Dr James Kalokerinos sings
Dr Archie Kalokerinos, in 2000 awarded the prestigious title of ‘Greek Australian of the Century’ was born in 1927 in Glen Innes to Greek café owners Nickolas and Maria Kalokerinos. He was one of four of their children who became doctors.
(Andrea Kalokerinos’ exceptional story of these men of non-English speaking Kytherian-Greek immigrant parents who ran the Paragon café in Glen Innes, is in our online edition of the Glen Innes News. – below)
When Nickolas Kalokerinos came to Australia before World War 1 he first worked in an oyster bar/café in Sydney before going to Emmaville.
There he showed his tenacity for hard work in the story that his father (in Australia for a while help him) is reputed to have thrown cold water on the stove-top to prevent him from continuing to keep cooking bacon and eggs at midnight!
In a double wedding ceremony in Holy Trinity Anglican Church, in May 1924, alongside George Crithary and Natalia Conomos, Nickolas married Maria Conomos. They went to Moree to work, and while there they won the lottery which enabled them to buy their own café which Spiros Pannaretos, trading as Peters and Co had built at 248 Grey Street, in 1915.
…“it [café life] was hard work, my mother had one baby after another. She not only used to look after us [and] do the housework, but she had to work in the shop as well… it was not that he was cruel in that respect, but my father needed to make money. His ambition was that his children should all be educated, and this is what drove him’ Archie recalled.
‘If we were born and lived in Greece we would both be riding donkeys, so we owe this country a hell of a lot ’ Archie once said to Mina Coroneo, Professor of Ophthalmology.
The Greek cafes were often the only place open for hungry travellers and often trading from 7am to midnight.
After running café for 13 years, Nickolas sold to Peter Crithary in 1938. In August 1944 Messrs Pannarettos and Co took over from Peter Crithary.
Successive owners have been the Tzannes and Lourandos families, followed by that exuberant Emmanuel Cassimatis and his wife Katy, whom many will remember.
Greek cafes – the delicious & generous mixed grill… the wooden padded booths, the milkshakes, sundaes, boxes of chocolates, huge Easter egg displays, open long hours, staffed by extended family, the men wearing white coats….
