Nostalgia

The good old days of racing at the Sydney Royal Easter Show at Moore Park.
The picture is action from back in 1979. The RAS Trots were a magic time.
Racing every day for twelve days, it was the way to get a horse educated and drivers learnt how to drive.



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tiger_one said:
The Olympia Milk Bar, Parramatta Road, Stanmore, Sydney (recently closed after decades of service)


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Not recently closed - it was maintained by the owner-tenant Nic Fotiou as a time capsule for many, many years (but not trading - with doors closed and in darkness).

For decades, passersby would peer into Nicolas’ shop. Nobody knew the real story behind the iconic milk bar​

ByJordan Baker and Garry Maddox​

October 7, 2023



For decades, passersby could spot the Olympia’s mysterious owner Nicolas Fotiou shuffling around his fading art deco cafe in the half light, beneath soda pumps, empty confectionery boxes and billboards featuring Brylcreem and perms. Always by himself, always keeping busy.
As Sydney bustled into modernity, the old Greek milk bar stayed frozen in time. Locals became fascinated by the lonely, silent man in a white apron who lovingly tended his fading shop as it crumbled around him. No one knew his history, and few knew his name.
Nick Fotiou in his milk bar on Parramatta Road, Stanmore.

Nick Fotiou in his milk bar on Parramatta Road, Stanmore.CREDIT:FACEBOOK
Some called him the milkshake man; some, less kindly, Dr Death. Some described his shop as the Dracula Den of Parramatta Road. Others recalled Miss Havisham, the Dickens character who stopped her clocks when her heart was broken.
But Fotiou’s reticence hid a fascinating life, which his family has agreed to reveal after his death last week; how he and his older brother John fled a country in tatters when he was just 13 years old, how they embraced the milk bar trade together, and how they made a deathbed promise to keep their lives’ work alive.

Fotiou died in a Belmore nursing home, more than two years after he was forcibly removed from the milk bar due to safety concerns. He was 86. On Friday, his body was blessed at St Athanasios chapel and buried in the Greek cemetery at Rookwood on Friday, next to John. There were five mourners at his grave.
Among them was his cousin – culturally, his nephew – Glen, who wanted to be known only by his first name to preserve his privacy, and who had been the childless shopkeeper’s primary support for the best part of 30 years.

After initial reluctance, Glen agreed to speak publicly for the first time to The Sydney Morning Herald about Fotiou’s past, so he won’t be remembered as a shadowy figure in a ghost milk bar, but as a man, a son and a brother.
Glen says Fotiou was 13 years old when he departed Repanidi, a village to the north of the island of Lemnos, in 1949 and headed Australia with his brother John, who was five years older. They left their family behind; one of their sisters still lives in Greece, aged 95.


They spent time in country NSW learning the milk bar trade – immigration records suggest he was sponsored by owners of a Greek cafe in Wagga – before buying the Olympia in the late 1950s. The younger Fotiou was naturalised in 1968.

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Glen remembers going to the Olympia – which was converted from a billiard room in 1939 to serve patrons of the cinema next door – as a boy. “My parents used to take us there, we were going there from the 1970s,” he says.
“It was a huge milk bar, the bench was 12 metres long. Back in the ’60s, you’d go in there and you’d have dinner, you’d get fed. It was like [the television show] Happy Days. It was their home; they owed nobody nothing. They had no debts.”
On the Olympia Milk Bar fan Facebook page, customers who visited decades ago wrote about their memories. “I started buying Cadbury’s snack chocolates and milkshakes at the Olympia back in 1955,” writes one. “I used to get strawberry milkshakes from Mr Fotiou and they were classically good,” wrote another. “The Mars Bars, the mirrors, the ending of an era.”

Neither brother married. John died in 1981. “I don’t know which brother promised which brother that as long as you stay here, you’ll be safe,” Glen says. “[Nicolas] just kept it simple because he couldn’t manage it like his brother could manage it. He was selling milkshakes, coffees and chocolates. Even then, stock was becoming scarce.”
In the past few years, there have been many offers from developers. Fotiou wasn’t interested.
Frozen in time: Inside the Olympia in 2017.

Frozen in time: Inside the Olympia in 2017.CREDIT:JESSICA HROMAS
In 2017, council forced the shop to close, pending vital repairs to its ceiling. He stayed. When the Herald visited in 2018, he was dressed for work in an off-white apron, with empty chocolate boxes and empty soda bottles on the shelves.
Hunched, grey-haired and intense, Fotiou gradually opened up in a thick Greek accent about the struggles he was having. “I’ve had troubles and troubles and troubles,” he said in the semi-darkness.

While deflecting any personal questions about his family, where he was living and how he was supporting himself, he knew the milk bar was in no condition to trade but wanted the council to let him reopen.“Slowly, slowly, slowly,” Fotiou said about how he wanted to bring the Olympia back to life. “But not to rush me. How long it will take, no idea.”
As the Olympia continued to deteriorate – part of the ceiling collapsed, was patched up then collapsed in another spot – he stubbornly resisted offers to contact tradespeople or shop for him. Glen would visit regularly to help.
Closed: In 2017, the council deemed the Olympia a health risk, and ordered it to be closed.

Closed: In 2017, the council deemed the Olympia a health risk, and ordered it to be closed. CREDIT:JESSICA HROMAS
Two years ago, with NSW Health having concerns for his welfare, he was finally forced to leave the Olympia for a nursing home. The building was boarded up then placed on the market. It sold in August for just under $1 million.
For Glen’s daughter Vicky, leaving the Olympia was the beginning of the end. “He deteriorated,” she says. “It was out of stress and concern. He wasn’t where he felt safe any more. My dad was basically his sole carer.

“[Authorities] said the property wasn’t able to be lived in any more. Instead of getting my dad and him to fix the property, they scheduled him. We [are speaking because we] don’t want him to be the vampire on Parramatta Road. We want it to be the story of Nicolas Fotiou.”
https://www.smh.com.au/national/syd...0th-anniversary-magazine-20230927-p5e82l.html
 
Snidest 0 said:
Not recently closed - it was maintained by the owner-tenant Nic Fotiou as a time capsule for many, many years (but not trading - with doors closed and in darkness).

For decades, passersby would peer into Nicolas’ shop. Nobody knew the real story behind the iconic milk bar​

ByJordan Baker and Garry Maddox​

October 7, 2023



For decades, passersby could spot the Olympia’s mysterious owner Nicolas Fotiou shuffling around his fading art deco cafe in the half light, beneath soda pumps, empty confectionery boxes and billboards featuring Brylcreem and perms. Always by himself, always keeping busy.
As Sydney bustled into modernity, the old Greek milk bar stayed frozen in time. Locals became fascinated by the lonely, silent man in a white apron who lovingly tended his fading shop as it crumbled around him. No one knew his history, and few knew his name.
Nick Fotiou in his milk bar on Parramatta Road, Stanmore.

Nick Fotiou in his milk bar on Parramatta Road, Stanmore.CREDIT:FACEBOOK
Some called him the milkshake man; some, less kindly, Dr Death. Some described his shop as the Dracula Den of Parramatta Road. Others recalled Miss Havisham, the Dickens character who stopped her clocks when her heart was broken.
But Fotiou’s reticence hid a fascinating life, which his family has agreed to reveal after his death last week; how he and his older brother John fled a country in tatters when he was just 13 years old, how they embraced the milk bar trade together, and how they made a deathbed promise to keep their lives’ work alive.

Fotiou died in a Belmore nursing home, more than two years after he was forcibly removed from the milk bar due to safety concerns. He was 86. On Friday, his body was blessed at St Athanasios chapel and buried in the Greek cemetery at Rookwood on Friday, next to John. There were five mourners at his grave.
Among them was his cousin – culturally, his nephew – Glen, who wanted to be known only by his first name to preserve his privacy, and who had been the childless shopkeeper’s primary support for the best part of 30 years.

After initial reluctance, Glen agreed to speak publicly for the first time to The Sydney Morning Herald about Fotiou’s past, so he won’t be remembered as a shadowy figure in a ghost milk bar, but as a man, a son and a brother.
Glen says Fotiou was 13 years old when he departed Repanidi, a village to the north of the island of Lemnos, in 1949 and headed Australia with his brother John, who was five years older. They left their family behind; one of their sisters still lives in Greece, aged 95.


They spent time in country NSW learning the milk bar trade – immigration records suggest he was sponsored by owners of a Greek cafe in Wagga – before buying the Olympia in the late 1950s. The younger Fotiou was naturalised in 1968.

RELATED ARTICLE​

In a darkened milk bar, Nick waits for customers who will never come

Planning​

​


Closed: In 2017, the council deemed the Olympia a health risk, and ordered it to be closed.
Click to expand...
Thanks champion @Snidest 0 - great story/history there.
 
Tennis legends Ken Rosewall, John Newcombe, Fed Stolle, Roy Emerson, Frank Sedgman and Neale Fraser form a guard of honour for Australian legend Rod Laver to celebrate the installation of the bronze statue that has already become an icon and landmark during day eight of the 2017 Australian Open at Melbourne Park on January 23, 2017 in Melbourne, Australia.


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