When we bought the cafe a year ago we made contact with Peter and Barbara Veneris to learn more about The Blue Bird. They invited us to afternoon tea and we spent a few hours picking their brains to hear stories about the cafe during their long reign. I remember Peter's first words to me on the telephone when I introduced myself. "Oh, we have been so worried about what would happen to the cafe", he told me. I set his mind at rest that we had nothing but the best intentions to restore and revive The Blue Bird and continue the tradition that the Veneris and the Matis families had begun all those years ago.
That long afternoon tea turned into the first of many opportunities that Peter had for reverie about the cafe. Once we took possession and started work on the building repairs, he began popping down to the shop whenever he remembered something important he wanted to tell us..about the original colour scheme, the dates of the alterations, the names of tradesmen he had forgotten, the old menu. At first I was apprehensive when members of the family arrived to take a look around. The cafe had been closed for so long and of course the first thing that we did was pull much of it apart before beginning to restore and reassemble it. I was concerned that they might be distraught over the state of the building but as they arrived over the next few months we showed them around. It was lovely that they saw beyond the state of disarray. They remembered instead when they were children growing up here and later, adults returning after time away. They instantly understood us in a way that others may not yet. We are not from Lockhart and we did not grow up, as others did, at 'The Cafe', but we felt an instant rapport with the place from our first encounter and we have its best interests at heart. The memories of the Veneris and Matis families are helping us piece together a jigsaw of history before our time. It is a story that we are keen to know more about.
Peter was an inspiration to us. He came down to see us when he was able and was never distressed by the shambles of the reconstruction work. He had already seen so many changes to the shop over the years. Changes he and his brother had made, repairs, re-modelling, adaptations to keep the business alive in times of adversity and competition. None of what we were doing phased him. He offered us his full support.
When we opened the doors Peter and Barbara came down to the cafe as customers rather than workers. We have had to work on getting our coffee just right for Barbara's tastes and Peter suggested that we get her to show us her technique. Whenever he visited, we noticed that Peter was still keenly aware of the needs of the customers around him. A habit not easily forgotten. His eyes twinkled when the children came in for their lollies, watching with fondness the process of them counting out their small fortune and working out what they could get for their money. One lolly from this jar, one from that one. High finance. He graciously shouted friends a cuppa and a piece of cake while he chatted on about the old days and he enjoyed a milkshake like he was a kid again.
Last week Peter passed away. We were honoured to have met him and extremely grateful that we got the chance to share the cafe with him, open again for business, before he went. We are indebted to have heard some of his stories first hand and have done our best to record them.
A tribute to Peter and Jack and the Veneris families is currently on display at the cafe.
Photograph courtesy of the National Museum of Australia exhibition "Selling an American Dream: Australia's Greek Cafe"
http://www.nma.gov.au/exhibitions/selling_an_american_dream_australias_greek_cafe/the_exhibition
