cafe

Northampton St. at Harrison St. Streetview 2018

The Lathouras brothers—Jim, Jack, Mick, and Mark—opened the Café Royal and the Elite Café on the main street of Bundaberg in 1920. At that time, the Londy family’s Blue Bird Café and Harry Lewis’s Marble Café also traded in Bourbong Street. Greek shopkeeping was a widespread phenomenon. Greek cafés of the period were elegant shops with silky oak furniture, marble bars and mirrored back bars, monogrammed crockery, and gleaming soda fountains. Lathouras Bros sold icy-cold fruit drinks, sodas, and ice cream sundaes. In addition, they specialized in making confectionery for sale through both shops—rocky road, jellies, coconut rough, and a nougat and marshmallow creation called a Rocket—and Jim sold homemade ice cream from a horse-drawn cart. Beginning with light refreshments, the menu at the Royal and the Elite soon expanded to include roasts, mixed grills, fish dinners, steaks and the like. Everything was freshly made. If some Greek migrants spent a lifetime behind a counter in a country café, many of their descendants gravitated to Brisbane. Greek café stories now reside with people like Goldie Lathouras, whose father Mick came to Australia at the age of ten and ran the Elite Café until his death in 1957. Goldie vividly recalls the Easter eggs her father created. An enormous sugar egg had pride of place in the front window in the weeks leading up to Easter. It had a wristwatch on top—ladies’ one year, gents’ the next—and was raffled to raise money for the ambulance service. Mick also made personalized chocolate eggs and sugar eggs with the name of the lucky recipient on top. These eggs contained lollies, a toy, a watch, a necklace, or some other treat supplied by the customer. Source: greekcafesinbrisbane.wordpress.com/2018/02/18/lathouras-b... Under Goldie’s influence, the Lathouras family has been active throughout this project in documenting the Lathouras Bros story. On their behalf, Goldie lodged a significant collection of café artefacts with the John Oxley Library. Crockery emblazoned with café logos, silver teapots and coffeepots, docket books and photographs, sundae dishes and lolly packets help to tell the story of the Café Royal and the Elite Café. Along with an illustrated booklet, which was written by Goldie and designed by fourth-generation Lathourases, Theo and Melissa, these precious objects tell the story of the Lathouras family, who had cafés in the main street of Bundaberg from the early 1920s to the late 1970s.

Gone Street View 2017