Bayside Diner exterior
The Bayside Diner was opened in November 1988 by Ailsa Stewart and Bobby Simpson. It was a fixture on the show until 2000 when it was destroyed by a chip pan fire, accidentally started by Colleen Smart.
Background[]
When Home and Away began, the only place where people could go for a coffee or something to eat was Ailsa Stewart's shop. She had a small number of tables and chairs in the shop but it wasn't ideal. The eating area was cramped and the menu was limited. Check out the gallery section of that page for some photos of the eating area. The seeds for the establishment of the diner were sown in mid-1988 when Ailsa sold the shop to her sister-in-law Celia and had some money to hand.
1988 - 2000[]
Haydn Ross sits alone in the diner (1990)
Later in 1988, Ailsa and Bobby Simpson decided to go into business together. They opened the Bayside Diner and had it decorated in the style of a 1950's American diner. It had black and white tiles, a jukebox, booths and posters of 50's icons such as Elvis Presley and Marilyn Monroe. It quickly became popular with the locals, who enjoyed its fast food, sandwiches, coffees, milkshakes and cakes. Many of the food and snacks sold in the diner were baked by Pippa Fletcher/Ross. Her specialities included meatloaves, quiches and various cakes. The diner also had an outdoor seating area but it was rarely seen.
The burger-shaped telephone on the counter became iconic in its own right. In the late 1980's, a novelty telephone like this one was unusual in many parts of the world. Nowadays, it'd be more unusual for a business like the diner to have a prominent landline at all! Still, it played its part in a dramatic scene or two and for that, it'll be fondly remembered. The Diner was a welcome source of income for many locals who worked there on a full or part-time basis. These included Carly Lucini, Matt Wilson, Blake and Karen Dean, Finlay Roberts, Irene Roberts and Colleen Smart.
After Bobby died in 1993, her share in the diner business passed to her widower Greg Marshall. He later sold his share on. Life was rarely dull in the Diner and sometimes arguments and minor scuffles broke out in there. In May 1995 Ailsa was left traumatised after a vagrant robbed the diner and attacked her. Shaken by the attack, she unwittingly took some out-of-date pills and began to hallucinate. This culminated in the infamous scene where Bobby's ghost emerged from Ailsa's fridge.
Alf and Ailsa in the revamped Diner
In 1998 the diner underwent a dramatic makeover in response to a branch of Bonza Burgers opening in the Surf Club. Out went the classic 1950s style diner and in came a far less sober décor. The refitted diner was a riot of purples, greens, blues, reds and probably just about every other colour under the sun. The new-look diner continued to see its fair share of drama. In late 1998, the diner was held up by a thug who threatened Alf and Ailsa. In the melee that followed, Sally Fletcher was accidentally shot in the leg.
In 2000 Colleen Smart accidentally started a chip pan fire in the kitchen. She then tried to put it out with water which, as anybody who has ever sat through any sort of health and safety course will tell you, is the worst thing you can do. Needless to say, the fire spread like erm...wildfire and that was the end of the Bayside Diner. Leah Patterson tried to take the heat (lol) off Colleen by accepting some of the blame for the fire. It was later revealed that Ailsa had known who the culprit was all along. Ailsa was distraught because the diner was one of her last connections to her great friend Bobby.
Afterwards, Alf and Ailsa decided to start again and purchased a new building which would become the Beachside Diner.
The Jukebox[]
Ah yes, the famous Diner Jukebox which played many chart-topping Australian songs over the years. Because many of the songs played on the jukebox were from Australian artists, overseas listeners usually didn't recognise them. Having said that, "A Girl Like You" by Scottish singer Edwyn Collins seemed to be on a permanent loop in there for a while. Amusingly, "Suddenly" by Angry Anderson was heard in the diner in 1989. It had become a big hit in the UK in 1988 on the back of it being played during Scott & Charlene's wedding in Neighbours. Perhaps for copyright reasons, instrumental cover versions of some pop hits of the day often blasted out of the jukebox. These included Madonna's Vogue, MC Hammer's U Can't Touch This and INXS's New Sensation.
Gallery[]
