The Newman Family
Marc and Paul Newman used to play cricket in Bourke Street on Sundays when they were kids. They lived above the original Tikki & John's (their parents) famous theatre restaurant in Exhibition Street.
"There was no traffic in the street then (late 60's)", they reminisced but neither was it all play time.
At a very early age they, and later on younger sister, Haydie-May, were put to work in the kitchen peeling potatoes and performing in pantomimes on the tiny stage of the smallest fully equipped theatre in the world.
"The apprenticeship from Hell," joked John Newman. More like an apprenticeship for life as the family learnt every conceivable aspect of the craft of theatre and of restaurants. Not only did the children perform in the shows, they learnt how to make props, wire up and operate lights, arrange exits and entrances, make tables and moulds for pottery, wire and latex skulls, how to sculpt, write, produce and direct. They even saw all 45 players from the Essendon City Brass Band fit onto the minuscule stage for a surprise fanfare for Tikki & John's 20th Anniversary.
It's not often now that the Newman family can all get together. With four restaurants (two in Melbourne and two on the Gold Coast) the family (John, Tikki, Marc, Paul and Haydie-May) need to cover a lot of territory.
But last month the 30th birthday celebration for Haydie-May found them altogether in Melbourne and I spoke to them at Cafe Crypt in Exhibition Street where it all started.
The original Tikki & John's opened in 1964 and ten years later Barrie Humphries laid the foundation stone for the new premises right next door. For another four years Tikki and John tried to keep both going with back to back shows in the neighbouring buildings. It was home to all sorts of performances and celebrations for generations of Melburnians. And, more importantly was the most fertile breeding ground for aspiring performers. It gave Colette Mann a start and Elle McFeast watched the performances at Dracula's (the second of the Newman restaurants in Melbourne) whilst working as a waitress. Maurie Fields and Val Jellay, Frank Wilson, Ernie Bourne - the list of names who performed with them is a who's who of television and stage in Australia.
But it's the Newman children who have emerged as the real stars and stayers in this difficult and demanding industry.
Paul was an award winning photographer at school and used to run down to the basement of Tikki & John's with buckets of chemicals to develop the cast and publicity shots he did for the shows. He is a technical whizz and creates all the animatronics (Harold the talking skeleton, hydraulic bar stools, spiders dropping from ceiling , blasts of chilled air rattling the tables etc. etc.) that now make Cafe Crypt such an amazingly eccentric dining place.
Marc focuses on stage design, writing and production. Marc's wife Jayne designs and co-ordinates the costumes and personnel image and has just delivered Tikki and John's third grandchild. Paul's wife Gabe is the company administrator and they have two boys. Haydie-May performs stand-up comedy at Dracula's and helps with choreography and direction. Tikki and John move between Melbourne and the Gold Coast overseeing the theatres.
"With four businesses, employing 200 people, there's more than enough to keep us all very busy," explains John.
But it's the latest business, Cafe Crypt, which is taking up most time, because this is a new concept, to feed people well in a "theme restaurant" . The Newmans believe theme restaurants to be "the biggest growing restaurant movement at the moment."
But, they want people to know, it's not a "hamburger style" theme restaurant . Cafe Crypt has a full menu created by an enthusiastic new young chef, Dave Hewfon There are always daily specials, including "today's fish is dead" and the "bat" pizza, batty as in the plate its served on, not the ingredients. But the jokes stop with the food, which is seriously made from fresh ingredients, carefully assembled and tasty.
"We've gone to a lot of trouble," says Marc, "We've been in the theatre business all our lives so this was our original theatre, this was Tikki & John's. We've taken the stage out and put the cocktail bar in there and now - the effort we've put into the show, the performance and the comedy we've now poured into the kitchen side of it."
"We closed Crazy House (Tikki & John's was changed to a Comedy Restaurant in 1982) after New Year's Eve 1996 and then went hunting everywhere for eccentric memorabilia. A lot of its junk, horror collectibles, some of its authentic Hollywood antiquities, so its a bit of a micro museum of horror but more an eccentric venue than a Hollywood museum".
Industry people seem to love the style, Alice Cooper took over the place for a party during his last visit to Melbourne, a magicians convention in January started the night in the Houdini Lounge and finished in the Dress Circle. They had come from all over Australia and some from the United States to celebrate 60 years of Bernard's Magic Shop.
But the horror, the magic and the gimmicks don't overwhelm. It's a warm fun place and on a Friday night recently was filled with lots of family groups and young couples. Mondays are Memnoch nights for the exotic young Gothics, "beautiful young people exquisitely dressed", and, says Paul, "they are some of our best diners and connoisseurs of wine."
What the family are hoping is that the unique style of their Cafe Crypt will make it a Melbourne must for tourists. On the one night was a party of young Asian women celebrating a birthday in front of the bar whilst off to the side under the gorilla was a large group of Czechs photographing everything in sight.
"It seems now," Marc explained, "if they have a choice between going to an Italian restaurant for a nice pasta or going to a theme restaurant with good food, then they'll want to experience theme and dining, tourists want more nowdays which is the case with all sorts of entertainment".
The family believe that Cafe Crypt is the only Australian owned theme restaurant and are planning to really let the world know about it for their first anniversary, a week of Halloween celebrations in October. The original Tikki & John's coffee lounge opened in October 1964
Cafe Crypt is open seven days a week, 9663 1754
Mietta O'Donnell
Published in the Herald Sun Food & Drink Section on the 19/8/1997
©Mietta's 1997