Black & White Milk Bar, Bourke Street, C.1938
Within five years of the opening of Mick Adams’ (Joachim Tavlaridis/Tavlarides) Black & White 4d. Milk Bar in Sydney in late 1932, some 4,000 milk bars were operating in Australia. Other food caterers (principally of Greek background) had quickly embraced the commercially successful idea, and even Adams was able to develop a chain of Black & White milk bars: Brisbane (1933), Melbourne (1933), Adelaide (1934), a second was established in 1936, Wollongong (1937), and a second Sydney premises (1944).
Adams’ Black & White Milk Bar in Melbourne was located at 227 Bourke Street. Stathis Raftopoulos (on right behind bar), who later became an owner of several cinemas in Melbourne, well recalled working in the milk bar:
‘I got a job in Adams’ milk bar for eighteen shillings a week. It was the first milk bar in Melbourne – it was an American-style business. We were doing well because we were next to the old Tivoli Theatre [the home of vaudeville in Melbourne at the time] and the Melba Theatre. I met many theatre artists because they would come into the milk bar after performing. It was also the time I developed an interest in films.’