Tri-Star Video/Titanic Cafe – Bankstown, NSW
Tri-Star Video showcased their entertainment at this location until approximately 1995. It has since become the Titanic Cafe. This is apparently Tri-Star’s second location – from at least 1989 until 1993 they were on the opposite corner of West Terrace. In a way they were pioneers – jumping ship on the video shop business long before it was a necessity.
Homestead Golden Fried Chicken/Kentucky Fried Chicken/Hire One – Hurstville, NSW
Homestead Golden Fried Chicken, 1986. Image by Hurstville Council.
It’s hard to tell, but the above picture is the only photograph I could find of West Hurstville’s Homestead Chicken restaurant on the corner of Forest Road and Gloucester Road.
WATERMARKED UPDATE: Thanks to readers Chris and Jade, a photo of Hurstville Homestead in its glory days has been located via Hurstville Library! And you know what that means…watermarks. Enjoy:
Homestead Chicken, Hurstville, 1987. Image courtesy Hurstville Library (in case you weren’t sure).
Homestead sold a variety of KFC-esque chicken products, and had a number of locations around south Sydney. This one seems to have been custom built in 1986 (it does not appear in a 1985 overhead photo), closed around 1990, and was replaced and refitted by…
KFC, West Hurstville, 2009. Image by museumofinanity, Flickr.
The Kentucky Fried Chicken (are we still calling it that?) stood here until 2009, when this happened. The problems must have been bad enough to dissuade all potential buyers hoping to use the site as a restaurant, which brings us to today.
Hire One, 2012.
This must be Sydney’s third equpiment hire place with drive thru facilities, after the Kennards at Padstow and Complete Hire at Canterbury. Homestead Chicken was unique for its particularly odd drive thru mechanism, which is still in place:
This served as a kind of dumbwaiter, with the customer putting their payment in a tray that was then lifted up and into the restaurant. The food would be delivered the same way. Perhaps ironically, this relatively hands-free system was intended to be more hygienic.
John Fretus Auctioneer/Sun Ming Chinese Restaurant – Hurstville, NSW
19 years before John Fretus opened his auctioneering business on Forest Road, Hurstville, misfortune struck:
From SMH, Monday 8 December 1902.
Australian & Chinese Take Away/Indian Hut – Penshurst, NSW
In the 1950s and 60s, a lot of Chinese restaurants offered Australian cuisine because racist old cobbers refused to eat ‘Oriental Chinko food’ and demanded options. Yep, nothing like getting take-away for a treat on Friday night and having the same steak and veggies you had all week, only instead of cooking it for you, your wife goes and gets it.
Unrelated, Indian Hut seems to have been okay to leave the Australian and Chinese bit of the shopfront bare, but painted over a Coca-Cola advert. Maybe they’re Pepsi people.
Silk Road Noodle Bar/For sale – Homebush, NSW
On one hand, the Silk Road Noodle Bar has everything a functioning restaurant needs to advertise itself. On the other hand, it wasn’t open when it said it would be.
The restaurant occupies a pretty fascinating part of Parramatta Road. Across the road is the Horse & Jockey pub, the only reminder of the existence of the Homebush racecourse. Beside it is the Midnight Star function centre, a former theatre and squatter’s delight. With so much going on around it, “Gary” has managed to keep the Silk Road a mystery.
It bombards you with two sets of opening hours, yet doesn’t offer a phone number. BYO indeed.
RECENTLY REFURBISHED UPDATE:
Real estate agent Taylor Nicholas has added some interior shots of the Silk Road to its online listing in the hope of drumming up more interest. For those of you who are interested, but find it’s a bit out of your price range, check the relevant pics right here:
Silky…
Very silky…
You can almost taste the silk from here. Thanks reader David for the heads-up!
Past/Lives of the Near Future 
