Comino's Arcade

This three storey brick building on Redcliffe Parade symbolises years of work by Greek migrants from Kythera who established cafes across Queensland. Arthur and Mary Comino ran a cafe in Laidley for 25 years. Their ancestors had established an Oyster Saloon in Queen Street Brisbane in 1900, and then built cafes in Bundaberg, Childers, Mackay, Cairns, and Emerald. A visit to Redcliffe in 1922, led Arthur Comino to eventually purchase an old boarding house on this site. The destruction of the boarding house by fire in 1941 expedited the process of creating something new for Redcliffe; a popular seaside resort, by that time, linked to Brisbane by the new Hornibrook Highway. Arthur built the place himself. A shopping arcade was on the ground floor, including the Acropoly Cafe and Milk Bar. The family's flat and serviced bedrooms were on the first floor and the top floor contained more serviced bedrooms set around a terazzo floored dance hall. The cafe and dance hall, completed in 1944, served the many American servicemen in the area during WWII. The family moved into their first floor flat in 1946, and Redcliffe's first nightclub began operating on the top floor: the 'Ace of Clubs'.