This scene from 1952 of Myer's cafeteria in Melbourne shows just how popular the major shopping emporium's cafeterias were back in the 50s and 60s and even through to the 70s. This was long before we had Maccas, KFC and Pizza Hut, when the big department stores in the major cities and larger regional towns catered for their customers with a cafeteria style dining room offering the fast food of the day.
To a kid, on a rare shopping trip to town with mum and grandma, it was heaven on a stick to be able to choose mains, desert, a drink and to eat something not home-made for a change.
There was a plastic tray which you pushed along the shelf and in front of you, the bain marie full of steaming hot, plain (by today's standard) but nutritious food, served by the matronly ladies in their white coats, always offering a large dollop of gravy or sauce.
[Photo from News Ltd.]
Cheers - John
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Yep, I enjoyed those visits too, Coles also had a similar set up and enjoyed that too. Nothing like the Coles we now know though. The now Coles Supermarket was called "Newworld" when first started.
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We used to call them icecream sodas in my area (Canterbury, Sydney). They cost BIG money too. That was when all the milk bars were run by Greeks and the fruit shops run by Italians.
Having your own tray at age 6 did it for me, sliding it along slowly until you get to the meat pie and gravy, followed by an American Parfait.
My gran took us to the pictures and lunch at Coles Cafeteria every Christmas holiday. 4 of us and sometimes 5 cousins as well. Sometimes gramps would meet us after the first movie and send gran home and he would take us to a second movie. 3 luckys in one day.
Had enough of cafeteria style dining after 22 years in the RAAF. Although I must admit, some messes used to put on a good feed, and you could have 3 hot meals a day if you wanted and desert with lunch and dinner. No wonder they had to bring in the yearly fitness tests LOL.
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