Farewell to the Caiafas: a beloved family business at Queen Victoria Market

After 52 years M&G Caiafa bread and pastries has been sold, with the siblings who ran it for the past three decades now starting to experiment with sleeping in.

The week after the family walked away from the half-a-century-old business, Michelle Caiafa was still waking up at 1am worrying about the croissants.

“It does feel strange, the last few days,” she said. “I used to get up at 3am.”

The stall, selling pastries, bread, baguettes and chocolates, was established by her Italian-Australian parents in 1974.

It also sold family-produced nut butters, muesli, triple-chocolate brownies, amaretti biscuits and biscotti.

On Sunday, March 15, three generations of the family turned up to say goodbye to the shop, and Michelle and her siblings worked their last day there, having sold the business to new owners Two Bakers.

While the business had given the family a good life, Michelle said, she and her siblings hadn’t known anything else.

“We kids were straight out of high school into the market.”

“So, we decided if we wanted to try something different, we couldn’t wait another five, 10 years; it was probably best to do it now.”

It was 1995 when the teenaged Michelle and her sister Mary-Jane took over the running of the business following the death of their mother, Grace – nicknamed “Rosie” – from a brain tumour.

“We never thought of not [reopening]. It didn’t even cross anyone’s mind,” Michelle said.

Mum was one of the strongest people I know and through her sicknesses she kept finding the strength, and I suppose we learnt from her. She was our inspiration really.


For their father, Michael, though, there were so many regular customers and reminders of his wife that he couldn’t return for some time.

“The market was their life,” Michelle said. “They loved it.”

So, the sisters got on with things.

And after a few years they were joined by their brother, Michael Junior, when he finished school.

“My elder sister, MJ, was pregnant,” Michael told CBD News. “So, it was a bit like one in, one out.”

That was 26 years ago.

When the Friends of Queen Victoria Market posted on social media that the family were leaving, more than 500 people made comments about being sad to see them go.

“We grew up there and we formed so many friendships and got to see so many families grow,” Michelle said.

“We could write a book about all the people we’ve met in that place.”

Not all of those mourning the Caiafas’ departure had been customers of late.

The market had changed over the years, Michelle said, and there weren’t as many regulars as before COVID.

“But you’ve got a lot of new regulars – students and people living in the city, then you’ve got a huge tourism trade as well.

“It’s still buzzing, it’s still got that vibrancy. You still get the buzz on the Saturdays and Sundays.”

The customers commenting on Facebook said they would miss the almond and raspberry croissants, Portuguese tarts and gourmet bread as well as the siblings’ friendly faces, cheerful service and banter.

The good news is that they won’t need to, because the new owners will not only keep the Caiafas’ business name but will sell the same range of goods.

The family had wanted to make sure of it, Michael said.

“For [the sake of] the market and continuity and stability.”

While Michael and Michelle are still unsure about what they plan to do next, their father, Michael Senior, is these days making peanut butter and generally “keeping busy”, they said. •