There’s a track, winding back …

Being scooped out of bed by Mum in the predawn exodus known as ‘going on holidays’ was always a sickening sign of things to come. For school holidays in those days (let’s say the 60s) meant being deposited in the back seat of Dad’s car (including, during one particularly bad holiday, in the almost windowless Chrysler Charger. Jesus) and driving like a bat out of hell for one or two days, straight, toward our much-loved Victorian based family.

The end barely justified the means.

Car trips were to be dreaded; no car air conditioning in those days, merely the roar of an open window, and the flapping of a wet tea towel that promised (but did not deliver) cooler air. And for entertainment there was the never changing view of the back of my parents’ heads. The sole upside was the promise of a visit to the exotic sophistication of the oddly colourful Niagara Café, found within cooee of the disappointingly diminutive dog on the tucker box. Gundagai was an oasis.

The Niagara, the oldest continuously Greek run café in Australia, was the spot where all travellers came for a welcome reprieve from stinking hot cars, and relentless boredom. The Niagara of those days was supremely exotic. Curved glass windows with gilt motifs and promises of culinary delights welcomed one and all.

Hundreds (to a six-year old’s mind) of booths with Laminex table tops and a giant counter that was even more beautiful that the ticket box at the Orpheum Theatre. And all that green light! Coca-Cola in a bottle with a straw, and canned spaghetti on a backdrop of pale white toast. Bliss. So strong are my memories that decades later, when I saw that the Niagara was being saved (nay resurrected), and better still was a recipient of a National Trust (NSW) Award, I felt the world had hope after all.

The Niagara Café was the Art Deco pinnacle of Australian Greek Café’s. Created in 1902 by a Kytherian Greek immigrant, it was in 1938 that it transformed into a beautified Deco delight. There was a distinct flavour of Hollywood styled optimism, with gleaming black curves, ribbed in equally brilliant ribs of chrome, and motifs in gold. For suburban Australians, the Greek cafes - and especially the Niagara, were pure escapism and a source of joy for thousands.

The Niagara Cafe, 1938.

“A couple came in the other day, and they told us how they used to go out to a dance, then come to a café like the Niagara. It was a part of the courtship ritual,” says new co-owner Kym Fraser.

“Every day someone will say, we had a café just like this in our town,” adds the other half of the partnership, Luke Walton.

Together Luke and Kym have saved this slice of Greek Australiana from almost certain loss. The once classic café had fallen into a rather sad state and had been on the market for a couple of years until it caught the eye of this duo, who had previously only taken on residential projects.

They’d visited the café as far back as 30 years ago, but more regularly stopped by during their Sydney –Melbourne journeys over the last ten years, always admiring the café’s authenticity.

“I think the attraction was really the idea of the restoration of it, we realised how important it was, and how rare it was …I know that sounds like a spiel, but it isn’t. I think we had a sense of that nostalgia and we’d kept an eye out for an impressive building. And we recognised the significance of the café, and early Australian history.”

Gundagai had and still has a special place in Aussie hearts, not one person (in my era anyway), didn’t know every word to On the Road to Gundagai. Before the Big Ram, the Big Sheep the Big (ugly) Prawn, people diverted to Gundagai to see the famous pooch, and visit the Niagara.

But the roadways changed, and the town took a hit tourism-wise. But that traffic diversion did offer an upside.

“Gundagai has something going for it. Once the freeway wasn’t going through, the main street was preserved, the look of it. But the town had lost the banks and post office and newsagency…” says Luke, almost wistfully.

They saw the renewal of the Niagara as a way of restoring more than just the café, rather “It was bringing back a country town hub…”

The saviours of the café are talking to me while they are driving between Sydney and Gundagai, about a four-hour trip, and despite driving rain they are upbeat and enthusiastic – and very amusing – about the road they have travelled since purchasing the property back in 2021.

“Once we played around with the idea in our heads, we were hooked,” says Luke.

“Kym says to me it was my idea and I say to him it was his idea.” They both laugh and ask me not to print that bit. Too late my friends. “It was a really stupid project for us to take on in a way.” More laughter as the rain got even louder. They got the keys in the first week of Sydney’s Covid lockdown.

Then the hard work began; what could stay, what needed restoration and what needed to be done from scratch. They called on expertise they had accessed on previous projects such as Sydney architect (and mid-century enthusiast) Graeme Bell from Trace Architects, (“I think Grahame felt sorry for us when he saw the state of it!”) Eliot Bale from Jigsaw Constructions and Mike Mayhew from Swagman Joinery.

Much of the interior was still original, the booths, the glorious counter, the iconic Niagara sign backdrop. However, the main counter mirrors, the enormous iconic rooftop sign, and the previously hand painted, domed ceiling were to be major projects, (and problems) requiring expert skills, and serious dollars. Images on their Facebook page (Niagara café Gundagai NSW) has images of what was uncovered.

According to Kym, “We wanted to do the project justice, and came to the conclusion that if we’re going to do it, we’re going to do it right.”

But what also had to be considered was more than a sympathetic renovation – it also had to be a practical and successful café. A whole new kitchen (a major expense) was needed, an industrial sized coffee machine, and a lighting system that offered colour choices from familiar neon hues, to sophisticated warm tones.

The new owners were keen to also preserve nostalgia within the menu – the burgers and big breakfasts are a dream, while adding contemporary items such as a pulled pork dishes, rich eggs benedict and fresh fruit granola. It’s melange of the comfort of retro, and the satisfaction of ‘big city’ dishes. The addition of a liquor license was like whipped cream on top of an iced coffee.

The work has paid off.

The café seats 62, and on weekends they fill the seats three times a day, and school holidays are just crazy. It seems the renovators turned café operators have found the retro recipe for success.

The timing for this project was perhaps ideal; people gripped by years of pandemic- driven uncertainty, people sought the comfort of the past. A yearning for simpler times, when problems were smaller, choices less complicated and perhaps also a chance to reminisce about long car trips with parents who are long gone from this mortal coil. There is a place for concrete walls, cavernous spaces and minimalist chic – but you can’t build a beloved history.

BOOK REVIEW

A celebration of Australian Greek Cafes can be found in book form (a new edition is shortly to be released) by Halstead Press. Greek Cafes & Milk Bars of Australia, which features fabulous historic detail of the Niagara among many, many others, is a photographic treasure trove of cafes, and the Greek families that ran them. Created by documentary photographer Effy Alexakis and historian, Leonard Janiszewski it is a heart-warming tome that would make a truly valuable addition to any library. Their website, cafesandmilkbars.com.au is a great starting point and presents further exploration of the Greek experience in Australia.

Images: Supplied

Prue Miller

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