Harry's Cafe de Wheels
Encyclopedia
Harry's Cafe de Wheels is an iconic pie cart located in Woolloomooloo
, Sydney
, New South Wales
, Australia
on Cowper Wharf Road, near the Finger Wharf and Fleet Base East of Garden Island
Navy Base, opposite the Woolloomooloo Bay Hotel.
Six other Harry's Cafe de Wheels operate in Wharf Road, Newcastle
, Capitol Square, Haymarket
, North Parramatta, Tempe
, Sydney Airport
(Terminal 2), and Liverpool
.
They are best known for their dish "Tiger Pie", a type of Australian meat pie named after the original founder of Harry's.
Harry's Cafe de Wheels is a moveable food van, similar to those found at funfair
s, with a hung awning. It has been moved a number of times in its history but the van is now permanently fixed on a masonry base. The caravan walls have been decorated with custom painted murals by Alan Puckett, a motoring art specialist. The inside walls of the cart are decorated with pictures and murals of famous visitors.
The site is considered a Sydney icon and an institution in the local area. The significance of the location is reflected by its inclusion on the New South Wales National Trust
register.
Harry's Pie Cart is located in the Powerhouse Museum collection.
Harry's pies are supplied from Hannah's Pies, its factory in the inner city suburb of Ultimo
.
in World War II
, during which time the cafe was not operational. The cart re-opened upon his return from the war in 1945.
The name Cafe de Wheels came about because of the requirement from the city council
that mobile food caravans had to move a minimum of 12 inches (30 cm) each day. The cart has been moved by the city council five times over the past 55 years, and is now back at its original spot. Local legend tells that the name was temporarily changed to Cafe de Axle at one point when the wheels were stolen. It was referred to as Harry the Axle's for most of the sixties throughout the Eastern Suburbs of Sydney.
As the years passed, 'Harry's Cafe de Wheels' gained new fame as a tourist attraction. A visit to the caravan became a 'must' for visiting celebrities such as Frank Sinatra
, Robert Mitchum
and Marlene Dietrich
. In 1974, Colonel Sanders
stopped at Harry's and enjoyed the food so much that he ate three 'pies and peas' while leaning on his walking stick in front of the caravan. A picture of Sanders taken during the visit still hangs in the caravan today.
Harry's specialises today in the same basic food that was popular back in the 1940s, such as pies and mushy peas. During the 1970s Harry's introduced hot dogs, mostly to appease the American sailors.
Woolloomooloo, New South Wales
Woolloomooloo is a harbourside, inner-city eastern suburb of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Woolloomooloo is located 1.5 kilometres east of the Sydney central business district, in the local government area of the City of Sydney. The suburb is located in a low-lying, former...
, Sydney
Sydney
Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...
, New South Wales
New South Wales
New South Wales is a state of :Australia, located in the east of the country. It is bordered by Queensland, Victoria and South Australia to the north, south and west respectively. To the east, the state is bordered by the Tasman Sea, which forms part of the Pacific Ocean. New South Wales...
, Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
on Cowper Wharf Road, near the Finger Wharf and Fleet Base East of Garden Island
Garden Island
Garden Island may refer to:Australia:* Garden Island, New South Wales* Garden Island, Tasmania* Garden Island , near PerthCanada:* Garden Island , Ontario* Garden Island , Ontario...
Navy Base, opposite the Woolloomooloo Bay Hotel.
Six other Harry's Cafe de Wheels operate in Wharf Road, Newcastle
Newcastle, New South Wales
The Newcastle metropolitan area is the second most populated area in the Australian state of New South Wales and includes most of the Newcastle and Lake Macquarie Local Government Areas...
, Capitol Square, Haymarket
Haymarket, New South Wales
Haymarket is a locality of Sydney's city centre, New South Wales, Australia. It is located at the southern end of the Sydney central business district in the local government area of the City of Sydney....
, North Parramatta, Tempe
Tempe, New South Wales
Tempe is a suburb in the inner west of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Tempe is located 9 kilometres south of the Sydney central business district in the local government area of Marrickville Council....
, Sydney Airport
Sydney Airport
Sydney Airport may refer to:* Sydney Airport, also known as Kingsford Smith International Airport, in Sydney, Australia* Sydney/J.A. Douglas McCurdy Airport, in Nova Scotia, Canada...
(Terminal 2), and Liverpool
Liverpool, New South Wales
Liverpool is a suburb in south-western Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Liverpool is located 32 km south-west of the Sydney central business district, and is the administrative centre of the local government area of the City of Liverpool...
.
They are best known for their dish "Tiger Pie", a type of Australian meat pie named after the original founder of Harry's.
Description
Funfair
A funfair or simply "fair" is a small to medium sized travelling show primarily composed of stalls and other amusements. Larger fairs such as the permanent fairs of cities and seaside resorts might be called a fairground, although technically this should refer to the land where a fair is...
s, with a hung awning. It has been moved a number of times in its history but the van is now permanently fixed on a masonry base. The caravan walls have been decorated with custom painted murals by Alan Puckett, a motoring art specialist. The inside walls of the cart are decorated with pictures and murals of famous visitors.
The site is considered a Sydney icon and an institution in the local area. The significance of the location is reflected by its inclusion on the New South Wales National Trust
National Trust of Australia
The Australian Council of National Trusts is the peak body for community-based, non-government organisations committed to promoting and conserving Australia's indigenous, natural and historic heritage....
register.
Harry's Pie Cart is located in the Powerhouse Museum collection.
Harry's pies are supplied from Hannah's Pies, its factory in the inner city suburb of Ultimo
Ultimo, New South Wales
Ultimo is an inner-city suburb of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Ultimo is located 2 kilometres south-west of the Sydney central business district in the local government area of the City of Sydney....
.
History
Harry "Tiger" Edwards opened the original caravan cafe, named simply Harry's, near the gates of the Woolloomooloo Naval Yard in 1938. He served with the AIFAustralian Imperial Force
The Australian Imperial Force was the name given to all-volunteer Australian Army forces dispatched to fight overseas during World War I and World War II.* First Australian Imperial Force * Second Australian Imperial Force...
in World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, during which time the cafe was not operational. The cart re-opened upon his return from the war in 1945.
The name Cafe de Wheels came about because of the requirement from the city council
City of Sydney
The City of Sydney is the Local Government Area covering the Sydney central business district and surrounding inner city suburbs of the greater metropolitan area of Sydney, Australia...
that mobile food caravans had to move a minimum of 12 inches (30 cm) each day. The cart has been moved by the city council five times over the past 55 years, and is now back at its original spot. Local legend tells that the name was temporarily changed to Cafe de Axle at one point when the wheels were stolen. It was referred to as Harry the Axle's for most of the sixties throughout the Eastern Suburbs of Sydney.
As the years passed, 'Harry's Cafe de Wheels' gained new fame as a tourist attraction. A visit to the caravan became a 'must' for visiting celebrities such as Frank Sinatra
Frank Sinatra
Francis Albert "Frank" Sinatra was an American singer and actor.Beginning his musical career in the swing era with Harry James and Tommy Dorsey, Sinatra became an unprecedentedly successful solo artist in the early to mid-1940s, after being signed to Columbia Records in 1943. Being the idol of the...
, Robert Mitchum
Robert Mitchum
Robert Charles Durman Mitchum was an American film actor, author, composer and singer and is #23 on the American Film Institute's list of the greatest male American screen legends of all time...
and Marlene Dietrich
Marlene Dietrich
Marlene Dietrich was a German-American actress and singer.Dietrich remained popular throughout her long career by continually re-inventing herself, professionally and characteristically. In the Berlin of the 1920s, she acted on the stage and in silent films...
. In 1974, Colonel Sanders
Colonel Sanders
Harland David "Colonel" Sanders was an American fast food businessman who founded the Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant chain, now re-branded as KFC...
stopped at Harry's and enjoyed the food so much that he ate three 'pies and peas' while leaning on his walking stick in front of the caravan. A picture of Sanders taken during the visit still hangs in the caravan today.
Harry's specialises today in the same basic food that was popular back in the 1940s, such as pies and mushy peas. During the 1970s Harry's introduced hot dogs, mostly to appease the American sailors.
Menu
The pies and hotdogs available on the menu include:- The famous Tiger pie and its variations (Bacon and Cheese Tiger, Veggie Tiger)
- Pie and Peas
- Seafood Pie
- Hot Dog with veggies
- Hot dog de wheels
- Chilli dog
In popular culture
- Australian singer Peter BlakeleyPeter BlakeleyPeter Blakeley is an Australian White Soul/Adult Contemporary singer and songwriter.Blakeley was a lead singer for The Rockmelons in the mid-1980s. He launched a solo career in 1987 and had a massive hit single in Australia in 1990 with "Crying in the Chapel", which was not a remake of the 1950s...
named his 1989 album Harry's Cafe de Wheels with a photo on the cover. - The cafe was featured in the second seasonThe Amazing Race 2The Amazing Race 2 is the second installment of the reality television show The Amazing Race. The Amazing Race 2 featured 11 teams of two with a pre-existing relationship in a race around the world...
of the reality televisionReality televisionReality television is a genre of television programming that presents purportedly unscripted dramatic or humorous situations, documents actual events, and usually features ordinary people instead of professional actors, sometimes in a contest or other situation where a prize is awarded...
show The Amazing RaceThe Amazing RaceThe Amazing Race is a reality television game show in which teams of two people, who have some form of a preexisting personal relationship, race around the world in competition with other teams...
in 2002. The challenge was for a Fast Forward and the racers who chose to do the Fast Forward had to eat pies. It was also featured in HaMerotz LaMillionHaMerotz LaMillionHaMerotz LaMillion was the Israeli version of the American reality show The Amazing Race. It was produced by Reshet and premiered on February 5, 2009 on Channel 2 with the season finale on June 11, 2009. The show featured 10 teams of two, with the winning couple won ₪1,000,000...
, the Israeli version of the show. - Harry's Cafe de Wheels was often seen in the Australian television series Water RatsWater Rats (TV series)Water Rats is an Australian TV police procedural broadcast on the Nine Network from 1996 to 2001. The series was based around the men and women of the Sydney Water Police who fight crime across Sydney Harbour and surrounding locales. The show was set on and around Goat Island in Sydney...
. - The DiscworldDiscworldDiscworld is a comic fantasy book series by English author Sir Terry Pratchett, set on the Discworld, a flat world balanced on the backs of four elephants which, in turn, stand on the back of a giant turtle, Great A'Tuin. The books frequently parody, or at least take inspiration from, J. R. R....
novel The Last ContinentThe Last ContinentThe Last Continent is the twenty-second Discworld novel by Terry Pratchett. First published in 1998, it mocks the aspects of time traveling such as the grandfather paradox and the Ray Bradbury short story "A Sound of Thunder"...
, which parodies various aspects of Australian culture, includes "Dibbler's Cafe de Feet", which is a tray around the proprieter's neck. - It was featured on the Sydney episode of Bizarre Foods with Andrew ZimmernBizarre Foods with Andrew ZimmernBizarre Foods with Andrew Zimmern is a documentary-styled travel and cuisine television show hosted by Andrew Zimmern on the Travel Channel. The first season debuted on Monday, February 26, 2007 at 9pm ET/PT....
on the Travel ChannelTravel ChannelThe Travel Channel is a satellite and cable television channel that is headquartered in Chevy Chase, Maryland, US. It features documentaries and how-to shows related to travel and leisure around the United States and throughout the world. Programming has included shows in African animal safaris,...
.
Other sources
- Harry's Cafe de Wheels website http://www.harryscafedewheels.com.au, Accessed July 2006.
- National Trust Register; Harry's Cafe de Wheels, Register Entry http://www.nsw.nationaltrust.org.au/harryscafe.html, Accessed July 2006.
- Burke, N; Cafe de Wheels and a danger to walkers; The Daily Telegraph, 27/12/2003.
- Jinman, R; Crash Courses; The Sydney Morning Herald, 25/5/2004.
External links
- Harry's Cafe de Wheels official website
- Powerhouse Museum - Harry's Cafe de Wheels, 1945
- Harry’s Café de Wheels National Trust - article explaining the significance of the structure (includes historic images including one of the late Colonel SandersColonel SandersHarland David "Colonel" Sanders was an American fast food businessman who founded the Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant chain, now re-branded as KFC...
partaking of the spécialités d'hote).