Greek cafés and milk bars of Australia

Effy Alexakis, Leonard Janiszewski

    Research output: Book/ReportBookpeer-review

    Abstract

    In an Australia many still remember, in each suburb and every country town, was the Greek café or milk bar – open all hours, 7 days a week.

    This long-awaited major book chronicles how these family-based food-catering enterprises set the agenda and broadly affected and influenced Australian popular culture.

    Greek cafés and milk bars in Australia were a ‘Trojan Horse’ for the Americanisation of the eating, social and cultural habits of Australians from the very start of the twentieth century. They introduced American commercial food-catering ideas, technology and products and influenced the development of cinema, popular music and even architecture along American lines. By ‘selling an American dream’ that life could be ‘fuller, richer, better’, the Greek café and milk bar ‘transformed’ Australian popular culture.
    Original languageEnglish
    Place of PublicationSydney
    PublisherHalstead Press
    Number of pages256
    ISBN (Print)9781925043181
    Publication statusPublished - 2016

    Keywords

    • Greek-Australian History
    • Greek cafes
    • milk bars
    • soda "parlors"
    • sundae "parlors"
    • cinema
    • music
    • architecture
    • socio-cultural history

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