E-Mail One
You seem to have omitted the long standing horse drawn Pie Cart in Hart Lane Port Adelaide that I often frequented in the early/mid sixties.
Old men of the day say they could not remember a pie cart not being on the corner of Hart Lane, now renamed Kyle Ln, probably due to confusion with Hart Street which runs from the Glanville Hotel to The Esplanade at Semaphore.
For the record, I often frequented all pie carts in Adelaide, Port Adelaide and Norwood from the late 50s to the mid 60s.
Regards
Mal
E-Mail Two
I was introduced to pie floaters in the mid 50s and regularly ate them unto the mid 60s. when I left Adelaide, but continued to eat them from all available pie carts on my many returns to Adelaide.
The whole structure of the pie cart phenomenon, the clientele, the pies and the blue boiler soup changed when the old wooden horse drawn carts were replaced with the rubbish they sold as pies and as soup from the equally sterile tasteless and tawdry stainless steel trailer so devoid of any character, style, and if you will pardon the term, Pizzazz!
Regards
Mal
E-Mail Three
Gudday,
Two pie carts that were in service outside of Adelaide in the 1950s. One was outside the Norwood Town Hall and was a horse drawn wooden cart very similar to those in Adelaide when I was lad, but later when I was old enough to use it, it was a caravan, that was in the early / mid 60s. The owner was George, he looked Greek or Italian, but I never took much notice. His wares were excellent, and I was a regular customer.
The pie carts in Adelaide were still horse drawn wooden carts until I left in 1967. I think all horse drawn carts died when the mall was built as the all the horse drawn veggie and flower carts also died in Rundle Street / Mall at that time.
The other pie cart was in Hart Lane Port Adelaide. The lane name was changed to Kyle Place to avoid conflict with Hart Street which ran from the Glanville Hotel to The Esplanade at Semaphore, both were named after the owner of Hart's Mill in Port Adelaide, who also built his home called Glanville Hall which is now State owned.
I frequented the Port Adelaide pie cart from 1960 until about 1964 when I was working in the wool stores late into the evenings. That pie cart did an excellent trade as it was the only place anyone could get a decent feed up till midnight when all work in the wool stores stopped. All manner of nefarious persons could be seen there, blokes with armfuls of watches and rings, the new transistor radios, cigarettes and tobacco (both kinds) and of course harlots taking a break between ships.
In the mid 60s the pie floater eating record stood at either twelve or thirteen. It was not at all that uncommon for the contestants to spew the lot over the pie cart and anyone within range. The spectator crowds were quite large.
These pie floater eating competitions were conducted by all Adelaide pie carts at different times and were well advertised and well patronised. The only limitation that I knew of was the pie cart in King Bill St near the Town Hall which never had a competition on the evenings a recital or concert was held at the Town Hall as the patrons of the Town Hall at those sessions didn't like the idea of getting their penguin suits adorned with pre-owned pie floaters.
The record of 15 pie floaters may well be the limit.
It seems to me that plates used / seen in the modern staino abominations called pie carts are smaller than those used in days of yore. The last pie cart I bothered to use was to show a visitor what they were in the early 90s. The pie was typical of the rubbish served up any / every where in Adelaide and the soup was so watery it could have been strained through a standard kitchen flour strainer. That was at the GPO cart.
I'm sure if you dig a little deeper you will find more information on these bastions of Adelaide's colourful history, but do be quick as we old blokes are fast becoming a thing of the past as well.
Perhaps Bob Francis of Radio 5AD may be able rattle what's left of his brain and tell you a thing or two, but he may need a little 'oiling'.
Regards
Mal
all written via e-mail 22nd February 2015