Le Chifley

With all the demolition & reconstruction going on in the city, it’s good to see that one great institution survives: Le Chifley. Or as it was better known to us: Fred’s.

The café (or bistrot a vin, to be exact) was referred to as Fred’s because that was the name of the very congenial owner of the place. A Frenchman with the unlikely name of Fred Robinson, he sold the business but is said to be a fairly regular visitor.

Fridays just weren’t the same if we didn’t have a longish lunch at Fred’s. The food was always good, and the house wine at least plentiful. And there was always the mad ring-around on Friday mornings to find out how many were going so as to be able to grab a table large enough to accommodate us all.

Then there was Wally, the newspaper vendor in Elizabeth Street. He was quite a character; and as we passed he’d announce to the world, “Read all about it…AGC executives going back to work pissed…again!” Quite amusing until one day, as Athol recalls, AGC’s chairman was walking behind us when he said it.

Good days.