On 4 November 1932, Joachim Tavlaridis — known as Mick Adams — opened Australia’s first modern milk bar: the Black & white 4d. Milk Bar at 24 Martin Place, Sydney.
Indeed, Adams’ milk bar was the world’s first, an achievement which has now been recognised by the City of Sydney Council with the placement of a celebratory, historical ‘Green Plaque’ near the site.
Within five years of the Black & White’s establishment, there were some 4,000 milk bars operating in Australia. Most were Greek-run. By the mid-1930s, Greeks had taken the concept to New Zealand. At the same time, Great Britain and western Europe also quickly imported the idea, and attempts were made to introduce it to the United States; although the highly regarded status of the drugstore soda parlour resisted the Australian milk bar’s entry. The milk bars concept even reached Fiji by the 1940s, and by the late 1950s, the concept was taken to Japan.
Adams’ refreshment revolution, which fused influences from the American drugstore soda parlour and the Greek galactopoleion, became both an Australian and international food-catering icon.
Whilst the milk bar has silently faded from our streetscapes, retro references within contemporary food outlets, primarily via décor or consumable offerings, suggests that the ongoing power of the milk bar’s sociocultural symbolism, remains.
So, if you’re in Martin Place, take the time to pay your respects to Mick Adam’s achievement, almost a century ago now, by viewing the Green Plaque on the eastern most section of the ANZ tower.
