Copyright (0000) Kiriaki Orfanos

Pictures from the Exhibition.

New York Cafe. 1.
The New York Cafe was situated slap bang in the middle of Junction St., which was also known as the Main Street, in Nowra. The banks, including the Rural Bank, (now the State Bank), The Bank of NSW (Westpac) and the Commonwealth, as well as the Post office and various and sundry chemists and the odd general store were in the same short and narrow strip of a street which began in a swamp and ended on the edge of a cliff overlooking a river. It was in fact, the centre of commerce in a town mainly concerned with servicing the farming industry. Market day was the busiest day in the week.
The New York itself was built on the site of some billiard rooms, which were, for a while, managed by Big Nick's brother, Peter Aroney, before he went to live in Mackay. When the property came up for sale, the Aroney boys were approached by the then manager of the Rural Bank, Mr. Calcraft, who suggeste that they buy the premises and put a cafe there, he also offered to loan them the money.
The New York was, in its time, the premier dining spot on the south coast. It was a beautifully presented art deco building, very typical of its generation and redolent of the American origins of the NSW country cafe movement. It was a touch of class in an otherwise uninteresting glass and tile kind of town.