© National Portrait Gallery 2025
King Edward Terrace, Parkes
Canberra, ACT 2600, Australia
Phone +61 2 6102 7000
ABN: 54 74 277 1196
Originally established as the Mirka Café in 1954 by immigrant artists Georges and Mirka Mora, Bistrot Balzac can claim the honour, along with Pelligrini’s, of introducing European café culture to Melbourne. Just as the bohemian cafés that flourished in France had become synonymous with conversations and the dissemination of culture, Mirka Café became the favourite haunt of Australian artists and philosophers. Mirka Mora’s biography, My Life; Wicked but Virtuous, describes the happenings in this social and creative hub of the 1950s in vivid detail – the illicit romances, many dramas and great debates. It also incorporated the display of art in the café. Despite a relocation and a few name changes, the legacy of the Mirka Café lives on in the many coffee houses scattered across Melbourne today.
Masters of fare: chefs, winemakers, providores celebrates men and women who have championed the unique culinary characteristics and produce of Australia, enriching our lives with new ideas and new flavours over the past forty years.
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