There’s no doubt that we can predominantly thank the post WWII generation of Italian immigrants for the popularity and ubiquity of the Bel Paese’s cuisine in Australia today.
However, the Italian restaurant in Australia has a far longer history than you might first assume.
It dates back even further than the emergence of the Italian eateries in Melbourne throughout the 1920s and 1930s which would later collectively be dubbed the ‘spaghetti mafia’, including Cafe Florentino, The Society and Cafe d’Italia (later The Latin).
The initial wave of Italian restaurants in Australia, in fact, coincided with the first immigration of Italians during the gold rushes beginning in the 1850s, when approximately 4,000 hopefuls were drawn by the promise of wealth and good fortune to our land girt by sea.
Though the first crop of Italians down under struggled to find acceptance within the wider community, many marched on with an entrepreneurial spirit in the intervening years between WWI and WWII. Some even channelled this spirit within the culinary space, establishing greengrocers, bakeries and restaurants; humble community locales, opened in service of fellow countrymen, and as a means of earning a decent living.
Fast-forward several decades to 1898, and on Melbourne’s very own Lonsdale Street, stood what is largely considered to have been the first Italian restaurant in Australia to achieve public notoriety ― Fasoli’s.
According to an article featured in a 1932 edition of Melbourne newspaper The Argus (1848-1957), founder Vincent Fasoli, who hailed from Como, arrived in Victoria in the late 1850s, joining an established Swiss-Italian community in Daylesford, where he met his wife Bridget White. After trying his hand at various business ventures in the area, Fasoli made the decision to take over Lonsdale Street’s Pension Suisse, an old Swiss Inn, known for having been the go-to rendezvous for “the better class” of Swiss and Italians in Melbourne at the time, which he strove to imbue with new life.
Sketch by Herbert Moore 1879-1966: State Library of Victoria.
According to The Argus, After Fasoli’s takeover of the Lonsdale location, it became “the thing” to dine at Fasoli’s, with the restaurant serving as a meeting point in which Melbourne’s patrons of the bohemian, political and literary variety could eat, drink and converse amidst its lively ambiance:
“The atmosphere was unique — a blend of the cosmopolitan, friendly, erudite, and devil-may-care; its effect, bizarre yet grateful, was indescribable. The stiff Anglo-Saxon conventions simply did not exist, pretensions were swept away, and the only ground on which one met one's fellow diners was that on which stand men and brothers. Across the table flow scraps of small talk, learned discussions, and greetings in all the tongues of Europe. The meal cost a shilling—1/3 with coffee.”
And what did these meals comprise of, you might ask? A report in the newspaper Punch from the time describes a handful of the dishes on Fasoli’s menu:
“The food is mainly Italian. You begin with hors d’oeuvres – salami, lentils, French beans, sardines, beetroot and potato salads: then comes a dish of well-prepared macaroni, risotto, or soup. “Le plat du jour” consists of roast beef, pork, chicken, etc., with stuffed cabbages and other quaintly prepared vegetables; for dessert there is fruit and pudding for the Philistines, but the chosen prefer the excellent salads of endives, cheese and celery, or watercress. There is wine ad lib., red and white, and with the cheese, a delicious cup of black coffee.”
Although the restaurant’s reign in its heyday was short-lived, with Vincent Fasoli retiring in 1905 and handing over management to his daughter Katherine, who’s son Guido, in turn, sold the business in 1934, at the peak of its popularity, Fasoli’s is said to have hosted illustrious Australian historical figures, from artist Norman Lindsay, to swimmer and vaudeville star Annette Kellerman and poet-musician George Marshall-Hall.
Swimmer and vaudeville star Annette Kellerman, who according to 'The Argus' dined at Fasoli's. (Photo: AAP)
So the next time you find yourself on Lonsdale Street, as you weave through the unruly crowds of suited-up businessmen and headphone sporting commuters, I implore you to picture it.
Picture the dames in their long-skirted finery, the men in their waistcoats and hats; discussing art, philosophy and the pressing political issues of the day, through a thick cloud of cigar smoke, enjoying Fasoli’s piatti casalinghe ― dishes that for many Melbournians marked their first exposure to the Italian cuisine that has become such an integral part of our city’s food culture.
