The overall panorama of restaurants, pubs, cafés and bars in Valletta has changed unrecognisably over the past few years.

Not a stealthy, gradual transformation.

In the City Gate area, Galea Sluta ran a restaurant, café and confectionary.

On the contrary, one that is dramatic, transformative, and revolutionary.

Are they serving Valletta, or is Valletta serving them?

They once helped feed the city. Now the city is feeding them.

The Neriku brand ran food establishments in Valletta, Floriana, San Ġwann and Marsa.

Before, most cafés and pubs vaunted distinct personalities, possibly because they attracted different clientele.

The bourgeoisie had hijacked Cordina, the unchallenged doyen, turning it into a social club – the same people sitting interminably at the same tables, bartering gossip.

And the flirts too – Cordina only employed the prettiest waitresses.

Caffe Cordina’s elegant and prestigious venue in Valletta

Café Premier, the reincarnation of the historical Café de la Reine, catered mostly for passing trade but also for music lovers; and for chess devotees, morphing into their informal national club.

Mutumallu, in Du Balli, open 24/7, became the haven for insomniacs.

Café Caravaggio in the square facing St John’s Co-Cathedral

Gambrinus, Museum and the Central thrived almost exclusively on lawyers and their clients from the courts nearby.

What united them?

They all served pastizzi and qassatat.

A joint postcard published for the Britannia and Premier hospitality venues.

A postcard promoting the basement-level Britannia bar and restaurant.

The Osborne hotel and restaurant in South Street, Valletta

The restaurant of the British Hotel overlooks the Grand Harbour.

Relatively few restaurants in Valletta then – the British, and, to buttress imperial loyalty, the Britannia, the Osborne, Frascati, Malata for ravioli, Dimitri’s, Alexandra’s, Bologna, Cadena and the fish and chips eateries in the Gut, mostly forgettable.

Postcard issued by Alexandra’s Restaurant in South Street, Valletta.

‘Puliti’ boozers rooted for Captain Caruana, Eddie’s, Charles Grech, Tikka, Ellul’s and, later, The Pub. To the Lantern gravitated tipplers and gays alike.

Some of these Valletta protein and carbohydrate dispensers promoted business through publicity postcards.

I am homing in on a few of the later ones, mostly from the 1970s to the 1990s, by specialised publishers like David Moore, Vulcan, Penprint, Sinet, Promotion Services and Artex.

Mainstream producers, like Cathedral Library, Perfecta, ABC Library and Alfred Galea Zammit also reserved niches for business postcards.

All cards from the author’s collection.

A David Moore postcard for the Castille hotel and restaurant

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