Melissa Cakes Altona

Melissa is Melbourne’s iconic Queen Bee of the authentic Greek Café experience. In 1969, when Nick and Soula Katsakis were pondering a name for their little Greek coffee and sweets shop in Collingwood, they couldn’t have picked a more perfect name than Melissa (Honeybee). Perfect because today, almost 4 decades on Melissa continues to be swarmed by their loyal and devoted customers, making this family run business Melbourne’s iconic Queen Bee of the authentic Greek Café experience. For more than 43 years Melissa Cakes has held a special place for the population of Collingwood. Established in the early seventies by Nick and Soula Katsakis, this Greek coffee and cake shop has been a care free haven for regulars of all ages to get together, chew the fat, drink delicious coffee and enjoy a delectable range of authentic Greek cakes, pastries and biscuits From Bert Newton to INXS Melissa quickly became a ‘Hive’ of activity, as it was and still is one of the few cafes to offer Melbournians an authentic taste of Greece. You could be enjoying a syrupy, nutty ‘baclava’ or a creamy, custardy ‘galaktobouriko’ their taste and quality as authentic an any eaten in the Zaharoplasteia (cake shops) in downtown Athens, the island of Crete or cosmopolitan Salonika. The first ten years of Melissa’s establishment saw people like Graham Kennedy, Bert Newton, Duran Duran, INXS and cast members from many of the network shows like Prisoner and Cop Shop dropping in regularly. At times Melissa was so busy Nick and Soula’s sons Angelo and George would pitch in after school or during the school holidays.