“Oi ypérochoi Éllines mas” Our magnificent Greeks

One of my early childhood memories of Lorne – I would have been 5 or 6 at the time – was our regular family Sunday lunch at the San Toy Café! Few may now remember this ‘icon’ of early post WWII Lorne, but for me, it became synonymous with my first-remembered encounter with ‘a new Australian’ – as the influx of post war migrants were then called.

As the country sought to rebuild its population after the decimation of a generation of its youth, its open-arms immigration policy led an endless procession of corn-coloured ships to criss-cross our local horizon beyond the pier. The Orcades, the Oronsay, the Orsova, and the Oriana led a vast armada of ‘migrant ships’, that passed, almost daily, with their precious cargo: a cornucopia of European and British immigrants, refugees, peace-seekers, and hopeful souls that formed the mass immigration that followed the human displacement of the war.

One young and hopeful immigrant was one that I will never forget – John [‘George’] Fatouros, a young Greek full of passion, humour, and endless patience with my little-boy Scottish palate. George and his new bride Bertha [‘Billie’] Ferrier, ‘inhabited’ the San Toy with their larger-than-life presence, full of laughter, teasing and mirth. Every Sunday, he would dutifully serve me roast lamb [without mint sauce] – like the Iron Lady, ‘this boy was not for turning’ – while he would tempt the [slightly] more adventurous tastebuds of my parents with dishes with unpronounceable names: calamari, kefalograviera, and baclava. George – in my eyes the most consummate of chefs – had brought Greek food to Lorne. The San Toy stood diagonally opposite the picture theatre – where now there is but a grassed slope to the carpark below – and provided accommodation, a restaurant [in those days, they were called cafés], and the Lorne depot for the Trans Otway bus service. But for me, it was always George who mattered most.

Other Greeks soon followed: Harry and Terry established the Lorne Fish and Chip Shop in 1954, and the incomparable Stevie Politis who, alongside his friend Jim Vasilopoulos, were cooks and do-anything hands-on staff for the original owners of the Arab Café, Robin and Graham Smith. Later, Stevie took over as the iconic Arab Café’s proprietor and, after many successful years passed the Arab ‘baton’ on to two more Hellenic Lorne luminaries – Spiros [Sami] and Angelo Gazis – who have since forged their own Greek legend in the town. First at the Arab, and then with a 30-year-and-still-counting presence at their more-Greek-than-Greece Pier Fish Restaurant, Sami and Angelo are, simply, Lorne ‘fixtures’ who are loved by all.

While at the Pier precinct, who will ever fail to smile at the mention of Christos and Vasilios [Bill] Raskatos – the poet and the anchor … one a torrent of words, the other a quiet lemon in your fish parcel … both the hearts and souls of the Fish Co-op we have treasured so much, and which we will so sorely miss when it is gone. Fish fuelled the Raskatos passion, their expertise, and their lives, while when they bled, they bled Aegean blood.

While each and all of these remarkable Hellenes have brought us Greek cuisines of variety and charm – fish always as the centrepiece – one family stands out for the extraordinary impact it has had on our coast, from Aireys Inlet to Apollo Bay: the Talimanidis ‘dynasty’ – for I think I can fairly call it one!

Again, as a boy, but by now an older one with a foot in both camps – a ‘surfer’ and a ‘clubbie’, as the competing ‘tribes’ were known in the 60’s – I loved to breakfast with my ‘clubbie’ friends at Mrs Whitechurch’s Marine Café … sited next to the old [and now long gone] Post Office at 144-146 Mountjoy Parade. I was shocked – but later enraptured – when a young Greek chef from Thessalonica, Chris Talimanidis, bought the Marine and turned my chop, sausage, bacon and two eggs haunt into a Greek restaurant. Little did I then realise that Chris was starting a culinary juggernaut that would thrill and please for the rest of my days.

Soon joined by his younger brother, Kosta, Chris created true fine dining in Lorne. Chris’s Greece had truly conquered Australia’s Lorne. Later moving to Skene’s Creek after a demoralising battle over the demolition of his beloved Marine Café, Chris Talimanidis established the now nationally-renown Beacon Point restaurant where he can still be found in his kitchen while his son, Taki Talimanidis, is the affable and knowledgeable ‘front of house’.

Meantime, Kosta and Pam Talimanidis remained in Lorne where they have literally created a dynastic series of restaurants that have become Victorian household names …Kosta’s Taverna, later to be transformed into Ipsos Restaurant by his youngest son, Dominic Talimanidis … a la Grecque in Airey’s Inlet, now run by one of his twin sons, Stratos Talimanidis … and Saloniki, in the firm care of his other twin son, Alex Talimanidis.

Others, too, have made their contributions. Most notable have been the Landos family, headed by Andrew and Cathy, who, after establishing a blisteringly good business – The Lorne Oven House – in the 1990’s, moved to the beach front where Andrew turned the old beach changing sheds and canteen into The Beach Pavilion, a mixture of a daytime breakfast and lunch café, a relax-by-the-sea bar [with happy hour], and an evening fine-dining experience. Currently under renovation and redevelopment, it will be interesting to see exactly what form The Beach Pavilion will take in 2021.

One final mention should go to Matt Germanchis and his Captain Moonlite venture in the Anglesea Surf Club, though a combination of circumstance and Covid-19 seems to have brought that Greek ‘sortie into Anglesea’ to a halt – at least for the time being.

Who would have thought that small ‘roast-lamb-without-mint-sauce’ boy from the early 1950s would have come to learn a new culinary language … words like: kefalograviera, taramosalata, keftethes, kakavia, baklava, saganaki … or would have come to enjoy [nay, seek out] chargrilled octopus, cuttlefish, or kalamari.

But, while the Talimanidis, the Gazis, the Raskatos, the Landos, and others have made this coast a haven of Greek cuisine, I still fondly recall George Fatouros, that most friendly of men: who teased me in his thick Greek accent for my ‘this-boy’s-not-for-turning’ reluctance to try his fare: who unfailingly brought my Sunday roast to his San Toy table with a smile, a laugh, and hair ruffle: and whose home in the Lorne cemetery I visit with bursts of grateful memories.

Kalá, Elliniká … Valé, Good Greek.

John Agar