THE SATURDAY SHOP
Let’s have a cuppa, by Ruth Spencer
This Avondale coffee lounge in 1970 is a tearoom in disguise, borrowing some of coffee’s hip cachet while still providing the ubiquitous belgian biscuits and scones. In the late 50s and 60s, city coffee lounges had been continental-style entertainment hubs for a bohemian clientele, open late and offering intimate spaces and live music. By 1970, however, pubs could stay open until 10pm instead of cramming in drinkers for the 6 o’clock swill and the inexorable advance of television kept many home on their couches.
The coffee lounge also became a retreat for
ladies in need of a fortifying cuppa after an arduous shop.
The Coopers supermarket and cafe complex replaced the grand old Avoncourt hotel, which was demolished in 1967. Cooper’s was destined for demolition eventually as well and this area is now the Avondale roundabout. The signs advertise rolled veal at 41c, bacon rashers at 29c and dried fruits at 8c each — or three for 21c. Tasti brand walnuts and brazil nuts are for sale, just as they are today.
Tasti’s dried fruit mixes and nuts were introduced in the late-60s, just in time to be stocked at Coopers but their lineage is much older. Tasti began making crystallised ginger in Auckland during the Great Depression, cutting fresh ginger by hand and syruping it in barrels.
The ginger became popular among drinkers in the hotels and Gentlemen’s Clubs as a hangover remedy. Sugary, pungent crystallised ginger has lost its reputation as a cure for overindulgence, although if you can manage to force a piece of it down after a night on the tiles you probably weren’t that afflicted to begin with.
Coffee lounge patrons didn’t have to contend with hangovers, although you could probably tempt these ladies to a piece of ginger crunch.