1972 - present

Like many Europeans looking for a fresh start after World War II, Cypriots Nick and Louisa Dimitrios migrated to Australia in the 1950s. Nick had trained in the military in explosives and worked in the island’s salt lakes when it was still a British colony. His experience with salt took a fresh turn on arrival in Sydney when they opened a fish and chip shop at Bexley.

For the next 20 years, the couple worked long hours, living above the shop with their four children Dimitria, Christine and twins George and Jim. One night, while the family was asleep upstairs, a drunken semi-trailer driver crashed into the shop, destroying the business.

The family rebuilt, but decided to look for a more popular tourist area and found their way to Bondi. They opened on Campbell Parade in 1972 - and still trade there today as Bondi Surf Seafood. They attribute their success to the help provided by extended family. After Nick retired, son George became manager, working alongside his twin brother, Jim, and brother-in-law Paul Georgiou. The shop opens seven days a week. Work begins at 6 am when Paul buys fresh seafood from the Sydney Fish Markets and George sets up for the day’s trading.

The business has outlasted all other food businesses along the beachfront. Its longevity is the result of dedication, knowledge to seafood, a location that attracts passing tourists, loyalty from long-term customers and inventiveness. George Dimitrios said: “We had banana fritters and pineapple fritters but wanted something exotic, so in the mid-1990s we experimented with deep frying different types of chocolate bars and the Mars bar was the best.” Backed by Mars, they experimented with frying techniques, coming up with Australia’s first commercial ‘Deep Fried Mars’. Although shops on the Central Coast and in Victoria now sell them, George claims Bondi Surf Seafoods was the only outlet approved by Mars in Australia. But it’s the fresh seafood that still holds the spotlight at Bondi Surf Seafoods.

Images courtesy Sydney Morning Herald and Waverley Council.