Things to do in Melbourne

[bradrowe#32]

Definitely check out Springvale.

 

[CLUBMEDhurst]

Ah yes, The Waiters Restaurant. A Melbourne institution. Hard to find but worth the effort. It has been there forever. It was once known as The Italian Waiters' Club. It used to sell sly grog and food to the staff of other restaurants who used to go there after their own restaurants closed up. Back in the 60s, it used to serve peasant Italian food, cooked by a real Italian momma. She was hardly a peasant though. A very canny businesswoman.

The story goes that the reason it was able to get away with serving grog illegally was that a) They served the wine in coffee cups. b) If by some chance the coppers did turn up, the patrons would secrete their cups of wine behind the curtains covering the walls. c) There was a tradition established in the 1940s that cops were never to interfere with the running of the business. This was because the former Commissioner of Police, Sir Thomas Blamey, was a frequent patron. (Until the 70s, restaurants in Melbourne were not allowed to serve alcoholic beverages after 6 PM.)

In the early 70s, I took my current squeeze there for dinner. She had never been there. As she looked up the stairs from the laneway, she said to me, "You're taking me to a brothel."

Didn't one of Chopper Reid's overcoat gang hold a siege there in the 70's?

 

[Cruyff14]

Visit Degraves Lane. Has a very European feel about it, lots of cafe's/restaurants.

 

[chargers 09]

A lot less. You can still gauge if you like a suburb or not. Would you enjoy Melton or Broadmeadows more if you've lived there longer? They're still shitholes.

The only people who defend boring suburbs are people who live there.

A lot less. You can still gauge if you like a suburb or not. Would you enjoy Melton or Broadmeadows more if you've lived there longer? They're still shitholes.

The only people who defend boring suburbs are people who live there.

People who live in these places haven't heard of public transport or own a car?

I'm living in the Bayside area currently and would rate it somewhat highly.

 

[skilts]

Didn't one of Chopper Reid's overcoat gang hold a siege there in the 70's?

Fascinating as this is, I was unaware of it.

 

[chargers 09]

Fascinating as this is, I was unaware of it.

Didn't one of Chopper Reid's overcoat gang hold a siege there in the 70's?

Yeah it is. Any source? Newspaper article or something?

 

[Silent Alarm]

Visit Degraves Lane. Has a very European feel about it, lots of cafe's/restaurants.

Guaranteed 80 likes on your Instagram feed too #melbourne #lovethisplace #hipster

Well except for me because I don't have any friends.

 

[skilts]

Amos Atkinson, armed with two shotguns, fired at police before climbing the stairs to the Italian Waiters' Club to hold 30 people hostage.
He said if Read was not released within 24 hours he would start killing his captives.
But Amos lost interest after four hours when his mother (a regular diner there) arrived to act as a go-between. She walked up the stairs in her dressing gown, ending the tense standoff by hitting her son on the head with her handbag while telling him to stop being stupid. He then released his captives and surrendered. The siege was a heinous crime on many levels.
Shots were fired and victims terrorised - that much is certain.
But worse, the Waiters' was a Melbourne institution where reporters, politicians, detectives and the occasional Italian waiter could get a decent feed and a passable claret well after legal closing.
The hostage drama brought publicity and with it stricter policing of the establishment's liberal interpretation of the licensing laws.

​

Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/trotter-v-chopper-day-of-judgment-20121130-2am3m.html#ixzz2XtDZ5jvc​

​

I think it may be this to which you are referring. Wonderful story from one of the journalism industry's hugest pudenda, and easily its most self-aggrandising, appallingly inept writers, John Silvester. As with Caroline Wilson in footy journalism, he has inherited his father Fred's (former copper) contact book, and dined out on it for thirty years. Everything he writes is leaked to him by self-interested coppers. Bent as a pretzel (in the way that he is thus manipulable) and a disgrace to the profession, if that's possible.​

 

[Shell]

Visit Degraves Lane. Has a very European feel about it, lots of cafe's/restaurants.

Is it "lane". I've been calling it "street" all this time.


Yeah the restaurant La Citta. And Lil Cupcakes.

 

[Happy_Neale]

Ah yes, The Waiters Restaurant. A Melbourne institution. Hard to find but worth the effort. It has been there forever. It was once known as The Italian Waiters' Club. It used to sell sly grog and food to the staff of other restaurants who used to go there after their own restaurants closed up. Back in the 60s, it used to serve peasant Italian food, cooked by a real Italian momma. She was hardly a peasant though. A very canny businesswoman.

The story goes that the reason it was able to get away with serving grog illegally was that a) They served the wine in coffee cups. b) If by some chance the coppers did turn up, the patrons would secrete their cups of wine behind the curtains covering the walls. c) There was a tradition established in the 1940s that cops were never to interfere with the running of the business. This was because the former Commissioner of Police, Sir Thomas Blamey, was a frequent patron. (Until the 70s, restaurants in Melbourne were not allowed to serve alcoholic beverages after 6 PM.)

In the early 70s, I took my current squeeze there for dinner. She had never been there. As she looked up the stairs from the laneway, she said to me, "You're taking me to a brothel."

Where is this magical place?

 

[skilts]

Where is this magical place?

20 Meyers Pl, Melbourne - the lane runs off Bourke Street, between Exhibition and Spring st. It's on the R.H.S. as you head up the hill towards parliament. If you reach The Society Restaurant, you've gone too far.

 

[The Passenger]

20 Meyers Pl, Melbourne - the lane runs off Bourke Street, between Exhibition and Spring st. It's on the R.H.S. as you head up the hill towards parliament. If you reach The Society Restaurant, you've gone too far.

Clearly skilts is not a taxi driver. Melbourne taxi driver would ask you to look for directions on your i phone, then just take you to the airport.