24-05-2025
Melbourne's Afghan Gallery restaurant prepares for bittersweet closure after more than 40 years
Sitting in a softly-lit dining area in Melbourne's inner city, 69-year-old Aref Salehi gets a twinkle in his eye when he talks about the restaurant he opened with his siblings more than four decades ago.
In the early 80s the Salehi family launched the Afghan Gallery on Brunswick Street in Fitzroy.
But after 44 years on the busy strip, one of Australia's oldest Afghan restaurants is closing its doors — and for the tight-knit family, the end is bittersweet.
"I worked here for 33 years, from one side I feel happy … it was a lovely time in the past, but I'm also sad on the other side," Mr Salehi says.
The Salehi siblings fled to Europe from Afghanistan in the late 70s, at the start of the Soviet-Afghan war.
The idea to open the restaurant came from Mr Salehi's older sister Nouria Salehi, who moved to Australia in 1981 from France, where she was working as a nuclear physicist.
Dr Salehi AM moved to Melbourne at the request of her older brother Aziz, and their younger brothers Aref and Timur joined them not long after.
The 82-year-old says her days were spent volunteering and working at the Royal Melbourne Hospital, while at night she worked at the restaurant with her brothers.
"We were cooking, serving and washing the dishes and going home. The first three months were very difficult for us," she says.
Dr Salehi says the initial plan was to use the ground floor of the restaurant as a dining area and to open a gallery upstairs.
But as word spread of the new Afghan spot in Fitzroy, the second floor was used to seat more eager diners.
Despite this, she decided to keep the name, the Afghan Gallery.
The Salehi family have been renting the Brunswick Street property for the past four decades.
But at the start of May, the owners sold the building, and the Afghan Gallery will be closing in a matter of weeks.
Aref Salehi's daughter Tameena says none of her family members in her generation planned to enter the restaurant business and take over the Afghan Gallery.
"Everyone just walked their own path, outside of hospitality in their own careers, and it just wouldn't make any feasible sense for anyone to pursue the restaurant industry when they've already got their own careers, so it is really bittersweet," she says.
Her aunt, Dr Salehi, says while there were attempts to buy the property over the years, they never eventuated.
Ms Salehi says the restaurant has served as a hub for Melbourne's Afghan community over the past four decades, even acting as a consulate at some stages.
The 29-year-old says her aunt worked tirelessly to assist Afghan refugees, helping them find work and assimilate to life in Australia.
"[For] the refugees that were here by themselves with no family around … the Afghan Gallery was a point of community for them," she says.
"There was no consulate and when the immigration department needed something in Afghanistan … they were contacting us," Dr Salehi says.
"My aim was to sponsor Afghans through the business, and I did."
The nuclear physicist says she also used her proceeds from the restaurant to build two schools in Pakistan.
Friends Khalid Amiri and Massi Ahmadzay are regulars at the Afghan Gallery and are sad to farewell the restaurant they hold dear.
Mr Amiri fled Afghanistan in August 2021 when the Taliban took over Kabul.
For him, the Afghan Gallery is a piece of home.
"I felt like I am in mini-Kabul, that was the vibe that I got. The chairs, the painting, the photographs, the wall, everything," Mr Amiri says.
"After the news of the closure, to be really honest, I'm heartbroken.
"Buildings like this get sold, get closed, but the emotional impact it has on people like us, that's unmeasurable."
Mr Ahmadzay's parents migrated to Australia in the early 80s.
He says the restaurant and the work of Dr Nouria signify the contribution of Afghan migrants to Melbourne.
"For us, for the Afghan community, it's an institution and there is a lot of history in this building," Mr Ahmadzay says.
"When you talk about the fact that 40 years later it's still here in the heart of Fitzroy where you wouldn't expect an Afghan restaurant, and it's flourished for over 40 years, it says a lot about this establishment.
"We as Afghans are very, very proud of this, and we were devastated when we found out that it was shutting down."
With just over a month to go until closing day, Tameena Salehi says the family is coming to terms with the end of an era.
"I'm sad to see it go but I just know that you can't force something to be a good thing forever," she says.
Looking back on her work over the past 44 years, Dr Salehi says she is proud of her family's legacy.
"We offered our culture and way of life in Afghanistan, including the food," she says.
