Greek café culture in Australia

For unskilled penniless Greek migrants, it was a pathway to success in which they created community hubs where Australians socialised.

Greek cafés are also a singularly Australian phenomenon: the success of Arthur Comino’s fish shop in Sydney gave rise to a chain migration that saw hundreds of Greek migrants open oyster saloons across the country by 1900.

Cafés were routinely open from 7am to midnight seven days a week, meals were cheap, portions were generous, and the menu was mostly the same countrywide.

[1] The success of the Greek café is evident in the size of some establishments, the length of time some shops operated, the enterprise and resilience demonstrated by expansion and diversification, and the extent to which subsequent generations prospered in the adopted homeland of their parents and grandparents.

[1] A number of Greek cafes are heritage-listed: This Wikipedia article incorporates text from Pathway to success: The Greek Café (24 October 2016) published by the State Library of Queensland under CC BY licence, accessed on 10 January 2020.