From a sophisticated 70s restaurant with hot-pink light shades, to a St Kilda cake shop and the all-you-can eat smorgasbords of the suburbs, Chris Macheras's latest coffee table book is brimming with Melbourne's culinary history.
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book → eat → history
But the book's beginnings are also quintessentially Melbourne — or at least Melbourne as we knew it in 2020.
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we → know → 2020
Stuck at home during COVID-19, the lawyer and artist kicked off an Instagram account featuring vintage photos of the city and suburbs.
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lawyer → stick → city
The page took off, spawning two books and, now, a third: Old Vintage Melbourne: A Culinary Chronicle.
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page → take → books
"It's still crazy to have an idea that was just something that I was sitting there in lockdown, depressed, and then to think that it's created this community and people have found each other via my Instagram page," the author says.
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author → have → page
But Mr Macheras is clearly someone who thrives creatively in trying times.
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who → thrive → times
He produced his latest book while battling Hodgkin lymphoma — a type of blood cancer.
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He → produce → cancer
"Whilst I was recovering and doing chemo and everything, my brain needed to do something," the 36-year-old says.
"
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old → recover → something
They give you a lot of steroids … whilst your body is tired, your mind is very up."
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mind → give → steroids
He began piecing the book together from home, contacting a large number of restaurants and trawling the archives of the state library, Museums Victoria and the public record office for old images.
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He → begin → images
"I couldn't physically go to the library because I was recovering," he says.
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he → go → library
"So everything was what I could get by email, and who could send me photos."
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who → get → photos
A Greek grandfather who loved Melbourne
Mr Macheras says his grandfather, who emigrated to Melbourne from Greece in 1955, instilled in him a love of history.
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who → love → history
"We would talk about sort of the difficult life they had as migrants, and that we should really love Australia and love Melbourne because this is a land that gave us the opportunity to leave war-torn Europe, where they were from," he says.
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he → talk → where
The author says the book celebrates Australia's restaurant capital at a time when many people are craving a sense of nostalgia.
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people → say → nostalgia
Mr Macheras grew up in Preston and Eltham, and remembers eating at places like Jim's Greek Tavern in Collingwood, which is still going strong.
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which → grow → Collingwood
"As a kid, we were always going to things that were familiar for an immigrant family," he says.
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he → go → family
Dine-in Pizza Hut is super nostalgic for me, going and getting some of that big trough with chocolate mousse, soft serve and jelly."
The story behind the famous Stalactites ceiling
A Greek institution on Lonsdale Street in the city is one of many legendary eating establishments featured in the book.
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institution → dine → book
Stalactites — named after the handmade structures that grace its ceiling — opened in 1978, when the area was a hub for Melbourne's Greek community,
"It was a place where all the Greek migrants could come, and they could eat Greek food and speak Greek and maintain that connection," says Nicole Konstandakopoulos, whose parents and grandparents were the original owners of the famous restaurant.
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parents → name → restaurant
"But over time, the Greeks moved out of the city, and they went to suburbs like Oakleigh."
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they → move → Oakleigh
The 48-year-old says the famous stalactites above the diners were created by hand by her father, designed to replicate caves from the village his grandfather grew up in.
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grandfather → say → village
"It wasn't just decorating the ceiling.
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It → decorate → ceiling
It was more like he wanted just to create somewhere where [Greek] people felt like it's home," she says.
Operating around the clock, Stalactites and its souvlakis (and other traditional Greek fare) proved enormously popular.
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Stalactites → want → clock
And as it expanded to the shopfronts next door, the family kept adding to the famous ceiling.
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family → expand → ceiling
When they announced they were planning to sell Stalactites Ms Konstandakopoulos — who had studied business and marketing — surprised herself by volunteering to take over.
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who → announce → herself
Having spent so much of her childhood there, Ms Konstandakopoulos said she had earlier been "very much against having anything to do with the restaurant".
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she → spend → restaurant
Even though she has now been at the helm for 25 years, it is still very much a family business, with her younger brother and parents heavily involved.
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brother → involve → years
Her own two children do a little work on the holidays for pocket money.
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children → do → money
About 15 years ago, Ms Konstandakopoulos temporarily shut the doors so the ceiling could be re-done from scratch, again by hand.
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ceiling → shut → hand
When people ask if they will ever get rid of the cave-like ceiling, the answer is a firm no.
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answer → ask → ceiling
"We know it's kitsch, but it's iconic," she says.
"It's been there for 50 years.
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It → know → years
"It's part of the city now, you can't exactly change it."
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you → change → it
Meals of Melbourne's past
Where some family-run restaurants like Stalactites have continued to prosper, many have fallen by the wayside for various reasons.
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many → run → reasons
"Unfortunately, COVID killed a lot of the restaurants," Mr Macheras says.
"
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Macheras → kill → restaurants
A lot of them were big iconic places that, in the end, didn't survive because of what COVID did to business.
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COVID → survive → business
Another theme that came to light in the book?
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that → come → book
"I felt myself being repetitive as I was writing it because a lot of the places ended because they were burnt down," Mr Macheras says.
"
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Macheras → feel → places
And everything comes with a conspiracy that it was because of insurance fraud or something like that."
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it → come → that
Some of the restaurants, such as The Cuckoo in Olinda, have also provided their fare share of intrigue, with its chef and co-owner Willi Koeppen disappearing without a trace in 1976.
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chef → provide → 1976
A food scene shaped by many
Mr Macheras says dining out has shaped Melbourne as a city, with waves of migrants from south-east Asia to India and beyond adding their own flavours.
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waves → shape → flavours
…and 19 more, not listed.
The Aporia