Sydney Morning Herald daily made an extensive report on the important role the Greek migrants have played in changing the Australians’ habits and life in various aspects.
The feature pays extra attention to the Greek milk bars spread around the city of Sydney, which, according to two Macquarie University researchers, Mr. Leonard Janiszewski and Mrs. Effy Alexakis, have fisrt appeared in the Australian city and not in the USA as commonly believed.
In their paper Shakin’ the World Over: The Greek-Australian Milk Bar, the two researchers present the first man who had opened “a venue focusing exclusively on milkshakes, bought from a bar and consumed standing up without food to accompany”. It was Joachim Tavlaridis, a Greek man who migrated to Australia, changed his name into Mick Adams and opened the Black & White 4d Milk Bar in Sydney in the 20’s.
Mr. Nik Poulos, whose 89-year-old father, opened ‘The Rio’ in 1952 and has worked there ever since, comments that when the pubs would close at 6pm, everybody would omce to The Rio. ” They listened to Elvis from the Juke Box and I would serve them. I was something like Fonz in Happy Days” Mr. Poulos remembers.
The Greek milk bars had a long and successful course. Their golden age lasted from the mid 30’s until the late 60’s.
Today there are only a few old Greek milk bars left in Australia and these hold nothing of their past glory. Most of them have been replaced by fast food restaurants and supermarkets due to rapid commercialization.
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