Their Own Image: Greek-Australians’ National Project ArchiveSun 3 May 2026 17.00 CEST
Last modified on Mon 4 May 2026 00.24 CESTBlack & White 4d Milk Bar, Martin Place, Sydney, 1934
In 1932, Mick Adams (Joachim Tavlarides) – a Greek migrant-settler – opened Australia’s first modern ‘American-style’ milk bar, the Black & White 4d Milk Bar at 24 Martin Place in Sydney. He had observed American drugstore soda parlours on a trip to the US, which emphasised quick stand-up and bar-stool bar trade (soda drinks, milkshakes and sundaes) over sit-down meals. A reported 5,000 customers crowded into Martin Place on the milk bar’s opening day, with police called in to deal with the crowds.Photograph: Courtesy L Keldoulis/‘In Their Own Image: Greek-Australians’ National Project ArchiveBlack & White Fruit Milk Bar, Wollongong, NSW, 1937
Established by Mick Adams in 1937, the Wollongong Black & White’s popularity meant other Greek-run milk bars soon appeared in the city, some featuring American names like Monterey, Atlanta and California. By the mid-1930s, staff uniforms had consciously become a significant element of a cafe or milk bar’s visual branding.Photograph: Courtesy L Keldoulis/‘In Their Own Image: Greek-Australians’ National Project ArchivePeter (Panagiotis) Mouhtouris, Elysian Cafe, Mendooran, NSW, 1987
‘Peter Calopedis opened this shop. He was in Bourke earlier with a cafe of the same name. He had backed a horse who won. The horse was called “Elysian” – what luck! He opened this shop around 1927 … I’ve been here 29 years. Came from Mytilini (Lesbos) on my own … There was a picture theatre next door. Business was very good then. No jobs here now. Look at my children, three have left.’ In 1996, after 38 years operating the Elysian Cafe, Peter left Mendooran and moved to Sydney.Photograph: Effy Alexakis/‘In Their Own Image: Greek-Australians’ National Project ArchiveParagon Cafe Take-Away, Hay, NSW, 1986
Effie Haldezos with her children Vicki and Peter. What began as a trickle of US fast food outlets in Australia in the 1970s became a flood in the 1980s. The popularity of cheap take-away meals grew rapidly, and family-based Greek cafes were forced to follow the trend. Some did not survive, with closures increasing over the following decades. Photograph: Effy Alexakis/‘In Their Own Image: Greek-Australians’ National Project ArchiveYang family, Elysian Cafe, Bourke, NSW, 2002
From left: Gary, Keith and Bing. The Yang family, originally from China, have operated the Elysian Cafe since 1998. Having moved from Melbourne to the outback heat and relative isolation of Bourke, they purchased the business from its previous Greek owners, Sam and Petroula Agiakatsikas. Bing: ‘We are open six days a week – we take Sunday off, but we still tidy up, clean and prepare the food … We work for our son’s future. We need to get enough funds for him to go to university – Gary wants to do medicine.’Photograph: Effy Alexakis/‘In Their Own Image: Greek-Australians’ National Project ArchivePeter and Jack Veneris, Blue Bird Cafe, Lockhart, NSW, 2002
Jack (right): ‘When the Blue Bird was first established it had marble tables, tablecloths and a cruet stand in the centre of the table … The cubicles came in around 1937. It was part of modernisation. The other cafe in Lockhart, the Monterey Cafe … had cushioned seats, scalloped-edged cubicles. So the Blue Bird had to go with the modernisation or close down.’Peter: ‘The cafe was the heartthrob of the town … It was our home, our livelihood, it was our everything.’Photograph: Effy Alexakis/‘In Their Own Image: Greek-Australians’ National Project ArchiveLegend Cafe, Bourke Street, Melbourne, c. 1956
Originally opened by James Sigalas around 1903 as the Anglo-American Cafe, in 1955 Sigalas’ grandson, Ion Nicolades, employed sculptor Clement Meadmore to design the new milk bar, and artist Leonard French to paint an abstract mural series on the walls. The result was the Legend Cafe, named after French’s seven mural panels entitled The Legend of Sinbad the Sailor. The cafe’s design, furnishings and mural are an important example of Modernism in Australia – indeed, the cafe was used to promote ‘Modern Melbourne’ during the 1956 Olympics. Photograph: Courtesy IA Nicolades and L French/‘In Their Own Image: Greek-Australians’ National Project Archive Project ArchiveVasiliki Kitziris, Charlie’s Cafe, Mittagong, NSW, 2002
Vasiliki was born in Tripoli in the central Peloponnese in 1929. She migrated to Australia in 1956. ‘Charlie’s Cafe was started in 1952 by Charlie Kontos ... John [my husband] bought it in 1986. A lot of tourists stop here. Lots of regulars … It is a meeting place and we like meeting different types of people … That gives it a Greek feel – lots of food, lots of people and lots of talk! The [grandchildren] love being in the cafe – they are good talkers because of meeting people. The cafe is like a village taverna.”Photograph: Effy Alexakis/‘In Their Own Image: Greek-Australians’ National Project ArchiveAstoria Cafe, Newcastle, NSW, late 1940s
Partly hidden by the soda fountain pumps is the cafe’s Greek proprietor, Jerry Kolivas, from the island of Ithaca. Like many other Greek cafes of its time, the Astoria engaged a significant number of wait staff (generally young local women of British-Australian background) and was an excellent example of Art Deco architecture popular in the 1930s and 40s. Photograph: ‘In Their Own Image: Greek-Australians’ National Project ArchiveBlack & White 4d Milk Bar, Martin Place, Sydney, NSW, 1934
The service or fountain bar of the milk bar with its soda fountain pumps and straw dispensers. On the mirrored back bar are the American-made milkshake makers. Originally, milkshakes did not include ice cream and were promoted as healthy. Other than milk and flavoured essences, ingredient choices were: ‘varieties of fruit (mostly fresh, some dried), cream, butter, eggs, chocolate, honey, caramel, malt, and yeast’. The banana milk cocktail and the ‘bootlegger punch’ – which contained a dash of rum essence – became quite popular.Photograph: Courtesy L Keldoulis/‘In Their Own Image: Greek-Australians’ National Project ArchiveMaria Kosseris (nee Stathoulia), White Rose Cafe, Binalong, NSW, 2002
Maria migrated to Australia in 1954 from Greece. She married Konstantine Kosseris the following year. Konstantine ran the White Rose Cafe in Binalong, just north-west of Yass. ‘My first impression of Binalong was not very good. I was a little disappointed. I told my husband and he said maybe in five years we would leave – but we never did. Most of the people in the town worked for the railway. Now the trains don’t stop anymore … about five families are left. The future? I don’t know.’Photograph: Effy Alexakis/‘In Their Own Image: Greek-Australians’ National Project ArchiveCalokerinos family, Canberra Cafe, Manilla, NSW, 2002
From left: Paul (Petros), Mary, John, and Helen (Eleni). Paul migrated to Australia in 1948 from Kythera in Greece. ‘At the end of the first world war, Jack Smiles (Yannis Kalokerinos) came to Manilla from Walgett … in 1927, he built the Canberra Cafe, named in recognition of the opening of Parliament House in Canberra … In the ’60s we had a jukebox and a billiard table to bring in the young ones. After the Keepit Dam was finished in ’61, that’s when lots of shops started to close.’Photograph: Effy Alexakis/‘In Their Own Image: Greek-Australians’ National Project ArchiveAnthony (Antonios) Flaskas,
Temora, NSW, 1989‘Yes, I was the pioneer … [in 1913] the old people [my parents in Kythera], they sent me to Australia … it was a new country and you had more chances... [But] it was a very, very strict White Australia policy. Really, we were fighting for our existence, we were fighting for our life. That’s how hard it was … Third-class citizens was us, really – not second class, third class!’ Anthony spent most of his working life in Greek cafes and kafeneia in New South Wales. In 1932 he built a cafe at Yenda in the NSW Riverina district – the Yenda Cafe. Photograph: Effy Alexakis/‘In Their Own Image: Greek-Australians’ National Project ArchiveAJJ Lucas’s Cafe Australia, Melbourne, VIC, c. 1917
Antony John Jereos Lucas was one of Melbourne’s wealthiest individuals during the early 20th century. Having migrated from the Greek island of Ithaca in 1877, Lucas commissioned American architect Walter Burley Griffin – who designed Canberra – to redesign his existing Vienna Cafe in Melbourne. When completed, Lucas renamed the establishment Cafe Australia. It was claimed at the time to be ‘the most beautiful cafe in the southern hemisphere’. Photograph: National Library of Australia, Eric Milton Nicholls CollectionPopular Cafe, Cootamundra, NSW, 1952
Members of the Theodore (Theodorakis), Coombes and Vardos families. Greek cafes provided families with regular income, independence (including from union restrictions on the use of foreign labour), potential social and economic mobility – particularly for the succeeding generations – and maintenance of the family unit.Photograph: ‘In Their Own Image: Greek-Australians’ National Project ArchiveExplore more on these topics