Before “cafe culture” there was “milk bar culture”

Before “cafe culture” there was “milk bar culture” Feb 13, 2011 12:58:28 GMT 12

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Post by Kiwithrottlejockey on Feb 13, 2011 12:58:28 GMT 12

Milk bars served it up by the scoop

By STACEY WOOD - The Dominion Post | 5:00AM - Saturday, 12 February 2011

The Golden Gate Milk Bar, Courtenay Place, 1935-1940's.

The Golden Gate Milk Bar, Courtenay Place, around 1938.

BEFORE THERE WAS CAFE CULTURE, Wellington had milk bars.

Mercina Viatos, 70, remembers the days when icecream was a novelty and milk bars occupied street corners all around Wellington.

Her father, Peter Bares, immigrated to New Zealand from Greece in 1930 and worked at several fish and chip shops before opening Wellington's second milk bar, the Golden Gate, in Courtenay Place.

"They were very popular during the war. When the Americans were here, they all used to go to the Golden Gate," she says.

The Golden Gate was where the Reading Cinemas complex is now. Mr Bares later opened three more milk bars in Cuba Street, which he ran until the family moved to Palmerston North in 1945.

Mrs Viatos remembers her mother taking her to the Cuba Street stores, and seeing the women working behind the counter.

"The uniforms they wore were a fawn colour, with bright green collars."

She also remembers you could buy a one-penny icecream cone "which had a very small helping of icecream".

"I still have a scoop for the next size up, being in those days, a threepenny icecream."

Mrs Viatos moved back to Wellington in 1960 when she married, and her husband, Jim Viatos, owned the New Cuban milk bar in Cuba Street.

The New Cuban Milk Bar, 105 Cuba Street, 1959.

The Tip Top milk bar.

WELLINGTON's first milk bar was also the birthplace of New Zealand's most successful icecream company.

Albert Hayman and Len Malaghan, who opened their icecream parlour in Manners Street just a week or so earlier, went on to found Tip Top, which is celebrating its 75th birthday this week.

Folklore says Mr Hayman and Mr Malaghan came up with the company name while dining on a train one evening, where they overheard a fellow diner saying his meal was "tip top".

The company's first icecream block on a stick, the Topsy, was named after one of Mr Malaghan's favourite cows.

In 1962, the pair built a big factory in Auckland and it continues to make icecream to this day. Tip Top is also produced in Perth.

Mrs Viatos said there was not much icecream variety in those early days, and despite the multitude of flavours now, her favourite is still vanilla. "But my husband's favourite is hokey pokey, so sometimes we get that, too."