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9680641

Title
Robert Sebbes records relating to Badde Manors Cafe, Glebe
Creator
Robert Andrew Sebes, 1947-2023
Call number
MLMSS 12176/Box 1
MLMSS 12176/Box 2X
Level of description
fonds
Date

1975-2005
Type of material
Textual Records, Graphic Materials, Design Drawings, Photographs, Clippings, Ephemera
Reference code
9680641
Physical Description
0.63 metres of textual material (1 box and 1 outsize box)
ADMINISTRATIVE/ BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY

Robert Andrew Sebes (1947-2023) was born in Hungary but fled as a child after the Hungarian Uprising, arriving in Sydney with his parents in 1957. Robert and his first wife Judy Tihany, also a Hungarian refugee, purchased the building at 37 Glebe Point Road, Glebe in 1976. They travelled the world together for the next six years before returning with the intention of opening a Hungarian- or Viennese-style café, spending another two years fitting-out the interior of the ground floor with recycled materials salvaged from closed cafés.

Opening on New Years Eve, 1982, the Badde Manors Café was one of the first to open in Glebe and is the longest lasting. Embodying the ethics of the counterculture movement which emerged in Australia during the late 1960s and 1970s, Robert and Judy actively promoted a tolerant and open-minded environment where attitudes to work and customer service were free and unconventional. The meat-free café serving Hungarian cakes and world music attracted a highly diverse clientele and staff, including university students and musicians, and gained a reputation as a safe space for the mentally ill, homeless people, even a lesbian hangout. The Café at the Gates of Salvation, an a cappella gospel choir, was founded at the café by resident musician and staff member Tony Backhouse. In an interview with the Sydney Morning Herald to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the opening of Badde Manors, Robert Sebes said, “my ideal, my greatest wish, was for the café to be as pluralistic as possible. I don’t want to see just one subculture here; I want to see everyone from street people to the little old lady who is 70 and a vegetarian coming along. I love that mixture.”

Robert and Judy separated in 1984 but continued to run the business together. Judy married Tony Backhouse before leaving the business in 1987 but remained a co-owner. In 1994 two strata were created in the building with the smaller shop being sold to a music store. Robert Sebes continued to manage and run the Badde Manors Café until he sold the business in 2004 and then the building the following year. Judy Backhouse passed away in 2004.

In 2006, Robert opened an award-winning gelato bar in Bellingen, northern New South Wales, then expanded the business with another bar in Rozelle that he operated between 2014-2020. Robert Sebes passed away in October 2023, his son Danny continuing to run the gelato bar in Bellingen. The Badde Manors Café continues to operate with much of the original fit-out still present.

References:
1. Mordue, Mark. “Badde attitude: The staff are rude, the music’s terrible and the accountant makes the ice-cream. A beloved Sydney café turns 20.” The Sydney Morning Herald. Weekend Edition, January 19-20, 2002. Metropolitan, 5.

2. Richter, Gina. “’A special, magical place’: Inside the Sydney institution that changed the city forever.” The Sydney Morning Herald. October 15, 2023. Accessed 13 May 2024.
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/nsw/a-special-magical-place-inside-the-sydney-institution-that-changed-the-city-forever-20231011-p5ebko.html

3. Library acquisition file.
Collection history
Gina Richter was the second wife of Robert Sebes and inherited the collection after his death.
Scope and Content
Records relating to the founding and operation of the Badde Manors Café, Glebe Point Road, Glebe. Collection includes: menus and original menu artwork; staff newsletters, memoranda, work procedures; invitations to events; design drawings for café fit out; correspondence with local council; news cuttings relating to the café; records relating to the purchase and sale of the business and property; contracts of sale of the business and property.

BOX 1

Folders:
1. Account books, analysis of café costs,1982-1983, 2005
2. Café calendar, 1983
3. Contracts, including Sale of Business, Lease of Property, Sale of Property, 2004-2005
4. ‘Costs of Glebe and Newtown purchases and purchase documents’, includes notifications to tenants, council licenses, shop fit out designs, photograph, 1975-1994
5. Newspaper and magazine clippings and advertising, 1979-2003
6. Original artworks, includes clip-art for menus, newsletters and postcard designs, approximately 1982-2004
7. Postcards received, 1988, 2003
8. Staff meeting minutes, procedures, notifications, event invitations, approximately 1982-2004

BOX 2X

Includes:
Menus, eight, enclosed in 1950s-1970s annotated children's book covers, probably 1980s
Menus, eleven, including eat-in, take away and breakfast menus, plastic laminated, probably 1990s
Menu, specials, handwritten with silver ink on card, 'Back in 10' in ink on verso, probably 1990s
Original colour artwork of the cafe, by 'Eloise O'Haha', plastic laminated, 1998
Sydney Morning Herald article celebrating 20th anniversary of Badde Manors, colour photocopy, plastic laminated, 2002
Table-service order note pad, probably 1990s
Language
English
Copying Conditions
In copyright:
Please acknowledge:: Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales and Courtesy copyright holder
Subject
Coffeehouses--Designs and plans.
Coffeehouses--New South Wales--Sydney.
Legal documents.
Restaurateurs--New South Wales--Sydney.
Vegetarian restaurants--Food service--New South Wales--Sydney.
Place
Glebe (N.S.W.)
Open Rosetta viewer
IE21150730