Fish and Shellfish

The fisherman is a hunter in search of food. And it was hunting for food that led to Mario Virgona's family coming to Australia from Italy in 1888.

His grandfather became a fisherman in Australia because he was found poaching game. Mario recalls, "My grandfather was a real Tuscan as far as he can go back. His parents lived in Pisa, he married, had a family, things got very hard and tough over there and he was finding it difficult to get enough food to feed his family. Just outside of Pisa there is a place called Sarasoro , which was King Vittorio Emmanual's private estate where my grandfather had a little seasonal work as a gardener. It was a game reserve in which they kept everything and my grandfather , in desperation, with a few of his mates, went in and did a bit of poaching. Unfortunately for him he got nabbed and he did a couple of weeks in the jail there in Pisa."

Napoli, a friend of his, had come out to Australia earlier and suggested that the Virgona’s try their luck here. He came to meet the family at Victoria Dock and said -- "until you get yourself organised, come to Hastings and we'll rent a boat and you'll start fishing with me down here."

Mario recalls his mother, Velia, telling them how they had to get the train from there to Frankston "and in those days there was no railway to Hastings so they had to go with horse and drag which took hours on dirt tracks. They rented a little cottage down by the Hastings pier, my grandfather started fishing, then he established his vegetable garden in the back yard which ran down to the seashore. After school, he used to give the girls (Mario's mother and aunts) a little basket each and fill them up with all the green vegetables he was growing, all sorts of lattuga and greens and all sorts of things and they'd go from house to house selling them to get enough money to eat.

"After being a fisherman at Hastings, my grandfather decided to come to town. They left Hastings and he leased a property in Sydney Rd Brunswick. It had a big block of land next to it and he immediately started to grow his vegetables. And he was so successful, that he started to supply the leading Italian restaurant in Melbourne which was Fasoli's in King Street. From there, eventually, with my mother, they saved enough to buy a wine bar at 53 Gertrude St, Fitzroy Then when he retired, my mother took that license.

"Fasoli's was the leading restaurant and the likes of Nellie Melba and Walter Kirby who was part of the bohemian elite of Melbourne went to these Latin-Italian restaurants."

Then there was Café Denat (for which Mario Virgon's grandfather also grew vegetables). "Old Jim Watson';s sister Mary married the French-Swiss chef, Calexte Denat. Their first restaurant was in 1893 in Flinders Lane which then moved to larger premises in Little Collins Street. It became best known for its Exhibition Street address before it was sold to Samuel Wynn who then moved it to Bourke Street above his wine saloon (the Colonial Wine Shop, later to become Florentino';s).

"Poor old Denat. He was quite successful but died very sadly. Apparently one night (after consuming his daily bottle of brandy) he collected his takings and walked down Bourke St to catch the cable tram. He used to live opposite the St Kilda Town Hall in Brighton Rd. That night he got on the dummy of the tram and, as usual went to sleep, the trammies were used to him doing that and would wake him up to let him off. They knew where he lived. Unfortunately before they had time to reach St Kilda, he'd rolled off and died".

Cafe Denat did not run nearly as long as many of the Italian family restaurants talked about here but its influence was significant. The dining room was elegant, the cutlery silver and Mary presided over the dining room with a pet cockatoo sitting on her shoulder. It was the fashionable and the expensive place to dine in Melbourne. When you could eat at Fasoli's communal tables for less than three shillings, a dinner at Café Denat would cost a sovereign. The menu was classic based and would never have featured such casalinga (home style) dishes as the following Baccala with Polenta.