City Cafe

The City Cafe at 80 Brisbane Street was located in the same premises that housed  the Premier Oyster Saloon in earlier days. From about 1901 to the 1970s there was a cafe in this spot in Ipswich. The cafe was next to the Palais Royal Hotel.

Peter Spathis and George Marcellos worked for Jack Black, the owner of Premier Oyster Saloon and West Moreton Cafe in Nicholas Street. When Black decided to sell these establishments, Spathis and Marcellos stepped up to become business owners in early 1917. 

The Premier Oyster Saloon may have been known as Central Refreshment Rooms or Central Cafe for a short while until it was named the City Cafe. At this time, Peter Spathis & Co. owned the cafe, refurbished it  and opened on Wednesday 21 December 1921, serving hot & cold meals, soft drinks, tea & coffee, confectionery and fruit. Following  remodelling there was a new modern soda fountain and the largest ice cream making machine in the district. Pure crushed fruit juice drinks and sundaes, fish meals, peach melba, malted milks and chop suey could also be enjoyed by patrons.

 By mutual consent, the business partnership of P. Spathis & Co. involving Peter Spathis, Nick Sklavos & C. Marneros was dissolved on 4 November 1924. It was decided that Spathis would take the City Cafe while Sklavos would carry on West Moreton Cafe.

Only a few months earlier in July, Spathis had announced that the banquet hall located above City Cafe was ready to be used for parties and meetings with music and catering available. In the later 1920s this space was used as a modern dance studio by Jack Watson. During World War II this area was re-purposed as a billiard saloon.

In the mid to late 1930s Nicholas Stathis became proprietor of City Cafe, and in the late 1940s Jack & Pat Cassimatis became the owners. During this period the cafe was divided into 2 areas: a fish shop on one side and a cafe on the other.

The City Cafe closed in the 1970s. 

In the 1950s The Model Hat Store was next door at 78 Brisbane Street.