If you’re lucky to have grown up in, or close to, a Greek family running a milk bar, you will know the café culture first-hand.
For those of us who haven’t, a live performance showing in Byron Bay and Bundarberg in September aspires to do its bit in filling the gap.
Created by Brisbane-based duo ‘Girl from Greece’, Katerini Manolatos and Mel Lathouras, performing Greek and jazz classics with a twist, the show is “part concert, part family history, and a celebration of the Greek-Australian café families who became the heart of their regional towns.”
‘Our Big Fat Greek Café Tour’ weaves 75 minutes of live music backed by a six-piece band, including two bouzouki players, with intimate stories of Katerini’s family’s Feros & Feros in Byron Bay (est. 1923) and Mel’s family’s Elite Café and Lathouras Bros in Bundaberg (est. 1920).
“This is us doing our bit and adding to the conversation,” Mel Lathouras tells Neos Kosmos.
Recent examples of work documenting the Greek café and milk bar culture she references, include Dr Toni Risson’s book Brisbane’s Greek Cafes: A Million Malted Milks and SBS documentary Australia’s Greek Cafés & Milk Bars, featuring the decades’ long research by historian Leonard Janiszewski and photographer Effy Alexakis.
Despite the extensive work portraying these stories, there’s always some missing, Katerini Manolatos adds, simply because “they were everywhere”.
“And we often think about the capital cities, you know, Sydney and Melbourne, Brisbane and Adelaide. But I think it’s really important to highlight that there were so many in little regional towns across Australia, places like Lismore and Byron Bay, Ballina and Mareeba,” Manolatos says.
Part of the motivation for bringing their stories on stage was acknowledging the unsung contributions of all the Greek families that stood by their communities during challenging times for the nation, throughout the Depression years, WWI and WWII.
Stories like that of the Lathouras cafés, “quietly providing free meals in the back lane to families” or the Feros & Feros feeding “locals, farmers, travellers, families doing it tough”.
“My pappou [Andoni Feros] had gone to the doctor and said, ‘I’m going to enlist’. And the doctor said ‘You can’t. You have to serve the community because who’s going to feed the people?
“There are a lot of those similar stories of people who were just trying to help,” Manolatos says.
Running a Greek café was a “daily opera, complete with love, tragedy and very happy endings”
Manolatos and Lathouras first met at Brisbane’s Paniyiri Greek Festival and bonded over their love for legendary Greek singer Nana Mouskouri, before discovering a shared connection to Greek cafés.
“The show really grew from our conversations about our families and the incredible similarities in our histories,” Lathouras explains.
“We both come from Greek café families, and we realised these weren’t just our stories—they were part of a much bigger Australian story.”
Their live performance draws on anecdotes from several families beyond theirs.
“We’ve been interviewing lots of different people around Queensland. We’re taking a broad view of what the café experience was like, rather than focusing singularly on our family because it’s all the same story.”
Narration is tied together with tunes of their signature style.
“We perform our signature Greco Retro Jazz—Greek songs and jazz classics with a twist—backed by a fantastic live band including a bouzouki player,” Lathouras says.
The melting pot of the show’s music identity is a direct reference to the actual melting pot that Greek cafés had at their core, the duo explains.
Lathouras’ father had a quote encapsulating that spirit of Greek café culture.
“Dad would say it’s a daily opera, complete with love, tragedy and very happy endings.”
With audiences reacting to video snippets promoting the tour, the artists say they notice a broad appeal amongst those who have local milk bar memories, including beyond the Greek community.
“There’s something very universal about these places—they were where communities came together.
“People can expect to laugh, maybe shed a tear, and leave thinking about their own family stories,” Lathouras comments.
Back to the roots
Performing in front of each other’s hometown audience in Byron Bay and Bundaberg next month, makes it even more special for the Girl from Greece duo who have named this their “homecoming tour”.
Lathouras, whose family ran cafés on Bourbong Street from 1920, elaborates on why this show feels like a “full circle moment”.
“My grandfather Theo grew up in those cafés. He also ran the Elite with my grandmother June and his brother George right through to 1975. My dad John opened up the Little Elite with my mum Mavis in 1982 before selling to start a fruit and veg shop on Perry Street in North Bundaberg.
“So, when I stand on that Moncrieff stage on 19 September, I’m not just performing a show – I’m coming home to the town that made my family, and the town those cafés fed for over fifty years.”
Manolatos’ grandfather, Andoni Feros, arrived from Kythera and not long after established Feros & Feros in 1923 in Byron Bay, which evolved over the decades into a grocery store, milk bar, and bottle shop.
“This show is our way of honouring our hardworking grandparents who arrived with nothing and went on to build a legacy for their children and their children’s children – feeding communities, making new lives, and creating something that still lives in us today,” Manolatos says.
They also aim to shine a light on the women and children behind those milk bar counters, and their contributions.
“Behind every successful café were wives, mothers, daughters and sons working alongside the men. These cafés were true family businesses, and this show celebrates everyone who helped make them what they were.”
Like Kos (Konstantina), one of the 6 Feros children of Andoni and Rita, and Manolatos’ mum.
Manolatos heard the Feros & Feros stories directly from her mum, who grew up in the café sneaking chocolates from the confectionery displays.
Kos will be talking about childhood memories and the history of the place at the start of the Byron Bay show.
“We just grew up in such a pristine time. I’ve got photos where there’s nothing on the hills, no houses. We were there from the beginning. It was just beautiful,” she says.
Lathouras’ auntie will be the one introducing the show in Bundaberg, with local jazz legend, 94-year-old Clem Soppa also joining the stage.
“He was around the same time that my grandfather and his brother were running the café. He’d go there for a feed and then him and his band would then go up the road and play for the dance hall, he’s very much part of the scene.”
During their research preparing the show, Manolatos and Lathouras have been creating video content, uncovering Greek café stories of relatives and family friends interviewed.
“We just feel so privileged that we are able to document and share all these,” Manolatos concludes.
“It brought us closer to our family but also to our relatives that had passed on.
“It’s magical and we felt that everyone needed to experience this special moment in time.”
Our Big Fat Greek Café is at Byron Theatre on Saturday 5 September and Bundaberg’s Moncrieff stage on 19 September.
