Portianou coffee house

This was the site of a café visited by Australians on Lemnos. Here, and in other coffee houses, cafes and restaurants around the island, they enjoyed coffee, non-alcoholic drinks and food, much of which was foreign to most Australians, for whom tea was the warm beverage of choice and Mediterranean food unfamiliar. Cheap alcohol was also available from stores on the island for a time. One account noted that by the end of March ‘every second shop sold cognac, wine and beer.’ Later in the year however, the purchase of alcohol was prohibited.