Aphrodite and the Mixed Grill. Greek Cafes in Twentieth-Century Australia.
Author: Toni Risson
When Published: 2007
Publisher: Toni Risson
Description: Large A4 book. 240 pages.
TO ORDER:
Phone: (07) 3281 1525 or
0439 664 291
Enquiries:
Contact Toni Risson by email here
Or, send, name, address and cheque/money order to
Toni Risson
130 Woodend Road
Woodend, 4305.
$49.50 (incl. GST)
Plus $11 (Postage and handling).
Composite Front-Back Cover as a .pdf
Aphrodite coverV1.pdf
The Greek cafe is a shared chapter in the histories of Greece and Australia. Milk bars and cafes enabled generations of Greek immigrants to establsih themselves in their adopted homeland, and their shops became part of the social fabric of Australia. But that chapter is almost over.
Aphrodite and the Mixed Grill: Greek Cafés in Twentieth Century Australia celebrates the role Greek cafés played in Australian culture. It relates stories about emigrating and buying into Greek cafe, coming to Australia as a cafe bride, growing up in a shop, and going through hard times, fun times, wartime, and day-to-day prejudice. It explains the food on a typical menu, the fate of villages on islands like Kythera, and why cafes have now all but melted into history.
Beautifully produced in a soft cover, its 200 pages are jam-packed with colour photographs of Greek cafes, including Katoomba's Paragon Cafe, Gundagai's Niagara Cafe, and the dozen predominantly Kytherian cafes that dominated the Ipswich streetscape in the 1940's and 50's.
Toni Risson is a UQP childrens author, an Ipswich historian and a Universitv of Queensland Medallist.
This book is the culmination of four years of extensive research.
*****************************
"Aphrodite and the Mixed Grill began with a small project recording the stories of three older Greek ladies whose husbands had cafés in Ipswich in the 1950s. I became so passionate about the story of the Greek café, and had such an enthusiastic response from other Greek people associated with cafés, that Aphrodite grew into a 240 A4-page book jam-packed with sepia photographs of cafés and their proprietors.
It is a high-quality production.
The Greek café is an Aussie icon and I believe that mine is the first book dedicated solely to this wonderful story."
***************************
COVER PHOTO:
Marina Londy (left) from Londy's Cafe in Ipswich visits the nearby Regal Cafe after school in 1952. George Kentrotis stands proudly behind the Regal's confectionery counter with two of his brothers, two other male relatives, and two Anglo-Australian female staff.
Milkshake machines, a metal straw dispenser, and scales for weighing loose lollies sit on the counter, and stylish pilasters emblazoned with the cafe's name and a neon sign featuring a crown frame a mirror on the wall behind them.
Article from the (Brisbane) Courier Mail, Tuesday July 3, 2007. pages 40-41.
Aphrodite courier mail.pdf
Book Launch: UQ Ipswich author reflects on Greek cafe boom
“From the beginning of the twentieth century, Greek cafés and milk bars forged an important place at the heart of the Ipswich community and when older Ipswich residents talk about them their eyes light up.” In her latest work, Aphrodite and the Mixed Grill, Ipswich author Toni Risson looks at how popular Greek cafes became important gathering places in the social life of nearly every town in Queensland and New South Wales. When the trend was at its peak towns such as Ipswich had many Greek cafes; Ipswich had a dozen.
A formal launch of the book, hosted by UQ Library and Arts Ipswich, was held at UQ Ipswich on Tuesday, 31 July at 6.00pm in Building 8. Ms Risson discussed her investigation of the role Greek cafés played in Ipswich’s cultural history, situating them in the context of Greek immigration and the Greek café phenomenon throughout Australia.
