From kitsch decor to extinct chains, new book revisits classic eateries
From a sophisticated 70s restaurant with hot-pink light shades, to a St Kilda cake shop and the all-you-can eat smorgasbords of the suburbs, Chris Macheras's latest coffee table book is brimming with Melbourne's culinary history.
But the book's beginnings are also quintessentially Melbourne — or at least Melbourne as we knew it in 2020.
Stuck at home during COVID-19, the lawyer and artist kicked off an Instagram account featuring vintage photos of the city and suburbs.
The page took off, spawning two books and, now, a third: Old Vintage Melbourne: A Culinary Chronicle.
Chris Macheras's lockdown project has now led to a third book. (Supplied: Meghan Lawson)
"It's still crazy to have an idea that was just something that I was sitting there in lockdown, depressed, and then to think that it's created this community and people have found each other via my Instagram page," the author says.
But Mr Macheras is clearly someone who thrives creatively in trying times. He produced his latest book while battling Hodgkin lymphoma — a type of blood cancer.
"Whilst I was recovering and doing chemo and everything, my brain needed to do something," the 36-year-old says.
"They give you a lot of steroids … whilst your body is tired, your mind is very up."
The Club Grill restaurant, at the Southern Cross Hotel, was originally for men only. (Courtesy: Athol Shmith, Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales/Tourism Australia)
He began piecing the book together from home, contacting a large number of restaurants and trawling the archives of the state library, Museums Victoria and the public record office for old images.
"I couldn't physically go to the library because I was recovering," he says.
"So everything was what I could get by email, and who could send me photos."
The late Nick Tsiligiris pictured inside his beloved Olympic Doughnuts van in Footscray. (Courtesy: Gina Hasapis)
The result is a collection of photos and stories from about 120 food joints, from Marios and Kingsland Chinese Restaurant, to Coles Cafeteria, Glo Glo's, Smorgy's, fresh produce markets and one very popular Footscray donut van.
The Olympic Doughnuts van was a landmark for almost 40 years. (Courtesy: Gina Hasapis)
A Greek grandfather who loved Melbourne
Mr Macheras says his grandfather, who emigrated to Melbourne from Greece in 1955, instilled in him a love of history.
"We would talk about sort of the difficult life they had as migrants, and that we should really love Australia and love Melbourne because this is a land that gave us the opportunity to leave war-torn Europe, where they were from," he says.
The author says the book celebrates Australia's restaurant capital at a time when many people are craving a sense of nostalgia.
Melbourne's dine-in Pizza Huts, which began to disappear in the 1990s, are captured in the book. (Courtesy: Fremantle Media)
Mr Macheras grew up in Preston and Eltham, and remembers eating at places like Jim's Greek Tavern in Collingwood, which is still going strong.
"As a kid, we were always going to things that were familiar for an immigrant family," he says.
"And then those family restaurants. Dine-in Pizza Hut is super nostalgic for me, going and getting some of that big trough with chocolate mousse, soft serve and jelly."
The dessert bar at Pizza Hut lives on in the memories of many a 1980s and 1990s child. (Courtesy: Claire Sullivan and Rob Breslin)
The story behind the famous Stalactites ceiling
A Greek institution on Lonsdale Street in the city is one of many legendary eating establishments featured in the book.
Stalactites — named after the handmade structures that grace its ceiling — opened in 1978, when the area was a hub for Melbourne's Greek community,
Stalactites operated for 24 hours a day for years, with many daytime and late-night diners eating under its distinctive ceiling. (Facebook: Stalactites)
"It was a place where all the Greek migrants could come, and they could eat Greek food and speak Greek and maintain that connection," says Nicole Konstandakopoulos, whose parents and grandparents were the original owners of the famous restaurant.
"But over time, the Greeks moved out of the city, and they went to suburbs like Oakleigh."
The Lonsdale Street institution seen from the outside. (Courtesy: Nicole Konstandakopoulos/Stalactites)
The 48-year-old says the famous stalactites above the diners were created by hand by her father, designed to replicate caves from the village his grandfather grew up in.
"It wasn't just decorating the ceiling. It was more like he wanted just to create somewhere where [Greek] people felt like it's home," she says.
Operating around the clock, Stalactites and its souvlakis (and other traditional Greek fare) proved enormously popular.
And as it expanded to the shopfronts next door, the family kept adding to the famous ceiling.
Chef Ana Kouvelas has worked at Stalactites for more than two decades. (Supplied: Stalactites)
When they announced they were planning to sell Stalactites Ms Konstandakopoulos — who had studied business and marketing — surprised herself by volunteering to take over.
Having spent so much of her childhood there, Ms Konstandakopoulos said she had earlier been "very much against having anything to do with the restaurant".
Even though she has now been at the helm for 25 years, it is still very much a family business, with her younger brother and parents heavily involved.
Her own two children do a little work on the holidays for pocket money.
The famous ceiling had a rebirth about 15 years ago. (Supplied: Stalactites)
About 15 years ago, Ms Konstandakopoulos temporarily shut the doors so the ceiling could be re-done from scratch, again by hand.
When people ask if they will ever get rid of the cave-like ceiling, the answer is a firm no.
"We know it's kitsch, but it's iconic," she says.
"It's been there for 50 years.
"It's part of the city now, you can't exactly change it."
Meals of Melbourne's past
Where some family-run restaurants like Stalactites have continued to prosper, many have fallen by the wayside for various reasons.
"Unfortunately, COVID killed a lot of the restaurants," Mr Macheras says.
"A lot of them were big iconic places that, in the end, didn't survive because of what COVID did to business."
Another theme that came to light in the book?
"I felt myself being repetitive as I was writing it because a lot of the places ended because they were burnt down," Mr Macheras says.
The Swagman became a renowned destination for diners seeking a buffet-style smorgasbord and glittering floorshow, but burnt down in the early 1990s. (Courtesy: Macheras family)
"And everything comes with a conspiracy that it was because of insurance fraud or something like that."
Some of the restaurants, such as The Cuckoo in Olinda, have also provided their fare share of intrigue, with its chef and co-owner Willi Koeppen disappearing without a trace in 1976.
A food scene shaped by many
Mr Macheras says dining out has shaped Melbourne as a city, with waves of migrants from south-east Asia to India and beyond adding their own flavours.
"Australia, in many ways, is a country of people who have come from other places, so I think that you see that through our food," he says.
Some cheap and cheerful restaurants have evolved to become more sophisticated as time has passed.
A waiter sets the table at Melbourne's Flower Drum restaurant (Courtesy: Kate Pritchett)
Others, like the famous Flower Drum Chinese restaurant in Melbourne's CBD, have always been high-end.
One of the author's personal favourites is France-Soir in South Yarra.
Mr Macheras finds comfort in the familiar surroundings and menu of the much-loved French bistro.
"I love French cuisine, but I love going in there because since 1986, it has not changed," he says.
"Everything about it is the same."
French restaurant France-Soir has been trading for 40 years. (Courtesy: France-Soir)
And that includes the owner Jean-Paul Prunetti, who had worked in hospitality in Paris, but had no plans to continue upon moving to Australia.
"But running your own restaurant is another level and that was very exciting then, and it's still exciting today," he says.
Throughout the years, celebrities including The Rolling Stones, Tom Jones and a swag of actors, politicians and sportspeople have dined at France-Soir.
Many are just lovers of classic French food, who return time and time again.
"We basically try to keep it the way we have been, and so far it still works," Mr Prunetti, now 78, says.
Jean-Paul Prunetti celebrates his restaurant's 40th anniversary in February. (Facebook: France-Soir)
In that vein, the restaurateur has stuck to a policy of no online bookings.
"I insist we still answer the phone during service. We don't have an answering machine," says Mr Prunetti.
"They can't book online, so I kept that, not because it's old-fashioned, but because I like people to actually engage with the customers when they book instead of talking to a robot."
Preserving Melbourne's identity
Mr Macheras believes it's important to record Melbourne's culinary history.
"I often think of it in the context of our city's architecture," he says.
"If we get rid of that and we're just putting up more glass and steel, the city starts to lose its identity.
Tables on the footpath outside University Cafe brought a touch of Mediterranean street life to Carlton. (Courtesy: Rennie Ellis Collection/State Library of Victoria)
"And I think that is the same when it comes to our food culture. If we start just bringing in big American chains and we forget where we've come from, we start losing our identity.
"[Food] is just another big part of our culture, and why Melbourne is Melbourne, and why we love it."
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