I was researching the Australian realist artist Herbert Badham when I came across his wonderful painting of customers in the Hasty Tasty cafe at Kings Cross, during World War II. Note the presence of soldiers and sailors, including the black GI with his white, female companion. It was so, well… cosmopolitan, as the Cross has always been.
The cafe remained open all night, catering for night club patrons, Sydney’s bohemian community, shift workers, prostitutes and their clients, and yes the criminal element.
The cafe opened 1n 1940 at 86 Darlinghurst road, ‘Designed for quick meals of appetizing variety’ (Construction, June 1940) It was photographed soon afterwards by the wonderful photographer Sam Hood, who captured Sydney life with his camera just as Herbert Badham did with his brush.
Photograph by Sam Hood (Source – Library of NSW)
NOT HASTY ENOUGH?
On one occasion a dispute between customer Dacey Thomas, and the cafe’s cook, Albert Ross, ended up in the Central Police Court. Giving evidence, Sergeant John Walshe stated;
‘I arrested Thomas and took him into the Hasty Tasty Cafe, where I saw a waitress, Billie Alwyn, bleeding from a wound on the temple. She said that Thomas had struck her with his fists. Excitement was high in the cafe.’
Thomas denied the allegations. He said that after he had complained about slow service at the cafe a waitress slapped him over the face with an order book, and when he put up his hands to protect himself Ross, who had been cooking hamburgers, hit him on the head with a tomato sauce bottle. (Daily Mirror, Sept. 1 1941)
WEAPONS AT THE READY
Unruly customers were one problem, but often it was those chatting quietly who were up to no good. In 1943, Robert White, an AWOL soldier, met up with some army mates at the Hasty Tasty. Over their hamburgers they hatched a plan to rob the nearby Imperial Private Hotel, in Darlinghurst Road. At 1.45am three of them forced their way into the hotel while White guarded the door armed with a bayonet. 18 year old Frank McDonald threatened the porter with a service revolver as they demanded money. They were all apprehended running away and charged with assault and armed robbery.
IN POPULAR CULTURE
The Hasty Tasty was mentioned in many books and articles, including the 1957 best selling novel They’re a Weird Mob, by John O’Hara.
After arriving by ship, Italian migrant Nino Culotta is picked up by a tired and cranky taxi driver, but has no idea where to go. ‘Will the Cross do yer? Not really understanding, Nino is dropped in Darlinghurst.
‘Excuse me Sir, but do you mind telling where I now am?’
‘Kings Cross. Three bob.’
When a confused Nino repeats his question, the taxi driver shouts;
‘KINGS BLOODY CROSS!’
‘You’re at Kings Bloody Cross, mate!’
A few days later Nino breakfasted at the Hasty Tasty cafe before venturing to Punchbowl to start work as a builder’s labourer. O’Grady’s description through Nino is perfect;
‘…at half past five in the morning which was the time I arrived, there were people there. There was a number of men who appeared to be going to work, and there appeared to be some horrible people of both sexes, who appeared to be closing a very long evening of enjoyment with much alcohol. They were playing the juke box. They were not sober. I told the girl at the counter that I wanted plenty to eat, and it did not matter what it was. She brought me hamburger steak with bacon and onions and eggs and tomatoes….The coffee was the way it smelled, but the food was alright.
I’m not sure of the exact date of this menu, but it’s from the 1960s. Odd that there are no chips on offer, or spuds of any kind for that matter. The cafe closed towards the end of the 60s.
Source – FB Group Stations of the X
FOR MORE ON THE ARTIST HERBERT BADHAM, CLICK HERE.
