About Us

Caphs stands proud on Franklin Street in Manuka.

It is, after all, Canberra’s oldest continuously operating eatery.

Constructed in 1926 by the Notaras family, it was opened as the Liberty Café. By virtue of the fact nothing else had been built in the fledgling national capital, it was the place for socialising for those who had been unceremoniously uprooted from Sydney and Melbourne and dumped in what was little more than a sheep paddock with great expectations.

It survived the swinging sixties and seventies as Mogambo’s—a romantic night-out destination for baby boomers and a constant influx of newcomers bolstering Canberra’s public service ranks.

In 1990 it reverted to Notaras family ownership and is now run by Manuel (Manny) Notaras. In many ways, Caphs symbolises Canberra’s restaurant history. Born of necessity, buoyed by bureaucracy and now being made-over to compete with a new generation of hip and happening eateries. It’s a saturated marketplace as Canberra has historically boasted more places to eat out per head of population than any other Australian city.