A Stroll round 1960s Saltcoats

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Re: A Stroll round 1960s Saltcoats

Post by morag »

Getting a seat on the balcony was rare indeed, in fact they rarely opened the upstairs. What they sold as hamburgers were more sausage burgers. The Eglinton Hamburgers were a strange concoction of ground beef and tomato paste amongst other things, but folk loved them. Cavani's was a bit frumpy for me. :roll:
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Re: A Stroll round 1960s Saltcoats

Post by Meg »

I worked in the Melbourne in 1968/9 - and the hamburgers (which the Melbourne owners called hot dogs) were actually Lothian's sausage. I remember the big slabs of sausage arriving fresh most mornings. When I worked there, a coke was 9d and a "hot dog" was 1/-. I worked for 1/9d an hour. The melbourne was mostly run by Chalmers and Luigi (jnr). The chip shop next door was run by Christine - Luigi's wife and Gloria - Chalmers wife. Chalmers died not that long ago of cancer. He was one of the lovliest people I ever worked for - and he is sadly missed. Old Mr Tortolani used to run the chip shop and he had a firm grasp of English sweery words - but was a real character. His wife -who was called "The Mrs" still made sure we were all working hard and made regular inspections.

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Re: A Stroll round 1960s Saltcoats

Post by down south »

So, round the corner we go into Hamilton St, and come to No 68: the West End Cafe aka Cavani's.

This was a place familiar to me from an early age. On Sunday mornings we would always go for a walk, which might be round the plantation, or along the seafront, or through the Glebe; but whatever other places we went at some point our route would take us past Cavani's, and we would drop in there to buy some sweets and the Sunday papers . Since there were some varied tastes in our family these could range from the Sunday Times to the Sunday Post I got some of my earliest lessons in the mysteries of the Scots tongue trying to puzzle out what Oor Wullie and the Broons were talking about...

There was a lot crammed in behind their narrow frontage. Customers had to squeeze into a pathway between cafe tables on the left side as you went in and the counter on the right ; and there was even another narrow room through behind the back of the counter, where preparation and washing-up went on. Cafe patrons were served from the far end of the counter, where I think there was some kind of expresso machine; beyond there things opened out into a slightly bigger space with more tables and a jukebox.

At least in the daytime the shop had a strong scent of sweets and tobacco mingled together; those and the newspapers were served from the near end of the counter. Paper-covered novelettes were crammed into racks hung by the door.

And also from right at the door end of the counter was dispensed Cavani's biggest attraction of all, their ice-cream. There were two sizes of cone on offer, sixpenny and shilling ones were they in my day ? ; and of course we loyally bought as many of these as possible through the summer, and walked home along Ardrossan Road licking them... From looking at their adverts I see that quite a lot of the other cafes also sold ice-cream, but I don't think I was even so much as aware of that fact, because it was always Cavani's for us. ( Except when in Largs of course, when it was Nardini's, which tasted quite different. )

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Re: A Stroll round 1960s Saltcoats

Post by meekan »

Cavani's Ice cream was arguably the best in Saltcoats as was the Plazza in Ardrossan, not sure about Stevenston?
It was all made on the premises I believe, I dont think that is the case now. Although I think the Plazza still makes it own vanilla flavour.
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Re: A Stroll round 1960s Saltcoats

Post by Penny Tray »

Susan,

I mentioned in another topic recently that the Clyde Coast bus drivers and conductresses swore by Cavani's. They had their coffee in there every time they had a turn round. I don't think I ever saw them in the Melbourne. I also posted a photo of a Clyde Coast staff dance in which Mr. Cavani features. He obviously knew what side his bread was buttered on.
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Re: A Stroll round 1960s Saltcoats

Post by morag »

The Eglinton made their own ice cream as well. pure ingredients, the best quality, they prided themselves on it.
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Re: A Stroll round 1960s Saltcoats

Post by down south »

Looking at the old photographs of the West End Cafe:

http://i.imgur.com/JjGhbWW.jpg

I notice with interest that the shop was the other way round in those days, that is with the door on the right side of the shop instead of on the left as in my day. Looked at those several times without ever realising....wonder when they changed it over. But no , I'm not expecting anyone to know the answer !

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Re: A Stroll round 1960s Saltcoats

Post by Penny Tray »

Susan,

That photo appears in http://www.scotsitalian.com" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; with a narrative which suggests it was taken in 1939. There's another photo on that site which maybe involves a presentation of the same photo outside the cafe some years later - 1989 is suggested but I'm screwing my nose up at that? Included in the background of the latter photo is an indication that the cafe was established in 1907.
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Re: A Stroll round 1960s Saltcoats

Post by morag »

I wonder if they actually expanded the premises, so the door didn't exactly change side so much as shift to the viewers eye?
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Re: A Stroll round 1960s Saltcoats

Post by bobnetau »

Cavani's made the best Knickerbocker Glory. That was my special treat.
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Re: A Stroll round 1960s Saltcoats

Post by down south »

What surprises me , looking at the up-to-date picture PT found ( which is obviously a slightly modernised version of the shop I knew ) is how much bigger it looks than I remembered it ; I suppose it must have been the contrast with the Melbourne next door, but I'd always remembered Cavani's as quite a tiny place !

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Re: A Stroll round 1960s Saltcoats

Post by morag »

That's why I wondered if they'd actually expanded, Susan. Though the entry was indeed cramped, the back room was quite spacious. You mentioned a side room for prep, dishwashing, etc., which makes me think they must have taken over premises to the right. (towards the Melbourne).
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