Faded favourites: The Melbourne food icons we’d love to revisit
EVEN in food-obsessed Melbourne, nothing lasts forever. We remember some of the faded food icons that rightly or wrongly earned a special place in our hearts.
Best of Melbourne
Don't miss out on the headlines from Best of Melbourne. Followed categories will be added to My News.
MELBOURNE is one of the world’s great foodie cities, a town with an astounding array of choice for hungry diners.
Over the years, there have been so many highlights in Melbourne food culture — and a few lowlights, too.
There are plenty of dining favourites that have fallen by the wayside as food fashions and business fortunes changed.
Here are a few of the food icons that we still remember fondly years after they disappeared.
Cafe AT THE OLD SPENCER STREET RAILWAY STATION
Spencer Street Station was a decidedly unglamorous place and, in many respects, a team of bulldozers was the best thing that ever happened to it.
But the Victorian Railways-run cafeteria in the old station’s main hall was an experience, even if it came with the vague hint of diesel fumes in a building that wouldn’t have looked out of place in Moscow in the 1950s.
Why? It harked back to a time when many railway stations around Victoria put on a hot meal for weary travellers.
It had crockery and cutlery monogrammed with the Victorian Railways’ “VR” logo, all the colour and movement of a busy railway station and, from January 1978, you could look out at the glorious Cavalcade of Transport mural.
This 38-metre by seven-metre masterpiece was painted by Harold Freedman and was unveiled in 1977.
When the old station was demolished, the cafe ceased to exist but the mural was relocated to the north end of the Spencer Outlet Centre in Spencer Street.
CHAT ‘N’ CHEW
In this story, the Chat ‘N’ Chew represents a series of small diners that operated along Swanston Street, between Flinders and Bourke Streets, into the early 2000s.
The Chat ‘N’ Chew was all Laminex and the smell of stale fat, but its fried snacks and soft drinks, served to tunes from tiny jukeboxes at each booth, were a delight for many a night owl back in the day.
These days, the big American takeaway chains, convenience stores and chintzy souvenir shops dominate that strip.
DEPARTMENT STORE CAFETERIAS
Coles started the trend when, in 1930, the Coles Cafeteria opened inside Coles Variety Store in Bourke Street, Melbourne.
The state-of-the-art cafeteria — complete with a dishwasher that could handle 10,000 dishes an hour — became the model for Coles shops around the country.
They spread far and wide.
They were a celebration of old-fashioned Aussie tucker, pies, sandwiches, crinkle-cut chips and a selection of desserts if you’d been good as mum dragged you around the shop.
Into the 1970s, some Kmart outlets adopted the parent company’s cafeteria policy and, by the 1980s, became known as Holly’s Restaurants.
Across Bourke Street, Myer’s cafeteria was just as popular.
In later years, its cafeteria on one of the upper floors was matched by the Myer Food Hall on the Lonsdale Street side of the store.
Soon, every Myer had a cafeteria of its own. The menu was similar but, like Myer itself, a little more up-market than its Coles neighbour.
By the 1990s, though, most department store cafeterias had fallen by the wayside as consumers sought more sophisticated fare and the big retailers trimmed their budgets.
One of the last, a small cafeteria at Myer in Bendigo (the original home of Myer) shut in 2013.
DOWNYFLAKE DOUGHNUTS
This icon had its origins in part in an American company but its appearance on Swanston Street in 1950 captivated all who saw it.
Downyflake was a joint venture between the Overseas Corporation (chaired by GJ Coles of Coles fame) and the Donut Corporation of America
This first Downyflake Doughnuts outfit, and all those that opened later in suburban shopping centres including Northland and Chadstone, had the “American Donut Machine” that produced fresh cinnamon doughnuts.
Kids pressed their noses against the shop windows for a glimpse of those mechanical marvels.
By the early 1980s, though, Downyflake was gone.
FAST EDDIE’S
Back in the 1980s, Fast Eddie’s was a late night institution — perfect for a steadying meal or a dessert after a big night, or the food stop that tipped a few overly refreshed patrons over the edge.
It was in a great location, just up Bourke Street from the Metro nightclub and around the corner from Bobby McGee’s.
A friend swore by the chicken nachos after a heavy night.
GOLDEN FLEECE ROADHOUSES
These were the grooviest roadhouses in all of Australia, brightly coloured as was the style of the 1960s and ‘70s, with a great menu that featured proper hamburgers, proper chips, steak sandwiches, bangers and mash and strong coffee; the kind of food designed to stick to your ribs on the long journey ahead.
Golden Fleece was founded in Melbourne in 1893 but did not get into the motor fuel business until 1913.
In the 1920s, when servos offered multiple fuel brands, Golden Fleece pioneered the single brand service station, a business model adopted by all fuel companies today.
By the 1950s, as automotive travel boomed, Golden Fleece grew to become a national brand, with many stations boasting roadhouse cafes.
The sight of Golden Fleece’s blue and gold sheep logo and the bold “RESTAURANT” sign over their porticos were a welcome sight for travellers keen to fill their bellies as well as their petrol tanks.
Golden Fleece acquired many brands along the way but was itself swallowed by Caltex in 1981.
The groovy Golden Fleeces faded away and so did many traditional roadhouses as multinational takeaway chains moved in.
OLLIE’S TROLLEY
Ollie’s Trolley, also known as Ollie’s Family Restaurants, did a fine line in fried chicken in the 1970s and 1980s before it caught the eye of a chain established by a certain colonel from the US state of Kentucky, which swallowed Ollie’s around 1990.
The origin of Ollie’s, and its chain of tram-themed restaurants, has been obscured by the mists of time but it may have been established in 1976 in Shepparton off the back of a successful fried chicken shop.
It spread through Melbourne and regional Victoria before KFC plucked and filleted the business in the 1990s.
POLLY WAFFLE
The Polly Waffle was a gooey post-war delight when it first rolled out of Hoadley’s Melbourne factory in 1947.
Company accountant Mayfield B. Anthony is credited with dreaming up the marshmallow-filled, chocolate-coated wafer treat.
Sadly, he was not knighted for services to confectionery.
It survived Hoadley’s merger with another Melbourne confectioner, Rowntree, in 1972 and multinational Nestle in 1988.
Generations remember the Polly Waffle “Mmmm … crunch … ahhh!” TV advertising jingle but, by 2009, not enough people were buying them and Nestle discontinued the Polly Waffle.
Although purists say they just aren’t the same, Melbourne firm Chocolate Works in 2015 launched the Polly Waffle-style Great Aussie Waffle Log.
ROB’S
Rob’s brought bistro dining to the suburbs, with branches in Waverley and Bulleen, but the jewel in the ground was Rob’s Carousel, Melbourne’s first revolving restaurant.
Normally, you’ll find revolving restaurants up high and boasting spectacular views.
Rob’s Carousel was at ground level, and when it opened in 1963, it featured uninterrupted views of Albert Park Lake, Aughtie Drive, some sporting pavilions, a golf course, Melbourne’s low-rise skyline and traffic streaming up and down Queens Road.
Nevertheless, a visit to Rob’s Carousel was a childhood delight for many Melbourne kids who remember both the gentle rotation and the generous sundaes.
Rob’s restaurants had disappeared by the end of the 1980s.
SENNITT’S ICE CREAM
Sennitt’s Ice Cream’s famous logo was a polar bear licking an ice cream cone.
That logo came to life in the form of a huge animated neon sign on top of Sennitt’s South Melbourne factory and on advertising lights on milk bars all over Melbourne.
You could get it from your local shop in a cone, as a chocolate-coated Choc Pie, as a Dixie cup, in wafer packs and in bricks — a boxed block of ice cream that preceded punnets.
The company was established around the turn of the 20th century by John Paul Sennitt, a refrigeration engineer, and financier Edward Keep.
Unilever took over Sennitt’s in 1961, merged it with Sydney’s Street’s Ice Cream and promptly killed the Sennitt’s brand, but those polar bear milk bar lights remain insanely popular with collectors.
Those who remember Sennitt’s swear it was the best ice cream money could buy.
SMORGY’S
There were plenty of smorgasbord-style restaurants in Victoria back in the day.
The Keg was a local branch of a Canadian chain (at one stage, a Keg occupied the former Rob’s Carousel).
Sizzler and Pizza Hut (with the Works all-you-can-eat deal) flew the red, white and blue.
Then there was Victoria’s own Smorgy’s. It’s still a childhood favourite for many.
Smorgy’s had a standout South Pacific jungle and volcano theme.
Fear of imminent death by volcano may have explained the spectacular free-for-all displays of gluttony witnessed in any one of its five locations each and every night.
There were Smorgy’s restaurants in Bundoora, Ringwood, on the Cunningham Pier in Geelong, Burwood and, in a magnificent piece of overkill, Burwood East.
In Smorgy’s defence on this point, it chose to take over another Pacific-themed restaurant, Island Trader, in Warrigal Road, Burwood, to ensure it monopolised the lucrative Pacific-themed restaurant market in Melbourne.
Like a rickety clipper on the South Seas, by 2010 Smorgy’s sunk without trace.
THE SWAGMAN
It seems an odd choice to name your smorgasbord restaurant after the central character in a bush poem about a hungry vagrant who steals a sheep to eat and drowns himself rather than surrender to the fuzz.
But The Swagman in Ferntree Gully was so ingrained in Melbourne’s culture that, the morning after it burned to the ground in 1991, Triple M’s D-Generation Breakfast Show broadcast live from the car park outside its smouldering ruins.
The Swagman was so much more than an up-market Smorgy’s.
There was a floor show, for a start. The bartenders wore bow ties. Wait staff stood ready to serve you as you hit the buffet.
Presumably, their presence also deterred food fights and greedy patrons piling plates high with quivering stacks of food.
The Swagman even has its own Wikipedia page, where it’s claimed that big names including Debbie Reynolds, Robert Goulet, the Village People and Dr Hook played there.
High-rotation advertising kept The Swagman on the lips of every Melburnian who valued the belt-loosening allure of all you can eat, but the 1991 fire killed the dream.
The restaurant was never rebuilt. The Stylus nightclub was later built on the site.
How to plan a post-lockdown Great Ocean Road getaway
The regional border has lifted, which means we can plan a trip to the Great Ocean Road. Here’s where to eat, stay and play.
‘I wouldn’t even s*** that’: What you missed on Wentworth
Wentworth does WikiLeaks in the third episode of the new season, as the Foxtel drama welcomes a new face. And there’s drama for Reb and Lou. Warning: Spoilers.