BELLS Milk Bar in Patton Street, South Broken Hill, has existed at its current location for over a hundred and thirty years.
For new owner Kylie Evans, owning Bells has been a dream of hers for over a decade, ever since discovering it while visiting a friend in Broken Hill.
“I fell in love immediately” she said, “and maintain to this day that I knew there and then that I was going to own her”.
Ms Evans, then a teacher in Newcastle, said upon returning home to the coast she couldn’t shake the feeling that her future was in Bells.
“I started following real estate in Broken Hill, imagining ways to finance my dream” she said.
“In 2017 I made my first attempt to start the ball rolling by taking permanent leave and taking up a job here in Broken Hill.”
She was so passionate about Bells that she even began volunteering at the milk bar in her free time and collecting vintage crockery that matched the 1950s interior.
In 2019, Ms Evans returned to her hometown for several years to care for her ill mother.
While in Newcastle, she heard that Bells owner and friend Jason King had sold Bells to another couple.
“I was devastated” Ms Evans said.
Soon after new owners Matt and Chelsea Spresser took over Bells, Ms Evans said she cornered Mr Spresser in the supermarket.
“I think my first words to him were ‘you bought my milk bar’. Luckily, he took that well. I think he thought I was joking at first,” she said. “But eventually he realised I wasn’t.”
Soon after Ms Evans began having conversations with the Spressers about how a business partnership could work.
Fortunately, the Spressers were interested in growing the brand, while Ms Evans was interested in the history and maintenance of the original shop.
In March, Ms Evans’ decade-long dream was realised and she finally took over Bells with her brother, who is planning on moving out to Broken Hill, too.
Ms Evans said owning Bells has been everything she had hoped for and more.
“I love everything about it ” she said.
“I love the era, the joy of it, the history. It’s such a well preserved example of this era.”
As for the future of Bells, Ms Evans hopes to continue to preserve the historic milk bar and revitalise Patton Street to its former glory as a vibrant shopping hub.
“You hear stories about how Patton Street used to be, with all these fabulous shoe shops and fruit shops ” she said.
“That’s my dream for Bells and Patton Street. There’s a lot happening here at the moment and this is just the start.”
