Melbourne's bohemian cafe scene: The coffee-loving mother who helped end a restaurant siege

By Anthony Dennis
Updated February 2 2017 - 11:08am, first published January 29 2017 - 12:15am
Sisto Malaspina on left and Nino Pangrazio on right co-owners of Pelligrini show Lord Major Robert Doyle the finer points of coffee. Photo: Simon O'Dwyer
Sisto Malaspina on left and Nino Pangrazio on right co-owners of Pelligrini show Lord Major Robert Doyle the finer points of coffee. Photo: Simon O'Dwyer

When I tell the waitress at the Italian Waiter's Club that it's more than two decades since I last visited the restaurant she replies, perfectly deadpan: "Well, you haven't missed much." Actually it has changed. A little. It's now called, less exclusively, The Waiters Restaurant, and the dining room has been tizzed-up with a stylised map of Italy on one wall.

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