The Medallion Cage | City of Melbourne What's On blog

Street celebrations in Lonsdale Street after
Greece?s triumph at Euro 2004

Melbourne is said to have the third-largest Greek-speaking population in the world ? but that hasn?t always been the case. While Melbourne?s Greek heritage can be traced back to the 1800s, it wasn?t until the 1950s that large numbers of Greek immigrants really started to influence our city?s food and culture. Since then, Lonsdale Street?s Greek precinct?has served as a place for Greeks and other locals to experience authentic culinary, artistic and social delights.

At 4am on a winter?s day in July 2004, Lonsdale Street was packed with 30,000 soccer fans, transfixed by the final of the European Cup between Portugal and Greece. The Greek Quarter was blocked off and screens were stretched over the corners of Lonsdale and Swanston, and Lonsdale and Russell Streets. ?When Greece scored the one and only goal that would win them the match, the sound was like an earthquake,? said the proprietor of the Medallion, Ignatios Karasavvidis. After the final whistle, the caf?s of the Greek precinct were full to overflowing. The tables of the Medallion and neighbouring caf?s were crowded with supporters who had ridden the rollercoaster of Greece?s unexpected ascent to the finals of the European Cup, sitting alongside the Premier of Victoria, the Lord Mayor of Melbourne, and members of State Parliament. The celebrations continued unabated for 12 hours.

?It was one of the most enjoyable days of my life,? said Ignatios. There was dancing on the tables, the couches, the chairs and any available space on the floor. This was after all, the Medallion Caf?, a Greek neighbourhood landmark, an institution, since 1970; a caf? whose reputation, claims Ignatios, extends to Greece and interstate. It has featured on Greek TV documentaries as an ideal place for a coffee and laiko, popular Greek food. Over the years the Medallion has served as a meeting place for visitors from Greece, newly arrived immigrants, professionals, families, students, groups of young people out on the town, and as a place to celebrate a christening, a wedding or name day. It used to kick on well into the early hours for people out for a night out on the town, and it still remains open late at night.

When Ignatios arrived in Melbourne from?Thessaloniki in 1975, the Medallion was his first port of call. At that time it stood, in its original location, several doors up. Ignatios, a former officer in the Greek army, studied Greek, English and Australian history at La Trobe and Melbourne Universities and, for a while, he worked as a teacher. He ran a clothing factory in Brunswick until 1990, when he bought the Medallion, the caf? he had spent time in soon after arriving in Melbourne 15 years earlier.

Headlines are still on display in
Caras gift shop on Lonsdale Street

?The Medallion continues to serve coffee and cake, soft drinks, wine and spirits and Greek food. As both a cafeteria and laiko restaurant, it has added souvlaki to its menu. A screen playing video clips of contemporary Greek music is invariably on the go. As president of the Lonsdale Street Greek Precinct Association since 1997, Ignatios has been one of the supporters of the precinct ideal, within the broader ideal of a multicultural Melbourne. In the 1990s the Greek Quarter became ?sleepy?, he says. Since then, the area has awoken with initiatives such as the Antipodes Festival, additional street lighting, paving, decorative awnings, and special events such as the Greek torch ceremony that took place in June 2004, when the torch passed through the city en route to the Athens Olympic Games. It was another excuse for a glendi, for the 20,000 who crowded the precinct that day.

This text is taken from Stories from the Heart of Melbourne,?a book commissioned by the City of Melbourne and written by authors Dr Arnold Zable and Dr Sophie Couchman between 2008 and 2012. The stories are based on research, and information provided by interviewees. The book is available for borrowing from City of Melbourne libraries from early January.

Source: http://blog.thatsmelbourne.com.au/2012/12/19/the-medallion-cafe/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=the-medallion-cafe

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