The Fate of the Café Français

Frederick Beach’s professional management helped maintain the reputation of the Café Français and ensure its on-going success. Another important factor in the establishment’s favour was its convenient location, on the city’s main thoroughfare, surrounded by commercial premises and banks. The location of the Café Français assumed even greater significance once the plans for the bridge across the harbour and the underground rail system in the city were mooted.

 In 1914 the Café Français premises and the adjoining two buildings at 289 and 295 George Street (a hairdressing salon and a furrier respectively) were reported as having been sold privately for £45, 000 (Evening News, 26 June 1914, p. 7). At the time there was speculation that the purchase had been made on behalf of the state government (Sunday Times, 28 June 1914, p. 4). By the end of 1915 it was common knowledge that the buildings had been secured by the government as the site of the George Street entrance to the yet-to-be-built underground railway station at Wynyard (Construction and Local Government Journal, 24 December 1915, p. 6).

Café Français, George Street ,Sydney, 17/9/1916, Government Printing Office, at State Library of New South Wales.

This transaction attracted a deal of public interest when it was revealed that in fact the government had paid £55,000. The Mirror of Australia were able to show that the transaction had been completed in a somewhat roundabout and secretive manner. Essentially the purchase had been made through a proxy/nominee and the government had subsequently paid £10,000 more than if they had purchased the property on the open market or waited until the City Railway Act had been passed, which would have conferred the power to resume properties as required. While journalists may have smelt a rat it isn’t clear that there was any rat to smell albeit the transaction was unusual, the real purchaser was not disclosed to the original vendor and who pocketed the final proceeds of the sale is not clear.

 

In August 1914 the trustees of the will of the late Lewis Wolfe Cohen (who was the purchaser of the property in 1882?) sold to an Albert Arthur Armstrong for £45,000. In May 1915 Armstrong agreed to sell to William Coleridge Paterson Hough, a medical practitioner. On 30 November a deed of conveyance was signed by Armstrong, Hough, and the Honourable W. J. H. Cann, Minister for Public Works. Hough entered into the contract as “agent for the construction authority” and requested the vendor (Armstrong) to convey the land to the construction authority, who paid the £55,000 to the mysterious Albert Arthur Armstrong (Mirror of Australia, 29 April 1916, p. 3). 

Was Armstrong a person who would normally be in a position to pay £45,000 and what did he know when he entered into the original contract in 1914? Why was it necessary for the government to engage an intermediary in the purchase from Armstrong? (Mirror of Australia, 6 May 1916, p. 3). These were questions worth asking, but the official line was that there was nothing to see here. The transactions had been carried out on behalf of the government by the estate agents Richardson and Wrench. It was Richardson and Wrench who had suggested the real purchaser should not be disclosed and it was Richardson and Wrench who provided the cheque for the deposit money via the "reputable nominee". It was also on their advice that the transaction proceeded when it did since, had the purchase been delayed till the end of the year (ie. held over until the government was entitled to resume), the expiring leases would undoubtedly have been renewed and not only would the owners have claimed the full amount paid (£55,000) or more, but large sums could have been claimed, and would be legally sustainable, for loss of trade by the tenants (Daily Telegraph, 1 May 1916, p. 4; 2 May 1916, p. 4). 

 

The first stage of the underground railway, from St James station to Central, was opened in December 1926, by which time work had commenced on the section including Town Hall and Wynyard Stations. In the meantime, business continued as usual at the Café Français.

 

After Frederick Beach’s retirement the business was taken on by Andrew Black, a well-known singer, and previously the licensee of Pfahlert’s Hotel. Black undertook some alterations and then died unexpectedly (SMH, 13 December 1918; Construction and Local Government Journal, 13 January 1919, p. 3; SMH, 16 September 1920, p. 8). His widow, Ellen, carried on the business until 1924, no doubt calling on her experience at Pfahlert’s (her first husband, Mr. Lichtscheindel [sic], had been the owner of Pfahlert’s).

 

The next licensee was Alfred Thompson. A company calling itself Café Français Limited had been formed with subscribers Thompson, Ruth Thompson, C. A. Clarke, E. J. Whitehead, C. W. Walsh A. U. Gubbins and J. W. Armstrong who now ran both the business in Sydney and the Royal Hotel in Taree. Nothing more is known about these individuals. A report in Smith’s Weekly has this company going into liquidation in June 1928 and the business then being carried on by trustees until October 1928 (Smith’s Weekly, 21 September 1929, p. 1). A hurried sale of the furniture, fittings, etc. of the Café Français, part of the assigned estate of A. E. Thompson, was advertised in October 1828 (SMH, 9 October 1928, p. 17). The Railway Commissioners then took possession of the premises, and the business was closed for 10 days. When the Café Français reopened, Mr Joseph S. Levy was the manager and licensee for a new syndicate who intended to build "a mammoth hotel" on the site (Sunday Times, 7 October 1928, p. 2).

 

The ins and outs of this transaction are not easy to decipher relying only on newspaper reports but, as with the transactions ten years earlier, there is a whiff of collusion in the air. The scheme for this monster hotel had been hatching since March 1927 when Levy, who was well-experienced having managed Usher’s Hotel and the Carlton Hotel in Sydney and the Grand Hotel in Wellington, New Zealand, travelled to the United States and England to study the latest developments in hotel design. The subsequent grand plan was for an enormous building with a frontage of 148 feet (45 metres) to George Street, rising 150 feet (46 metres) above Wynyard station and bridging Wynyard Lane, thus giving access to Carrington Street, with shopping arcades, bar entrances, lounges, smoking rooms, and all the other accoutrements of a palatial hotel. The estimated cost was £750,000. Levy was pleased to announce that the syndicate had a 60-year lease on what would be the Plaza Hotel (Sunday Times, 7 October 1928, p. 2). It was also made clear that Joseph Reuben Gardiner, one time boot manufacturer and recently involved in a well-publicised divorce case, was a principal of the syndicate.

 

Just when the building housing the Café Français was pulled down is not entirely clear, but the best indication is early 1929 (Building, vol. 44 no. 260, 12 April 1929, p. 82). In September 1929 Smith’s Weekly reported on the "George Street excavation scandal" claiming that the Railway Department were carrying out work to the tune of £100,00 all for the benefit of a "private syndicate’" This was just the beginning of a long and complicated saga concerning the building of the new hotel and the terms of the associated lease which held up construction for years (21 September, p. 1).

 

Wynyard station was opened in 1932, to coincide with the opening of the Harbour Bridge. There was as yet no progress on the hotel, but the terms of the project were clearer. Th Sun newspaper explained that having excavated the site the Railway Department would "erect the building to the height of one floor above the level of George Street", the hotel syndicate would then pay the government interest on their expenditure to date and annual rent for their 60-year lease. At the end of the lease, the entire building, including any portion erected by the syndicate, would become the property of the Railway Department. The conditions further stipulated that work should commence immediately and the syndicate were required to spend £150,000 on their part of the construction (The Sun, 23 December 1932, p. 9). Why building had not commenced was not explained although the Sydney Morning Herald claimed the hold up was the refusal of the government to finance their part of the deal (10 June 1932, p. 13).

 

In December 1933 Joseph Reuben Gardiner was elected as a member of the NSW Legislative Council, an appointment which may have given him easy access to the right authorities if not any direct involvement in the government’s machinations over the future of the hotel project. In the meantime, a temporary Café Français had been erected, perched precariously on columns, clinging to one corner of the excavation site. Again, the exact date is not clear but it is likely that that this temporary accommodation was in place by early 1930.* This interim structure did not meet the requirements of the Liquor Act because it did not provide any bedrooms but in June 1934 the Licensing Board and the Railway Commissioners reached agreement with the syndicate, who were assured that work on the hotel could commence in twelve months once the foundations had been completed (SMH, 28 June 1934, p. 9).

Both these photographs, Excavations and Plaza Hotel Temporary Bar and Peapes' Menswear Store,  are from the Sam Hood Collection at the State Library of New South Wales, dated 29 January 1935.

This image is also from the Sam Hood Collection, Part II, Box 038, Hotel Cafe Francais (291 George Street) of J. Levy and excavation site for Wynyard House and the Railway Station Arcade, 1935, State Library of New South Wales.

The first progress was the calling of tenders for waterproofing the basement walls. Finally, the steel columns to carry the new Plaza Hotel were starting to be put into place in 1935 (SMH, 25 July 1935 p. 7). Perhaps discouraged by the time it was taking for the hotel to be up and running, Joseph Levy resigned at the beginning of 1937 and took up the management of the Wentworth Hotel (Daily Telegraph, 14 January 1937, p. 8; The Sun, 6 March 1837, p. 2).By early 1937 the temporary Café Français must also have been demolished with Truth announcing in April that the George Street ground floor and the lower mezzanine floor of the Plaza Hotel had been "partly completed" (Truth, 4 April 1937, p. 10). 

 

Joe Gardiner, no longer a member of the Legislative Council, still had grand plans. Reportedly "anxious that the old name and its associations should be retained in his new and luxurious establishment", a large part of the lower mezzanine was occupied by a "high class café known as Café Français Palm Court’" The new Café Français had capacity for 500 people and promised cookery and service of the highest standard. It was still anticipated that the finished hotel would occupy five further floors below the lower mezzanine level, while there would be another 11 floors above George Street providing 550 bedrooms.

 

How long a vestige of the Café Français was maintained after this date is hard to gauge. No further mention is made of its function as a restaurant or whether the name survived for long. Gardiner’s interest lay elsewhere. He lined the ramp down to the station from George Street with bars and bottle shops, which raised the ire of the Sydney Diocesan Synod and led the Bulletin to describe the Plaza Hotel as "a congeries of cafes, bars and bottle joints which forms … the most hideous feature of the hideous entrance to Wynyard Station" (Smith’s Weekly 12 September 1936, p. 3; The Labor Daily, 19 August 1938, p. 10; Bulletin, 10 August 1938, p. 13). Gardiner’s plans for the hotel continued to flounder while he weathered all manner of disputes - over building regulations, the licensing laws, underpayment of wages and the final terms of the lease with the Railway Commissioners which had not yet been signed, along the way earning himself an unenviable reputation for breaking the rules (SMH, 28 July 1938, p. 17; The Sun, 18 March 1939, p. 12).

 

Smith’s Weekly took up the story:

 

Completion of the Plaza Hotel, and a long-delayed clean-up of the Wynyard Station eyesore, are expected to result from negotiations now going on between the Minister for Transport (Mr. Bruxner) and the proprietors of the hotel. Ever since the station became a vital terminus eight years back, its ugly incompleteness has been a Sydney scandal.

In reply to questions from this newspaper, [the Railway Commissioner, Mr. Hartigan] said not long ago that the delay in completion of Wynyard was a matter concerning only the lessees. The terms of the contract between the Railway Department and the Plaza Hotel proprietors were not the public’s business.

 

With the approach of the time for the final drafting of the 60-year lease, as per the original contract, the matter had been given to the Minister for Transport to resolve (Smith’s Weekly, 25 February 1939, p. 2). Gardiner now admitted that his plans were much reduced, and the hotel was only likely to be a seven-storey structure. 

 

In June 1939 the Licensing Court again moved to refuse the renewal of the hotel’s liquor license on the grounds that the licensee failed to provide "the proper accommodation of at least four bedrooms and two sitting rooms constantly ready for public use, as required by the Liquor Act" (SMH, 6 June 1939, p. 60). Given all the back and forth there had been over the lease, including new clauses which prevented entrances to the bars from the ramps and passageways and the display of liquor advertisements within the station, as well as changes to the plans which had held up any further construction, the case was held over until the conditions could be finally agreed and the upper floors, which were to contain the guest rooms, could be built. In the event the license was refused but the hotel was allowed to continue trading pending an appeal (The Sun, 26 June 1939, p. 3).

 

Negotiations dragged on. The lease was finally signed in January 1941, but Joseph Reuben Gardiner died before it could be executed. A new agreement was then negotiated with his executors stipulating that at least four bedrooms would be provided on the first floor within seven months to ensure the granting of a liquor license (The Sun, 5 February 1941, p. 9; Daily Mirror, 13 June 1941, p. 11; The Sun, 30 June 1941, p. 5). The Plaza Hotel then came into the hands of a Melbourne company, Avrom/Avron Investments Pty. Ltd who purchased the assets of Joe Gardiner’s estate (SMH, 1 August 1941, p. 8).**

 

In September 1942 the Bulletin noted that "the clutter of scaffolding" surrounding the Plaza Hotel had finally been removed, "but for reasons known best to the lessee and the N.S.W. Railways Dept." the result was not as intended and the hotel had "reached completion at its second storey" with the acres of potential floor space over Wynyard station, originally intended to be revenue-earning, remaining empty air. The writer speculated on the possibility that someday the public might be told what went wrong "not since 1939, but in the seven years before that" (The Bulletin, 2 September 1942, p. 10), although the questions surrounding the future of the site dated back to 1914.

 

Satisfying the requirements of the Licensing Board and the Railway Commissioners proved to be an insurmountable impasse. Despite "extensive remodelling" in 1948, by 1950 the Plaza still only had 12 bedrooms, although it could boast 13 bars and 5 bottle departments along the ramp from George Street, nicknamed "Bottle Alley" (Tribune, 7 January 1948, p. 3; Construction, 1 September 1948, p. 5; Truth, 16 July 1950, p. 48). 

 

Giving evidence to the Royal Commission on Liquor Laws in NSW in 1952 the then licensee and manager, John Bonaventure Limerick, claimed that the Plaza paid the biggest license fee in the state and was also the biggest distributor of alcohol in the state but still only had 8 bedrooms available to the public (Daily Mirror, 1 April 1952, p. 3; 12 May 1952, p. 2). The issue came to a head the following year. The Licensing Court finally order the lessee to build 100 bedrooms, and four toilet blocks. An additional bar at the Carrington Street entrance had been approved earlier. The plans for the bedrooms must be lodged by 31 March 1954 (requiring approval by by the Railways Department) and building work completed within 12 months (Daily Telegraph, 16 August 1953, p. 10; Daily Mirror, 9 November 1953, p. 9; SMH, 10 November 1953, p. 11). The license was once again cancelled in 1956, effective June 21, pending an appeal, because work had not commenced (Canberra Times, 30 May 1956, p. 7).

Plaza Hotel, City Circle, Wynyard NSW, 1 January 1958, Museums of History NSW, State Archives Collection, NRS-17420-2-28-858/173.

 

It appears however that the hotel continued to trade.

 

For a quarter of a century the George Street entrance to Sydney’s Wynyard station has been flanked with a series of bars and bottle-departments bearing the name Plaza Hotel. In the shadowy blue-prints of this institution, produced from time to time over the years when the question of renewal of liquor-licence came before the court, hovered a lofty edifice of from 6 to 10 or more stories designed to convert the string of saloons into a first-class residential hotel … During that long period the lease issued by the NSW Department of Railways has often seemed about to be cancelled, just as the liquor-licence has often seemed about to be withdrawn. Both however have survived … until recently (Bulletin, 9 March 1960, p. 6. “Beer castle in the air”).

 

At a hearing in December 1959 the Licensing Court gave the current lessees until July of 1960 to add 74 bedrooms. In February 1960 the lease changed hands again and it was announced that the new lessees would go ahead with the building of a modern hotel. The Bulletin was skeptical, adding "suspicion seems to hang heavily over Wynyard" and querying why the transfer of the lease had been granted without calling for tenders (9 March 1960, p. 6).

 

Newspaper clippings in the City of Sydney Archives confirm that Wynyard Plaza Pty Ltd were to be granted a 99-year lease on the Plaza Hotel site and that work would commence in May 1960. Photographs in the State Archives collection indicate that construction did proceed to a point, although a note in the Tribune in February 1961 claims the new project had run out of money and was "doomed to be temporary" (22 February 1961, p. 3). Not long after this the whole site was redeveloped with construction of the Menzies Hotel facing Carrington Street and Wynyard House fronting George Street.

 

There was no suggestion that the new hotel would house a Café Français, but the Menzies Hotel, officially opened on 17 October 1963, 110 years after Cheval established the original Café Français, and did go on to gain a reputation for luxurious accommodation and excellent food.

 

 

*Plans for premises to be used as a temporary bar dated September at Museums of History NSW, State Archives, NRS-9590-4-[Plan 72265]-Plan 72265. Argus (Melb.), 29 June 1934, p. 8 "for years it has been a skeleton having little more than a bar at the side of the deep excavation of Wynyard Station." 

 

** The original Plaza Hotel syndicate comprised A. Abrahams (Melbourne), E. Abrahams (Melbourne), JR Gardiner MLC, JR Kerr (financier), CH Gardiner, EF Gardiner, W. Berkman  (financier) and Joseph Levy (SMH, 28 June 1934, p. 9). Details of Avron/Avrom Investments are sketchy but in the 1950s the chairman was Lewis/Louis Hyams snr and the managing director Philip Hyams who were related to Alfred Abrahams through marriage – Philip Hyams was Alfred Abraham’s nephew.

The Café Restaurant Français Part 2

 After the Chevals departed Sydney the Café Français maintained its reputation as one of the city’s principal establishments.

 

John Maloney was licensee from 1865 until 1874. He was also involved with the Sir Joseph Banks Hotel at Botany, which he ran initially with his nephew Samuel Moreton (Empire, 15 July 1868, p. 5; Sydney Morning Herald (SMH), 30 November 1868, p. 4). Whatever Maloney’s plans were, it seems that the Sir Joseph Banks venture was less than successful. On more than one occasion he advertised that he was leaving the Café Français (SMH, 23 September 1868, p. 7; SMH, 28 August 1869, p. 12) until eventually Maloney was declared insolvent and announced the closure of the Café Français due to losses incurred as lessee of the Sir Joseph Banks Hotel (Empire, 26 June 1871, p. 1; Evening News, 1 July 1871, p. 2).

 

The next licensee was Thomas Briggs, who, according to the available record, almost immediately transferred the license back to Maloney. Maloney then held it until February 1874 when it transferred to James Wheeler who was licensee for around twelve months (NSW Government Gazette, 26 September 1871, p. 2149; Empire, 4 November 1871, p. 3; SMH, 25 February 1874, p. 7). The Café Français was in the hands of Thomas Mansell Giblin (SMH, 27 June 1879, p. 7) for the next eleven years. During his tenancy the freehold was sold for £39,500 to ‘the Hon. Mr. Levy’ (SMH, 28 April 1882, p. 9; Newcastle Morning Herald and Miners Advocate, 15 June 1882 p. 2), and when the new owner decided to increase the rent Giblin decided it was time to move on.

 

The next incumbent was Mrs W. P. (Elizabeth) Bowes late of the Australian Hotel, Bourke Street, Melbourne, who closed the café while she oversaw extensive alterations and additions, redecorating, renovating, and refurnishing, paying ‘especial attention’ to the ventilation (SMH, 12 February 1886, p. 5; SMH, 15 Feb. 1886, p. 2; SMH ,17 August 1886 p. 2). The rejuvenation began with the façade – the ‘ancient shop front’ in George Street being replaced by a modern one ‘neatly ornamented in the Italian style’ with four large plate-glass windows and wide double doors.

 

Mrs Bowes inherited an establishment ‘in a condition of disrepair and dinginess’. The floors were ‘old, worm-eaten and decayed’, the stairs dark, narrow, and unsafe. A team of fox terriers had been employed to keep the rats at bay, but the place was also infested with cock roaches. A detailed description of the refurbished premises provides a picture of how the café restaurant functioned. On George Street there were two entrances – one to the café and the other to the restaurant/public dining room. The latter was 63 ft by 18 ft and housed three rows of tables capable of seating 100 customers. At the far end of the room was a small private bar and a heated carving table and servery. The kitchen was behind the dining room equipped with all the latest equipment, including a serving lift connecting to the floor above. The kitchen also communicated with Wynyard Lane for deliveries etc. The café, which measured 68 ft by 18 ft, housed a counter fitted with ‘three pull beer engines’ and a buffet. A lounge room adjoining the café for domino players and smokers was set up with marble topped tables and easy chairs. Stairs form the lounge room led to another bar. From the café another flight of stairs led to the first floor where there was a club room and a private dining room, a private drawing room and a parlour, as well as the billiard room, manager’s office, storeroom, and three bedrooms. The second floor housed a total of 13 bedrooms and two bathrooms. Lavatories were also provided in the restaurant and café, conveniently located near the entrance in both cases. The site had a frontage of 40 ft to George Street and 76 ft to Wynyard Lane and was 90 ft deep. In total the building contained 28 rooms exclusive of the restaurant and café. (SMH, 15 March 1887, p. 8).

 

 

Layout of the Café Français in 1919.

George Street (293) (Cafe Francais) (01/01/1919 - 31/12/1919), [A-00548025]. City of Sydney Archives.

Mrs Bowes had some experience of running a licensed premises. She had taken over the management of the Australian Hotel in 1879 on the death of her husband, William Patrick Bowes, a well-known sportsman who was killed in a hunting accident (The Herald (Melb.), 25 August 1879, p. 3; Argus, 20 November 1879, p. 8). As a result of business falling off, losses from bad debts, and depreciation in the value of the Australian Hotel Elizabeth was declared insolvent in June 1885 (Argus, 25 June 1885, p. 5). She was released from sequestration in February 1886, the same month she took over the Café Français (The Age (Melb.), 8 February 1886, p. 6). Who financed the extensive alterations to the cafe restaurant is not recorded? What sort of fare was now being served in the restaurant is also not recorded.

 

Mrs Bowes transferred the license to William Stewart Balfour in August 1888 (SMH, 3 August 1888, p. 4) and the Café Français briefly became the city office of the Bondi Aquarium Company, but exactly what Balfour’s association was with the Aquarium and pleasure grounds, is not known (SMH, 18 February 1889, p. 1).

In December the lease on the café premises was purchased by John James Roth, a wine and spirit merchant, and the licensee and manager became Olaf Andersen (SMH, 13 December 1889, p. 4; Daily Telegraph, 24 December 1889 p. 7). Andersen was a native of Denmark and ‘a thoroughly efficient restaurateur’ with considerable experience both in Europe and in ‘the best colonial establishments’. Anxious to maintain the reputation of the Café Français as ‘one of the best places for procuring a refresher or a first class dinner at moderate figures’ the new team promised ‘a daily menu fit for the most fastidious epicure’ (The Australian Star, 18 February 1890, p. 2). Andersen’s association with the business did not last long and the liquor license went back to William Balfour in April 1891 (SMH, 17 April 1891 p. 7). Despite his initial optimism, by the end of that year Roth was selling up at the Café Français due to the failure of his wholesale wine and spirit business (SMH, 9 November 1891, p. 7; 14 November 1891 p. 3). Jules Gandiol appeared on the scene briefly as ‘le directeur du restaurant’ (Le Courier Australien, 30 April 1892, p. 4) but finding someone to run the dining room proved elusive (SMH, 31 May 1892 p. 8) until the license was taken up by Mr Frederick Dewe Beach in November 1892 (Evening News, 4 November p. 7).

 

Frederick D. Beach was a qualified confectioner and caterer before he arrived in South Australia in 1850. He worked briefly in Adelaide before taking his skills to the Victorian goldfields. Returning to Adelaide, in the 1860s he established Beach’s Restaurant on Hindley Street (The Advertiser (Adelaide), 15 November 1895, p. 5). There is no record of what prompted him to consider extending his business to Sydney, but he took over the Café Français with his son Frank at the end of 1892 and then transferred the license to his eldest son Frederick James Beach early in 1893 (SMH, 17 February 1893, p. 6; The Register (Adelaide), 1 May 1928, p. 8).* Frederick James had the advantage of a good education, experience gained in the restaurant business in Adelaide, and the support of his brother (presumably Frank) who acted as chief cook and buyer (The Register (Adelaide), 1 September 1883, p. 7; Evening Journal (Adelaide), 6 September 1884, p. 1; SMH, 2 February 1909, p. 5; The Register (Adelaide), 1 May 1928, p. 8). The café became popularly known as Beach’s Café Français, and remained a fashionable venue for meetings, celebratory dinners, functions, and events of one sort or another. Stability reigned for the next 25 years until Frederick James Beach retired in 1918. But the saga of the Café Français did not end here.

*Frederick Dewe Beach died in 1895, his son Herbert Way Beach carrying on the Adelaide business until it was taken over in 1909 (Advertiser (Adelaide), 15 November 1895, p. 5; The Register (Adelaide), 3 July 1909, p. 14). Frederick Dewe Beach was married to Elizabeth Way the sister of Sir Samuel Way, chief justice and lieutenant-governor of South Australia.

French on the Menu in Sydney, 1850–1900.

The Café Restaurant Français run by Timothée Cheval and John Poehlman may have been the first of its kind but it was by no means the only establishment in Sydney in the latter half of the nineteenth century to boast that it was run as a French restaurant or to promote its Frenchness. The sagas of these businesses suggest a hospitality scene where competition was fierce and margins narrow. Optimism and even skill and competence were not sufficient to ensure success in this environment. Partnerships perhaps formed in haste, or on short acquaintance, and establishments started with inadequate funds inevitably led to closures and bankruptcy. Longevity might depend on good luck as much as good management. The following vignettes provide some idea of the vicissitudes proprietors experienced, and glimpses of the society of the time in particular the interactions between members of the French speaking community.

1. Aux Frères Provençaux 

In March 1854 Ernest Budin and François Mellon advertised the opening their business Aux Frères Provençaux Café and Restaurant de Paris at 491 George Street, in the premises which had been the “French Stay Warehouse” run by Budin’s wife, the widow Fanny Protois.[1] They intended the establishment would be kept “in the Parisian style” (Sydney Morning Herald, hereafter SMH, 20 March 1854, p. 2; 25 March 1854, p. 5), offering “dinner always ready at the choice on the bill of fare” and assuring patrons that the “cooking and attendance is at present impossible to be surpassed in Sydney” (Illustrated Sydney News, 29 April 1854, p. 11). In May the café moved to 220 George Street where they could now also offer board and lodging (SMH, 17 May 1854, p. 6). Budin dedicated himself to providing Sydney with “an establishment indispensable to the individual comfort of the inhabitants”.

The details of the arrangement between Budin and Mellon are unknown, but in August 1854 the partnership was dissolved and Budin carried on the business alone, promising the cuisine would be “conducted by French and English cooks of great experience” and “the tout ensemble” would be of a style “hitherto unknown in the colony” (Empire, 5 August 1854, p. 8; SMH, 4 September 1854, p. 8).

Again, the exact details of the fate of Aux Frères Provençaux are not entirely clear but what they do reveal is the closeness of the small French speaking community. For example, when M. Massinot, late of his partnership with Timothée Cheval, was looking for an appointment as a butcher he could be contacted through Ernest Budin at 220 George Street (SMH, 16 October 1854, p. 1). 

The proprietors of Aux Frères Provençaux announced in February 1855 that they had “secured the services of a first-rate cook also a glacier both having been attached for years to the most celebrated cafes de Paris” (SMH, 20 February 1855, p. 6). Just who these gentlemen were is not explained, and here the trail becomes somewhat murky. At the quarterly licensing meeting in March 1855 the license for Aux Frères Provençaux transferred from Budin to Mr F. Osmond (Empire, 7 March 1855, p. 7), but at the annual licensing meeting held in April Alphonse Barbier applied for, and was granted the license to Aux Frères Provençaux. (SMH, 17 April 1855, p. 2 applications of publican’s general licenses; granted 27 April see Museums of History NSW, State Archives collection, NRS 14403 [7/1503]; reel 1237). This is the same Alphonse Barbier who had been in business with Alexandre De Mars, Timothée Cheval’s original partner, in Bathurst (Bathurst Free Press, 14 January 1854, p. 4). Barbier may have been the “first rate cook” referred to in the advertising in February.

At around this time Barbier forms a partnership with Guillaume Arzilier who was perhaps the “glacier” who joined Aux Frères Provençaux. Where Osmond fits into the scene is not clear, he may have purchased the premises at 220 George Street from Budin and leased them to Barbier and Co.? Whatever the arrangements “the shop at 220 George Street at present occupied by Barbier and Co. as the Café de Paris” was advertised to let in May 1855 (SMH, 17 May 1855, p. 1).

On 7 June “Barbier and Co. of the Café and restaurant 220 George Street, known as the Frères Provençaux” announce they have taken the premises formerly known as the German Club in O’Connell Street and will open there on 1 July (SMH, 7 June 1855, p. 1). Only ten days later the auction of the furniture and fittings of Aux Frères Provençaux is advertised due to the dissolution of the partnership of Barbier and Co. (SMH, 18 June 1855, p. 6) and the estate of François Barbier and Guillaume Arzilier “restaurant proprietors” was placed under sequestration on 19 July (NSW Government Gazette, 24 July 1855, p. 1968).

Meanwhile, F. Seghers and Co., “the successors to the proprietors” of the “Café Restaurant des freres Provenceaux [sic] Hotel restaurant”, advertised that they have indeed moved to the German Club premises at 18 O’Connell Street, and “retained the services of their celebrated chef de cuisine” (Empire, 12 July 1855, p. 1). François Seghers was a Belgian, late of Duprez and Seghers, tailors, and in September the license of Aux Frères Provençaux transfers to him from Alphonse Barbier (Empire, 5 September 1855, p. 3). Who the other partners were in F. Seghers and Co. is not revealed but perhaps Barbier, if not one of the partners, is “the celebrated chef de cuisine”. No further mention is made of the building in O’Connell Street until it is auctioned in 1857 (SMH, 16 January 1857, p. 7). 

To confuse the picture further, in September 1856 Frederick Osmond (to whom Budin transferred his license in 1855) moved on to the Digger’s Arms in Pitt Street (SMH, 12 September 1856, p. 8) where he continued to advertise a menu with a distinctly French flavour – for example, “mutton cutlets, sauce piquante; salmi of teal a la Bigarade; saute of goose aux olives; sweetbread of veal sauce tomate; tripe a la Lyonnaise; kidneys au champagne; sausages aux choux; cold meats: ham, tongues, potted game, partridge aux truffles, pate de fois gras, mayonnaise of lobster” (Bell’s Life in Sydney and Sporting Reviewer, 27 September 1856, p. 3) – suggesting he may have taken the “first rate cook” with him.[2]

2. Alphonse Courvoisier and the Hotel de France

Alphonse Courvoisier, who had worked for Timothée Cheval at the Café Restaurant Français for the previous five years, transferred first to the City Wine Vaults in George Street briefly before taking up the license for the Customs House Hotel in Macquarie Place in 1860 (SMH, 3 December, p. 7, 1859; SMH, 4 January, p. 3; SMH, 4 April 1860, p. 2). He was confident that “his long experience in the culinary art and his practical knowledge of the duties of a restaurant” would stand him in good stead (SMH, 3 December, p. 7, 1859). He promised a bill of fare “that might be expected from a first-class professional cook” (SMH, 7 January 1860, p. 1) which included food to please all comers from hodge-podge, roast beef and grilled chops to fish au gratin, epigramme [sic] of lamb with piquante sauce, calves’ liver a la bourgeoise, and milenaise [sic] of veal (SMH, 20 January 1860, p. 1; 31 January, p. 1). His tenure at the Customs House lasted about 12 months – in April 1861 the auction of the whole of his household furniture was advertised and in September the license was transferred to Francis Byrnes (SMH, 19 April 1861, p. 7; Empire, 4 September 1861, p. 7). With the number of hotels providing food in the city it is unlikely Courvoisier’s talents went to waste for long, and he claimed to have spent some time as chef at the Civil Services Club when, in 1868, he announced the opening of his café restaurant at the Hotel de France “King and George Streets opposite the Joint Stock Bank and nearly opposite the City Bank” (SMH, 9 July 1868, p. 1; Illustrated Sydney News, 11 July 1868, p. 16). This was a significant undertaking. The café downstairs was spacious, well-furnished and “lofty and well ventilated to suit the tropical climate”. The “equally vast proportioned chamber upstairs” housed two billiard tables and the hotel also offered accommodation. Among the “numerous other spacious apartments” was a ladies dining room, staffed by female attendants, described as “a great novelty in New South Wales, and an article long wanted” (Newcastle Chronicle, 25 July 1868, p. 3; SMH, 9 July 1868, p. 1). Courvoisier ran his establishment “in quite the Parisian style” and it soon became a popular venue for meetings of clubs and associations and formal, celebratory dinners.

How prominent Courvoisier was in the French community is not known. His wife, Louise/Louisa, spoke French having been born in the Channel Islands (Dutton, p. 21) but was technically a British subject. How they met and why they came to Australia is also unknown but they were not alone in Sydney. Louise’s brother, Charles Martel, worked as a waiter at Petty’s Hotel, and a sister, Ellen Marie, also lived in Sydney. It is possible Louise and Alphonse were the guardians of Louise’s nephew, Ernest Grasset, the orphaned son of another of her sisters (see death of Ernest, Evening News, 18 June 1875, p. 2).[3]

By 1869 Alphonse felt settled enough in Sydney with his successful business and extended family ties to become naturalized.[4] Subsequent happenings suggest that he may also have had political leanings which could have prompted him to leave France in the first place (rather than the quest for gold, see Dutton p. 21) and he saw little prospect of returning to France. There is also some evidence that he had links to New Caledonia. Reports of shipping departures and arrivals indicate that a Monsieur Courvoisier visited New Caledonia in March 1873 (Australian Town and Country Journal, 1 March 1873, p. 27; SMH, 14 March 1873 p. 4) and again in June (Sydney Mail, 14 June 1873, p. 751) and December (SMH, 11 December 1873, p. 4).

That his establishment in Sydney was both well-known, referred to simply as “Courvoisier’s”, and well-respected is attested by his clientele. Monsieur Pouzolz was on his way to Noumea to take up his position as president of the supreme court and chief justice of New Caledonia, when he died there in June 1873 (SMH, 25 June 1873, p. 4). The following year Courvoisier played host to more notorious guests. Henri Rochefort and his companions were political prisoners, Communards, members and supporters of the Paris Commune, the short-lived revolutionary socialist government which ruled France from 18 March to 28 May 1871. They had been exiled to New Caledonia, and escaped from detention in March 1874, Rochefort himself only having arrived there in December 1873.[5] Rochefort, Pascal Grousset, Francis Jourde, Olivier Pain, Achille Baillière and Bastian Granthille arrived in Newcastle on 27 March and by 1 April Rochefort, Grousset and Baillière were in Sydney, ensconced at Courvoisier’s hotel.

Their arrival was the subject of much interest with commentary both for and against the rebels from both the local community and the French establishment appearing in the newspapers. According to Rochefort’s account of his time in Sydney it was M. Bonnard, the French Consular Agent in Newcastle who recommended Courvoisier’s hotel, but Rochefort also claimed that he had prior knowledge of Courvoisier. Apparently, the tutor of his (Rochefort’s) children had met Courvoisier’s brother in La Rochelle and had mentioned that Alphonse was in Australia (Dutton, p. 21). It is hard to judge how true this statement is, particularly in the light of the barely plausible story Rochefort and friends concocted to explain how they had managed to escape from New Caledonia (see SMH, 30 March 1874, p. 4), but it does lend weight to the idea that Courvoisier sympathised with the radicals. It is Rochefort who also claims that Courvoisier had land holdings in New Caledonia and would in future be regarded as a criminal there for having helped the escapees (Dutton, p. 24). Although in all his interviews with the press Rochefort was careful not to implicate anyone in the planning of the escape, a M. Courvoisier was in New Caledonia in December 1873, leaving Noumea four days before Rochefort arrived which could be taken to suggest a tenuous connection between Courvoisier and the planning of the escape.[6]

Courvoisier’s guests stayed only a few days, leaving Sydney on 11 April (Evening News, 11 April 1874, p. 2) but what of the aftermath? How Courvoisier’s role in offering them accommodation was regarded by French officialdom is not recorded. The French Consul General in Sydney, Eugène Simon, made it clear, in a letter addressed to the public, that the truth of the matter was Rochefort and his friends were convicts, perpetrators of plunder, arson and murder and tried as criminals. They should not be romanticised as political prisoners. Sympathisers might well be well-meaning but they were “manifestly thoughtless” (Evening News, 4 April 1874, p. 2). Although the publicity surrounding Rochefort’s presence may have been good for business by attracting the curious, his association with the “communist” cause may not have been so good for Courvoisier’s personal standing in the French community.

The new year, 1875, began with Courvoisier announcing he was selling up - all the effects, goodwill, lease license, furniture and the four billiard tables of Courvoisier’s Café and Hotel de France were for sale by private contract. The net profits of the establishment were claimed to be £2000 per annum so that “to any person with sufficient means and a knowledge of the business’, this offered “an opportunity of realising a fortune in a few years.” (SMH, 16 February 1875, p. 6). Courvoisier was giving up this lucrative business because he had “realized a competency” and was about to retire and return to France. There is no reason to doubt the veracity of this claim that Courvoisier was in a financial position to retire, similar explanations were often proffered to counteract any suggestion that the business was in trouble and the owner staving off bankruptcy.

In April, Mrs Courvoisier left Sydney for Noumea (SMH, 16 April 1875, p. 6) which raises the suspicion that the Courvoisiers were not necessarily planning to return to France, but just what their connection was to New Caledonia is not known. Whatever their plans they did not come to fruition – François Alphonse Courvoisier died on May 5 (SMH, 6 May 1875, p. 1), he was 50 years old and did not leave a will.[7] Louise was described by Rochefort as “the life and soul of the establishment” (Dutton, p. 21) but now she was faced with the prospect of running the place on her own. She was granted the license for the hotel (SMH, 31 May 1875, p. 2) and applied for, and was granted, administration of her husband’s estate with help from Hippolyte Felix Delarue (watchmaker and jeweller) and her brother Charles Martel. In the meantime, she dealt with the tragic death of her nephew Ernest (see note 2). Louise may have been very competent but she nonetheless took her brother on as a managing partner in the business (SMH, 28 October 1875, p. 2) before deciding to sell out in June 1876 (SMH, 5 June 1876, p. 7). Courvoisier’s Hotel was taken over by Mr George Frazer/Fraser, late of the Scott’s Hotel in Melbourne, who purchased the lease and furniture for £1500 (SMH 15 June 1876, p. 5; 21 June 1876, p. 2).

What happened to Louise’s siblings is not known. Whether Frazier’s £1500 made Louise a wealthy widow or only went to covering her debts is also a mystery. In either case this story does not end happily. It seems that Louise subsequently went back to New Caledonia and was murdered there in “The Great Kanak Revolt” of 1878 (SMH, 25 July 1878, p. 4).[8]

Over 15 years Courvoisier had set a standard for Sydney which would not be matched until Paris House opened in 1890. His “his long experience in the culinary art and his practical knowledge of the duties of a restaurant” had stood him in good stead. The restaurant dining public had responded positively to his professionalism and appreciated the sophisticated ambience, disciplined service, and good food at the Hotel de France. But not all successful eating establishments boasting French flair were restaurants for the wealthy and well-connected or big hotels with lavish dining rooms. One of the longest running businesses with French credentials in Sydney in the nineteenth century was A La Flore Australienne.

3. Henri de Josselin and A La Flore Australienne

A La Flore Australienne opened in August 1861 as a “French confectionery and pastry establishment” which also sold wines and spirits imported from Europe. The business was originally a partnership between Henri de Josselin and Louis Saclier. Louis Saclier had previously been in business as a house decorator selling imported wallpaper and more recently had set himself up as an agent for French wines and spirits.[9] Henri de Josselin had been in the colony since 1855.[10] A la Flore Australienne promised an entirely new establishment “without rival in Sydney or even Australia” providing French confectionery and pastry, along with an unrivalled stock of liqueurs, wines and spirits imported from Europe. Advertising made a point of the accommodation provided for “ladies requiring lunch or refreshments” in a room “furnished with elegance” where they were assured of “every convenience and politeness” (SMH, 30 July 1861, p. 1; 24 August 1861, p. 5).

The business faltered before the end of the year and the partnership was dissolved, effective 1 January 1862 with Henri de Josselin continuing the business alone (SMH, 8 January 1862, p. 1; 12 February 1862, p. 1). A La Flore Australienne continued to sell imported confectionery, to supply lunches, cater for functions, picnics, and weddings, and provide seasonal delicacies along with iced drinks, jellies, and ice cream. By 1867 de Josselin could boast he now had “one of the largest, coolest, best and most comfortable dining rooms in New South Wales” where he paid strict attention to politeness and cleanliness, coupled with moderate charges and cuisine arrangements second to none (SMH, 3 April 1867, p. 8). For all his claim de Jossselin’s business was probably only modest but well enough known and patronised to prosper, at least until the early 1870s. Early in 1872 he downsized, relinquishing his lease on 319 George Street, and selling off household furniture, ivory handled cutlery, restaurant tables and chairs, bed steads, bedding and a “magnificent French billiard table” to concentrate his operations at the adjoining 317 George Street (SMH, 29 April 1872, p. 7). In June 1873 he advertised A la Flore Australienne for sale (SMH, 7 June 1873, p. 3) and presumably failing to attract a favourable buyer then moved to 307 George Street (SMH, May 13 1874, p. 10).

Throughout 1875 and 1876 he continued to advertise his private dining and ladies’ rooms, his French confectionery and pastry of all kinds and the availability of wines and spirits, for both wholesale and retail customers. In 1877 he did not renew the lease for 307 George Street (SMH, 30 April 1877, p. 1) and moved again this time to 9 Bond Street where he stayed until August 1878 (SMH, 15 August 1878, p. 12) when the address for A La Flore Australienne changed again to 12 Charlotte Place (SMH, 26 September 1878, p. 1). Here he claimed to have made extensive alterations to provide large airy luncheon rooms and an elegant ladies’ room, suitable for ladies and families, “not to be equalled in the colony” (SMH, 2 October 1878, p. 2; 9 November 1878, p. 15).

Perhaps de Josselin had over capitalised on his new premises or maybe business was falling off, but in January 1880 he was declared insolvent (NSW Gov. Gaz., 9 January 1880, p. 127). Bankruptcy was a common fate for restaurateurs and caterers but most seemed to bounce back and de Josselin was no exception. By November A La Flore Australienne was back in business at 409 George Street (SMH, 12 November 1880, p. 12). His advertising rarely specified items he offered on the menu, but it would appear de Josselin had, over his nearly twenty years in business, established a reputation for his meat pies and “celebrated veal and ham pates of old time renown” which he now made available on Wednesday and Saturday (SMH, 11 January 1881, p. 1).

Henri de Josselin had had a good run, but he was now 65 and no doubt ready to retire. In May the newspapers carried advertisements for the sale by auction of the equipment associated with A La Flore Australienne – the china, earthenware, glassware, furniture, and copper moulds, the ice cream machine, the coffee fountain, and the remaining candid fruits, syrups, and jams. Henri and his wife Rosa then rented Wascoe House, in what is today Blaxland in the lower Blue Mountains, from William Deane where they provided accommodation for gentlemen and families seeking a change of air in this “charming mountain retreat”, promising moderate terms and “a good table” (SMH, 20 August 1881, p. 16 and 1 October 1881, p. 18; 22 December 1882, p. 10).[11] But Henri’s time enjoying the fresh air of the mountains did not last long. Henri Etienne de Josselin, native of “Mentzac, Department de la Haute Vienne”, died suddenly on 22 May 1883 (SMH, 26 May 1883, p. 1).

 

---

[1] Budin claimed, on his application for naturalisation, to have arrived in Australia via Gypsy Queen in 1852 (Museums of History NSW, State Archives Collection, Naturalization Index 1834–1903 [4/1200], reel no. 129, p. 518). Other evidence suggests he may have arrived in January 1853 (SMH, 8 January 1853, p. 4) on a boat from the “south seas” sponsored by Didier Joubert. Louis Victor Protois died in January 1852 (Shipping Gazette, 10 January 1852, p. 15). Budin and Fanny Protois were married by May 1853 (see SMH, 21 May 1853, p. 5)

[2] Alphonse Barbier tried his luck in his own business again in Melbourne (Argus, 21 November 1857, p. 5), but was again unsuccessful (The Age, 18 June 1858, p.2). He died in Melbourne in 1886 (Australasian, 20 March, 1886, p. 3). François Seghers returned to tailoring (SMH, 1 January 1862, p. 6).

[3] Ernest’s death was due to unintentional poisoning with carbolic acid. At the trial it was noted that he was entitled to property under Alphonse’s will, but this was not the case. François Alphonse Courvoisier died intestate, Museums of History NSW, State Archives Collection, NRS-13660-2-[17/1779] series 2, Probate Packets. Ernest, the son of Auguste Theodore Grasset and Elizabeth Martel/Mortel, who married in Sydney in 1857, was born in Forbes in 1865. Auguste mined for gold in Forbes and died there in 1866. When Elizabeth died has not been established. Ellen Martel/Martet married Edmund E. Marie in Sydney in 1866. Edmund’s death has not been established.

[4] Museums of History NSW, State Archives Collection, Naturalization Index 1843–1903, [4/1202],reel no. 130, p. 96.

[5] For Rochefort and the Communards in Sydney, see https://www.isfar.org.au/bio/rochefort-henri-1831-1913/ and K. R. Dutton, “Henri Rochefort and his companions in Australia.” Explorations 32 (June 2002), pp. 3–39, https://www.isfar.org.au/article/32-1/. For Rochefort ‘s arrival in Noumea see Empire, 4 February 1874, p. 3.

[6] Courvoisier left Noumea on 4 December (SMH, 11 December 1873, p. 4), Rochefort arrived on 8 December (Empire, 4 February 1874, p. 3).

[7] Travel to and from Noumea by steamer took approximately seven days. Madame Courvoisier returned to Sydney on 3 May, just in time for her husband’s death (Sydney Mail and New South Wales Advertiser, 8 May 1875, p. 590).

[8] For the uprising see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1878_Kanak_revolt

[9] For Saclier see SMH, 9 April 1855, p. 6; Museums of History NSW, State Archives Collection, NRS-13654-1-[2/8917]-3704; agent for French wines and spirits Empire, 27 May 1859, p. 8.

[10] Henri de Josselin arrived as an unassisted immigrant on the Mercedes, birthplace Bordeaux.

[11] Henri de Josselin married Rosa Ann Wilson in 1862. Wascoe House was originally the Pilgrim Inn, situated at what was then Wascoe Junction. The remains are in the McDonald’s car park at Blaxland. The main property consisted of 13 rooms with an additional cottage of 5 rooms, situated on 56 acres with garden and orchard. Trains stopped at Wascoe’s platform on every trip. Advertised for sale SMH, 28 April 1873, p. 2, and William Deane offered it to let fully furnished SMH, 23 March 1881, p. 14.

The Cafe Restaurant Français. Part 1: Timothée Cheval

Monsieur Timothée/Timothie Louis Benoît Cheval, and his family, wife Honorine and son Timothée Edouard, arrived in Sydney in April 1853 (Empire, 14 April 1853).[1] Before the end of May, Cheval, and his travelling companion Captain Alexandre de Mars, had set up a business grandly called the Café Restaurant Français at 521 George Street, near the corner of Hunter Street in premises previously occupied by Cohen and Co., auctioneers (Sydney Morning Herald, hereafter SMH, 20 May 1853, p. 1; SMH, 15 March 1887, p. 8). What either Cheval or de Mars knew about running a restaurant, and why they had chosen to come to Sydney is unrecorded but possibly they, like many others, were lured by the promise of opportunities associated with the discovery of gold in the colony.[2] Their café/restaurant went on to be the first sustained French presence in the Sydney dining scene.

De Mars was granted a publican’s license for the premises (SMH, 21 May 1853, p. 3) and the Café Restaurant Français offered patrons oysters, tea, coffee, chocolate, soups, breakfasts, luncheons, dinners (all meals served “a la Parisienne”), French ice creams and pastries, in addition to taking in weekly and monthly boarders. How well Cheval and de Mars knew one another is another unknown but their partnership did not last long. By July 1853 they had parted company (SMH, 13 July 1853, p. 5). Alexandre de Mars subsequently spent a short period as the publican at Parker’s Family Hotel (SMH, 7 September 1853, p. 2; 10 December 1853, p. 9) before joining another Frenchman, Alphonse Barbier, at the London Hotel and French Café in Bathurst (Bathurst Free Press and Mining Journal, 14 January 1854, p. 4). This proved to be another short-lived arrangement (Bathurst Free Press and Mining Journal, 20 May 1854, p. 3). What happened to de Mars subsequently is unknown.

Meanwhile Timothée Cheval took on the license for the Café Restaurant Français and lost no time in opening his “new rooms” designed for “the accommodation of those who wish to combine comfort and economy with good cuisine” (SMH, 29 July 1853, p. 3; Empire, 9 September 1853, p. 3). He advertised breakfast from 9 to 12 consisting of one dish of meat or fish with bread and potatoes, and one cup of French coffee for 1s 9d, while lunch, of one bowl of soup, two dishes of meat or fish, one dish of vegetables and bread was available from 12 until 3 for 2s 6d.

The interior of the Café Restaurant Français, Illustrated Sydney News, 11 February 1854, p. 1. 

By February 1854 Cheval had formed another partnership, this time with John Poehlman (or Poehlmann), and had expanded by taking on the adjoining premises so that he now operated a French café and an adjacent restaurant. The establishment offered a bit of everything. In a city with hotels on every corner offering food and accommodation it was hard to establish a point of difference. Paragraphs published in the leading newspapers at the beginning of 1854 (with details no doubt provided by Cheval) emphasised the Frenchness of the restaurant, an “attractive temple to the genius of French cookery” where diners could expect the best of French and English cookery, “a variety of dishes such as cannot be obtained elsewhere in Sydney”, and attendants “who speak all the European languages” (Illustrated Sydney News, 11 February 1854, p. 2; Empire, 23 February, p. 3). The café promised the availability of café noir and café au lait, access to a billiard table, dominoes, chess draughts, the latest newspapers and writing materials, and a bar serving “the various kinds of American drinks now so much in vogue”. These offerings hint at the need to cater for a more diverse and perhaps more transient clientele now that Sydney was a point of transit for gold prospectors. It was American gold seekers who brought with them the fashion for American drinks – sherry cobbler, mint julep, brandy smash and the like, made all the more popular by the availability of ice. In October of 1855 Cheval and Poehlman announced they had ice available (SMH, 6 October 1855, p. 8) and could supply all parts of the city (SMH, 12 February 1856, p. 4. See also Goulburn Herald, 3 February 1855, p. 2).

Cheval appears to have been ambitious to take advantage of whatever opportunities trading in food and beverages might offer. In August of 1854 he opened the Australian Larder in Pitt Street, a “Charcuterie et Boucherie Française”, a “superior cook’s shop where all kinds of cooked meats may be purchased, ready for use” (SMH, 1 August 1854, p. 8). In this, another short-lived venture, he was aided by M. Massinot, a butcher who was also employed at the Café Français (see also SMH, 16 October 1854, p. 1). Why this endeavour failed is not clear, perhaps Sydney was not ready for boudins and andouilles, but by October Cheval and Massinot had also parted company.

Cheval then turned the former charcuterie into the Maison D’Orée “a restaurant and supper room for the refreshment of gentlemen leaving the Victoria Theatre” (which was opposite) where he intended to introduce the “elegance and refinements” of the Parisian establishment of the same name, and provide a bill of fare both “recherche and sumptuous” (Empire, 4 November 1854, p. 1). Unfortunately, he had omitted to apply for a publican’s license and was subsequently fined having been found with a stash of alcohol on the premises (SMH, 12 January 1855, p. 4). Things at the Maison D’Orée went from bad to worse. In October Cheval was in court again, fined for knowingly allowing the Maison D’Orée to operate as the resort of prostitutes which was “a great nuisance to the neighbourhood” (SM, 25 October 1855, p. 2). Cheval’s defence was that he was only the manager for the owner, one Pierre Le Pouce/Lepouce/Lepousse, but the judge was not impressed by the argument. 

The premises were then transformed into the “Patisserie Parissienne”. The mysterious M. Lepouce advised the public that the restaurant connected to the confectioner’s shop would be supplied “with the same variety of dishes as the French Restaurant, in George Street” (Empire, 6 March 1856, p. 1). Cheval continued to get into trouble as a result of his dealings in Pitt Street – for selling alcohol illegally (Empire, 15 April 1856, p. 4), for non-payment of wages (Bell’s Life in Sydney, 3 May 1856, p. 2; SMH, 24 July, 1856 p. 2), for trading on a Sunday (SMH, 24 April, 1857 p. 3), for keeping his house open at an illegal hour (Empire, 20 June 1857, p. 4; SMH, 18 July 1857, p. 6) and finally for keeping premises open for the entertainment of “promiscuous persons” after midnight (SMH, 20 February 1858, p. 4). Cheval eventually severed all connection with the “supper rooms” in Pitt Street in June 1858 (Empire, 3 June 1858, p. 1).

Meanwhile John Poehlman was now the licensee of the Café Français (Empire, 16 December, 1854, p. 6) and he and Cheval kept that business ticking over. In March of 1855 they took on a Mr William Dunkel who, it was claimed, had “trained in the palace of King Louis Phillippe where he remained until 24 February 1848, when the revolution broke out. He then worked for the English Ambassador to the court of Persia and then to London as chef cook at Maurigg’s first-class hotel Regent Street” (The People’s Advocate, 31 March 1855, p. 5; see also Dunkel seeking employment SMH, 5 March 1855, p. 1). How long Dunkel remained at the Café Français is not recorded but the establishment appears to have flourished. 

Englishman Frank Fowler recorded his experience of the Café Français when he visited:

The Café Français … is much frequented by the young swells and sprigs of the city. They hold here a chess club, a billiard club and a stewed-kidney club. Little marble tables, files of “Punch” and the “Times”, dominoes, sherry-cobblers, strawberry ices, and entertaining hostess, and a big, bloused, lubberly, inoffensive host, are the noticeable parts of the café left on my recollection. They serve eight hundred dinners a day at this house, for which they pay a yearly rent of 2400 pounds.[3]

A review of Fowler’s Southern Lights and Shadows in Freeman’s Journal, described it as “a very ill-woven tissue … of exaggerations” (2 April 1859, p. 2). Mr Cheval was not apparently ‘lubberly” but “active and affable”, he never paid as much as 2400 pounds rent and served around 250 meals a day rather than 800. Similarly, the establishment was not frequented by “swells and sprigs” of which there were none in Sydney. 

Cheval styled himself the proprietor of the Restaurant Café Français (Empire, 21 September 1857, p. 1) but the details of his arrangement with Poehlman are unclear. Who the “entertaining hostess” was and whether the “big, bloused, lubberly, inoffensive host” was Poehlman, is open to speculation. Even if Fowler’s figures are not to be believed he did single out the Café Français as the premier venue in the city but whether its success was due to Poehlman’s steady management or Cheval’s entrepreneurship and Gallic charm is another unknown.

What precipitated Cheval’s departure from the business in Pitt Street was not stated but shortly afterwards the partnership with Poehlman was dissolved (partnership dissolved 1 July 1858, NSW Government Gazette, 23 July 1858, p. 1164) and Poehlman advertised he was selling the license for the Café Français (SMH, 15 July 1858, p. 6). In September Poehlman was granted a license for Poehlman’s Hotel in George Street, opposite the Bank of NSW. At the same licensing meeting Hippolyte J. Cheval, Timothée’s younger brother, who had arrived in February 1857 (Empire, 16 February 1857, p. 4) was granted the license for the Britannia Arms (SMH, 15 September 1858, p. 3). Again, the trail is somewhat murky but it seems the license of the Britannia Arms may have been transferred to the restaurant in George Street, and certainly Hippolyte held the license for the Café Français in 1859.

Poehlman’s move to go into business independently, on the opposite side of George Street and only a short distance from the Café Français, was the beginning of a long legal battle between him and Timothée Cheval. Cheval first sought an injunction to restrain Poehlman from continuing in business on the grounds that Poehlman’s setting up of a similar business was a breach of the terms of the dissolution of their partnership, requiring that Poehlman not carry on any such business as he had carried on with Cheval. The injunction was refused on the grounds that the similarity between Poehlman’s enterprise and Cheval’s had not been established (SMH, 25 December 1858, p. 4).

Cheval then brought a case against Poehlman for operating illegally, allowing internal communication between his licensed premises and an adjoining business. Originally found in Cheval’s favour, this decision was subsequently reversed after the legislation which the charge rested on was itself called into question. (SMH, 23 March 1859, p. 3; SMH, 7 April 1859, p. 4; Freeman’s Journal, 23 April 1859, p. 3) 

The satirical journal, Bell’s Life in Sydney and Sporting Reviewer, made light of the proceedings intimating that Cheval had become Poehlman’s “implacable foe” because the latter had dared to open rival premises in close proximity to the Café Français (26 March 1859, p. 3). Cheval defended himself – it was not jealousy that had motivated him but his belief that Poehlman had committed a breach of faith. Cheval claimed he had paid Poehlman 600 pounds on the understanding that he “would not open, either in George St or Pitt St within a period of eighteen months an establishment that resembled in any way the Café and Restaurant Français” and accused Poehlman of opening “an exact copy of the Café Français”. (SMH, 5 April 1859, p. 8). Poehlman responded to Cheval’s rejoinder denying any breach of faith. He claimed the 600 pounds was less than half the value of the “furniture and effects” in which the pair had an equal interest. He also gave the lie to the idea that the partnership had been dissolved amicably:

Mr Cheval is the last person who should complain of [a breach of faith] – for after we had entered into partnership he took a lease on the premises and subsequently renewed it in his own name alone, and so acquired an advantage over me which eventually enabled him to force me to a dissolution (SMH, 6 April 1859, p.2).

Next Cheval tried to bring a case against Poehlman for breach of the Licensing Act (having insufficient accommodation available), which was dismissed on a technicality (SMH, 16 April, 1859, p. 5).

But Cheval was not done with the charge of breach of covenant. In August 1859 the pair were in court again, Cheval demanding 1000 pounds damages from Poehlman. The details of the covenant were that Poehlman would not within the period of eighteen months of the dissolution of their partnership, so long as Cheval carried on his business on the premises they had shared, “conduct or assist as manager, waiter or servant for any person or persons or establish or set up, take, or carry on, on his own account either alone or jointly with any other person or persons, or take any share or interest in any café or restaurant in George Street or Pitt Street”. Provided that nothing in the covenant should prevent Poehlman from keeping any inn, public-house or hotel with a table d’hote for lunch or dinner "after the manner in which Petty’s Hotel and the Metropolitan Hotel were carried on" at the time of the execution of the deed. (Empire, 23 August 1859, p. 5).

The case was reported in detail. Once it was accepted that Cheval continued to run the Café Français, even though the license was in his brother’s name, proving the charge hinged on determining to what extent the two business were the same. A café was defined as “a place where a person could go in for refreshment – as well coffee and tea as stronger drinks – at any hour of the day”. A restaurant was described as “a place where a person could at any time of the day order what refreshment (in the nature of food) he might need, from a list to which the price of each article was affixed, paying for what he had”. The practice at a restaurant differed from that at places like Petty’s Hotel and the Metropolitan, where “the meals were served at fixed hours, at a table d’hote, and each person who partook paid a fixed price for each meal. Meals were not served at any other times except under very peculiar circumstances” (SMH, 23 August 1859, p. 8). These definitions were well understood in the Sydney dining scene and had been articulated as early as 1843 when Mr Sparke advertised the new arrangements at the Royal Hotel (SMH, 14 March 1843, p. 2) 

The character of Poehlman’s business was dissected. He had kept a table d’hote but had also occasionally supplied coffee. Although coffee was generally only served to persons who had eaten lunch or dinner there and was thus part of the meal itself, coffee had been supplied at other times. Service of coffee had also been refused at times. Poehlman admitted food had sometimes been supplied later than the hours fixed for meals, but the menu was that used at the table d’hote and the charge had been fixed.

According to the newspaper reports “there was other evidence as to the fittings of the respective houses, and as to the mode of conducting business in each, for the purpose of showing that Poehlmann’s [sic] management resembled that of Cheval: but none of the evidence was of a very distinct or positive character, except as to the general supply at both places of American drinks and the fitting up of the front room with a number of small tables.”

Cheval claimed that his takings had declined by an average of 10 pounds per day since Poehlman had opened his rival premises. The court must have been impressed by the arguments over the finer details of café/restaurant versus table d’hote and awarded Cheval 200 pounds damages, significantly less than he thought he was entitled to. The crucial difference would appear to have been the choice available in a restaurant and the different prices for menu items, but the distinctions could easily be blurred. Most hotels in Sydney at the time professed to serve a table d'hote but also to have food available at all times for all comers presumably, like Poehlman, serving the table d’hote menu at a fixed price. Cheval’s determination to pursue the case, and the sums of money involved, indicate that the success of the Café Français owed much to the fact that it operated as a restaurant providing customers with not just convenience but, most importantly, choice. 

Poehlman was not happy with the result but an attempt to have the verdict overturned was unsuccessful (SMH, 10 August 1860, p. 4; Empire, 10 August 1860, p. 8). He continued in business in George Street at Central House/Central Café/Poehlman’s Hotel until March of 1862 (SMH, 21 March 1862, p. 11) when he moved to “more commodious premises close to the Herald and Empire offices” in Pitt Street (Empire, 3 July 1862, p. 1) and Central House passed into the hands of a Mr Scrivener. This enterprise, Poehlman’s Hotel, lasted just shy of 12 months (Empire, 3 July 1862, p. 1) and John Poehlman disappears from the record.

Running a successful restaurant required a well-run kitchen, and the Café Français had benefitted from the expertise of Alphonse Courvoisier and “his practical knowledge of the duties of a restaurant” almost since its inception (SMH, 3 December, p. 7, 1859). In January 1860 Courvoisier also set himself up as a rival to Cheval, advertising the Restaurant Français at the Custom’s House Hotel in Macquarie Place (SMH, 31 January 1860, p. 1). Perhaps Courvoisier was aware that changes were ahead since, despite having proved his case against Poehlman, Timothée Cheval’s future plans did not include the Café Restaurant Français.

In November 1861 he was granted 1500 hectares of land in New Caledonia.[4] What prompted Cheval’s interest in New Caledonia is unknown. Why he should contemplate leaving behind a successful, lucrative business and swap the comforts of Sydney for the privations of the new French colony, where the civil European population amounted to only 432 persons in January 1860, is hard to fathom.[5] The terms of Cheval’s land allocation required that he bring with him, at his own expense, European settlers, farming equipment and livestock making it an expensive undertaking, and not one to be entered into quickly or half-heartedly.[6] Finance was presumably no problem but finding Europeans to join him in the new venture may have been more difficult if not for family connections.

Hippolyte married Ellen O’Donoghue (O’Donohue) from County Clare in 1861.[7] In April 1862 her family - parents, James and Mary, and siblings John, Maria, Ann and Timothy - arrived in Sydney as assisted immigrants, sponsored by Timothée Cheval (Freeman’s Journal, 12 April 1862, p. 7). In June 1862, Timothée Cheval, the O’Donoghues, and James Daly, his wife Honora (the sister of Mrs O’Donoghue) and their four children, left Sydney on the Gazelle for New Caledonia (SMH, 25 June 1862, p. 4).[8] The Sydney Morning Herald of 14 January 1863 (p. 5) recorded the visit of the recently arrived Governor of New Caledonia, Guillain, to the holdings of Cheval, James Paddon, and Didier Joubert.[9]

Once established on his land “dans la plaine de la Tontouta” Timothée Cheval wound up his business affairs in Sydney (SMH, 20 May 1864, p. 6; NSW Government Gazette, 25 May 1864, p. 1277).[10] Madame Honorine Cheval wanted nothing to do with the New Caledonia venture and returned to France (Empire, 27 April 1864, p. 4). Hippolyte and Ellen O’Donoghue remained in Sydney with their two young daughters until they too sailed for New Caledonia in 1864.[11] The Café Français was taken over by a Mr. J. F. Maloney and started on its own new life (SMH, 21 September 1865, p. 10).

Hélène Laine, a grand-daughter of Hippolyte Cheval, recounts that the once in New Caledonia the settlers encountered a number of setbacks in their attempts to grow corn and coffee and to farm cattle – plagues of locusts and floods and unsuitable soil hampered their enterprise. At some stage, possibly around the time Hippolyte arrived, the group split, with the Donoghues and Hippolyte taking up land at Saint-Vincent on the Tamoa river and the Dalys moving to Naniouni. Laine is coy about what precipitated the breakup suggesting that the difficulties they encountered were only part of the cause, there being “other unhappy circumstances” which led to the breach. She has Timothée battling on until “merciful death brings to an end his fruitless labours” (p. 60). But Timothée was not released from his labouring until 1881 by which time he had fathered five children with Louise Tatati/Tatate.[12] Perhaps his relationship with a local indigenous woman almost forty years his junior was the cause of some dissention within the colonists. Laine makes no mention of this liaison but does note that Timothée’s miserable existence was relieved by the arrival of his son, Timothée Edouard, who had been taken back to France by his mother. Timothée junior remained in New Caledonia after his father’s death.

Hippolyte was appointed to the head of the Customs Office in 1871 and the family moved to Nouméa. He and Ellen had thirteen children in all and their descendants remain proud of their connection to “une des plus anciennes familles de colons libres de Nouvelle-Calédonie”.[13]

Meanwhile at the Café Restaurant Français in George Street Sydney ……….

---

[1] Timothée Cheval was born in Paris in 1814. He married Honorine Romain Barré in Paris in 1846. Details of Cheval’s life and family are derived from a number of sources: the family tree compiled by Hélène Derrien-Cassat available at https://gw.geneanet.org/lion4?lang=en&pz=louis+joseph+timothee&nz=cheval&p=thimothee+louis+benoit&n=cheval; Patrick O’Reilly, Calédoniens: Répertoire bio-bibliographique de la Nouvelle-Caledonie (Publications de la Société des Océanists, no. 3, Musée de L’Homme, Paris, 1953); Hélène Laine, Pioneer Days in New Caledonia: A Story of Pacific Island Settlement, ed. and trans. H.E.L. Priday (Nouméa: Imprimeries Réunies, 1942).

[2] Laine and O’Reilly both claim Timothée and Hippolyte arrived in Australia together and came with 50 thousand francs. Laine describes the building in George Street having “a ground floor and two stories” with the restaurant on the ground floor and accommodation for Timothée and family on the first floor, and for Hippolyte on the floor above.

[3] Fowler was in Sydney 1855-1857, Southern Lights and Shadows (London: Sampson, Low, & Co., 1859), p. 14.

[4] According to Laine, Cheval was among the first to apply for and obtain concessions and was granted 1500 hectares on Tontouta Plain, 40 miles from Port-de-France (Nouméa), by imperial decree of Napoleon III dated 28 November 1861.

[5] Patrick O’Reilly. “Chronologie de la Nouvelle-Calédoniens, 1774–1903”, Journal de la Sociète des Océanistes 9 (1953): pp. 25–53. Laine gives the European civilian population of New Caledonia at 1060 in 1866, rising to 1300 in 1869 (p. 31).

[6] The exact requirements were 6 to 8 European colonists, 11 horned cattle, 16 horses and a stallion, and that he bring equipment to clear 50 hectares. In all the colonists on the Gazelle brought with them 13 horses, 92 oxen and 46 cases of agricultural equipment (O’Reilly,Calédoniens). Timothée Cheval was granted final title in June 1866 (SMH 28 July 1866, p. 6.)

[7] Ellen and her sister Maggie had arrived in 1856. According to Laine they arrived with their aunt Honora MacMahon, their mother Mary’s sister, but I have been unable to substantiate this. The brother of Mary and Honora, Patrick MacMahon was already successfully established in Sydney (The Catholic Press, 10 March 1910, p. 23). 

[8] Honora MacMahon married James Daly in Sydney in 1857. For the Dalys see Helen Litton “The Dalys of New Caledonia”, History Ireland,https://historyireland.com/the-dalys-of-new-caledonia/ Laine also has Annie Maloney, niece of James and Mary O’Donoghue, as a member of the party. The Daly children were John, Patrick, Michael and Honora. O’Reilly includes other colonists: Hofford, O’Connel, Patrick Munnen, E. MacMahon, J. Hogus, Ralph and Mme Unger and her two children. The Sydney papers list only the Dalys, the O’Donoghues, Mrs Unger and her two sons, a Miss Delany (who may be Annie Maloney?), Captain Stafford, Cheval and “3 in steerage”. 

[9] For Paddon see https://www.isfar.org.au/bio/paddon-james-1811-1861/; for Joubert see Karin Speedy, “Toppling Joubert,” Shima 40, no. 2 (2020): pp. 186–213, https://www.shimajournal.org/issues/v14n2/13.-Speedy-Shima-v14n2.pdf.

[10] Timothée Cheval’s land is where the airport at Tontouta is situated today.

[11] Hippolyte and Ellen had two daughters born 1862 and 1863. O’Reilly has them arriving in New Caledonia in June 1864 (Calédoniens).

[12] The family tree compiled by Hélène Derrien-Cassat lists Louis Benoît Tatati dit Cheval born 1869, Clémence born 1874, Jules born 1875, Laure born 1878, and Louis born 1881. The “dit Cheval” indicates that the family used the name Cheval or were known as Cheval, but suggests that Timothée and Louise Tatati/Tatate were not formally married, given that Timothée was still married to Honorine.

[13] Hippolyte died in 1896, Ellen in 1928. See “Histoires d’Histoire: Cheval, première famille de colons libres” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=436YZg0LsF4