By Julie Power
Australian inventions Wi-Fi, the black box, plastic skin and the bionic ear have swept the world.
So did the modern milk bar, a 1932 invention by Greek-Australian entrepreneur Mick Adams, real name Joachim Tavlaridis, touting the milkshakes as a “glass full of health” for four pennies.
The shopfront as it looked in 1932.Credit: National Project Archives
Yet for decades, the modern milk bar with banks of electric milkshake makers was thought to be an American innovation or was attributed to another café owner.
The record was corrected on Wednesday after years of lobbying by Adams’ family. They include his daughters, Lilian Keldoulis and Helen Gerondis, who have since died, the Greek community, historian Leonard Janiszewski and photographer Effy Alexakis.
A new green plaque by the City of Sydney on Martin Place recognises the historic importance of the establishment of Adams’ Black and White 4d Milk Bar.
City of Sydney Lord Mayor Clover Moore said the café had opened in the Depression with much pomp, ceremony and excitement.
Founder of Black & White 4D Milk Bar Mick Adams’ grandson Adam Gerondis with wife Gifty Gerondis, son Kirabo and daughter Adaku in front of the plaque. Inset is a portrait of Mick Adams from the 1920s.Credit: Main by Rhett Wyman
On its first day of operation, 5000 customers poured in for milkshakes and sodas made using dozens of Hamilton Beach electric milkshake makers.
The crowds were so big that “police were called in to maintain public order”, Moore said. Milk was delivered every two hours.
Within five years, about 4000 milk bars like Adams’ opened across Australia, many operated by other Greek-Australian migrants. Others opened around the world.
A plaque commemorating the opening in 1932 of the world’s first modern milk bar, The Black & White 4D, on Martin Place, Sydney, was unveiled on Wednesday. Credit: Rhett Wyman
American soldiers visiting Sydney took the taste for shakes back to the United States which resulted in similar milk bars.
“Mick Adams’ global influence and success is truly unique and worth celebrating,” Moore said.
Historian Janiszewski and partner and photographer Alexakis have been working for decades to have Adams’ achievement recognised and correct misconceptions that the modern milk bar was an American idea.
Nearly seven years ago, an idea to mark the spot of Adams’ cafe was enthusiastically adopted but finding a suitable site proved difficult as the store is glass-fronted.
Next door, international real estate business Pembroke at 20 Martin Place, was eventually chosen.
The interior featured a service or fountain bar with its soda fountain pumps and straw dispensers. On the mirrored back bar are the milkshake makers which would whisk the ingredients. Credit: National Project Archives
“It’s been a long time coming,” Janiszeski said at the launch.
“Adams’ innovation was an example of the transnationalism of a diasporic people who fused ideas from different continents and brought it together into an iconic popular establishment.”
Adams combined the American drugstore soda parlour and the galactopoleion, a traditional Greek shop specialising in milk products.
Looking for ideas to increase turnover at a time when many Australians had little to spend, Adams had gone to the United States where he visited drugstores. They sold a range of goods as well as sodas, and often used electric mixers.
In a journal article last December, Janiszewski and Alexakis wrote they had discovered Adams had been recognised by the industry in the 1930s but later, the credit for the first modern café was attributed to the wrong person.
Others thought it was an American innovation because many milk bars used the term American in their names.
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