Scheherazade Restaurant Coffee Lounge

In 1958, Avram and Masha Zeleznikov acquired Scheherazade and began serving Jewish fare, Chicken broth, cabbage rolls, Cholent, vegetable stew, chicken schnitzel, Black Forest cake, almond torte, apple compote, lemon tea and coffee were served. Scheherazade eventually became an institution for Jewish, Yiddish, Polish and Russian immigrants to gather and reminisce. The cafe became so famed that Arnold Zable, the Melbourne novelist, wrote a collection of powerful stories, fictionalising the horror and hope of the Zeleznikovs and their customers, in his novel Cafe Scheherazade.

These days the Scheherazade Restaurant and Coffee Lounge still evokes some of its powerful history but retains its essence of being a cosy café that serves great coffee and has good, fair prices.