Melbourne Favourites
Pelligrini's

April 1997

Melbourne panicked last year. It was rumoured that Pelligrini's, the much loved coffee bar in Bourke Street, was to close

A collective sigh of relief could be felt around the town when it became known that the front part of Pelligrini's was to remain although Nino Pangrazia and Sisto Malaspina (owners since 1974) had decided to sell the back restaurant section on Crossley Street (since re-opened very successfully as Becco).

So Melbourne retains a central part of its culture, the meeting place of many generations embodied in this simple, functional coffee bar.

It has remained virtually unchanged since Leo and Vildo Pelligrini opened the doors in 1954. Twenty years later Nino and Sisto, took over. They inherited the all important espresso machine, iceream and cake making equipment, and some of the staff.

One of those, Emma Sellitto, is still there. Emma started at Pelligrini's in 1962 as a dishwasher. When the cook left five years later she took over and is now in charge of all the food preparation. At 62, less than five feet tall, she has enormous energy , starting each day at 6am and finishing at 5pm. In fact she has always worked hard. I can remember her as a child, when my grandmother brought her to their farm at South Morang. Emma says that it was my uncle Ferdi (owner of Mario's Brighton till his death) who taught her to cook properly. She still remembers the very thick fillet steak that he used to do. And she still loves to cook and hates the idea of stayng home and resting.

That's when you get old, when you're bored. No chance of that at Pelligrini's. There is a constant flow of traffic from 8 in the morning till midnight. The coffee machine never stops and food just keeps going.

Spag bol, spag bol, is ordered all the time, says Nino. Sometimes I want to correct them, but why. The place has not changed much really other than the coffee taste has improved dramatically. But we are still carrying on in the same old formula which is plain good food.

The Pelligrini's food was the same style. We haven't changed anything, we have been carrying on in the same style . 90% has remained as it was. If it's not broken why fix it, questions Nino.

I think they've been very lucky not ony with the staff they inherited but with the unbreakable equipment. I can't believe the solidity of the vintage Duralex mixer, the original baker's oven and the Carpigiani icecream machine (at least 30 years old) which still churns out six different flavours a day,

We never do more than six varieties, says Sisto. Too much choice confuses the customer.

If there is one thing which Pelligrini's can never do, and that is to confuse their customers either with new choices or with change of any sort.

The secret is not to touch anything that people are happy with. You are continuing to do a tradition that they have known for the past 40 years, explains Sisto. Many of them come in with a preconceived idea and taste of what they are going to have and they can be assured that they are going to find it and that it will taste the same way as it did five years ago or whenever they were last here. So they feel that they reconnect again. People that have been away from Melbourne for a number of years, they come back. If one is away from a big city for a number of years, how many things are there that you feel you can recognise, and you come to a place that nothing has changed , and it is like a welcome home feeling

So the original recipes, Emma, Nino and Sisto, remain. It's a great business and hopefully will continue with the next generation. Nino has two children and is planing to start a restaurant ( but nothing to do with Pelligrini's) for his son. Sisto has a boy 16 and a girl 13. Still too young to tell but they are getting good training at home, they do participate in whatever we do at home. We make specialities of the old region which we do for special occasions and make sure they learn and watch. My wife is not from Italy but is a very very good cook because when we got married we went to stay for three months for our honeymoon and stayed with the old relatives and she learnt some beautiful old recipes and is still practising.

And Sisto has some interesting and, not traditionally Italian ideas about what boys should learn at home -- Why not teach them some survivial technique in the home, like sewing a button orcooking specially. When women are going off and doing other things and not looking after men anymore, why should it not be so. Why shouldn't women be able to go out with their girlfriends and the husbands stay home and do something for the children. Not so much for the children WITH the children.