By Cara Waters
Customers getting a coffee at Pellegrini’s Espresso Bar will miss Rocco Elice’s familiar moustachioed smiling face when he retires after 50 years as a waiter and manager at the beloved Melbourne restaurant.
“I will miss all the customers when I leave,” Elice says. “This was my first job when I started in 1974.”
Rocco Elice is retiring after 50 years of work at Pellegrini’s. Credit: Jason South
Elice, 71, walked into Pellegrini’s, on Bourke Street, looking for a job when he arrived from Italy as a 21-year-old.
“There were no jobs in Italy,” he says over a granita at the table in the kitchen at the back of the restaurant. “When I saw my first week of pay – at the time, it was $100 a week – I was so happy. I had never seen so much money in my life.”
Elice shared a flat with a Pellegrini’s barista, each paying $10 a week in rent at a time when a coffee at Pellegrini’s was $1.50 and a bowl of pasta $6.
The prices may have changed but Elice says not much else has: “It was very busy then – it still is now.”
The restaurant had one of the first espresso machines in Melbourne when it was opened in 1954 by brothers Leo and Vildo Pellegrini.
In 1972, it was sold to Nino Pangrazio and Sisto Malaspina. Sisto was killed in the 2018 Bourke Street stabbings, striking a blow to the institution and the community.
“Sisto was like a brother to me,” Elice says. “He sent me to school on Little Collins Street to learn a bit of English when I first arrived. He was a good man. A very nice man. I miss him.”
Sisto’s son, David Malaspina, took over the business in 2019, and Elice says: “I’ve been good for the father, and good for the son.”
Rocco Elice met his wife working at Pellegrini’s. They will spend time at their beach house when he retires.Credit: Jason South
Over the years, Elice has served celebrities such as Russell Crowe, who booked the whole restaurant for the Rabbitohs NRL team, musicians Michael Bublé and Billy Joel, and plenty of politicians and business heavyweights.
“I see a lot of prime ministers, a lot of premiers,” Elice says. “Anthony Albanese, I saw him in here with Lindsay Fox. They came in together and ate in the kitchen before he became prime minister.”
His favourite politician as a customer was former Liberal Party leader Andrew Peacock, who always ordered the same thing: “Ravioli, a granita and a small gelati.”
Elice met his wife, Maria, at Pellegrini’s, where she worked as a chef until she retired after 34 years.
“We never fight when we are here,” he says. “You do your job, I do my job and that’s it.”
Elice will hang up his apron for the last time this month.
Credit: Matt Golding
His plans for retirement are to stay at the couple’s beach house in Rosebud, do a bit of gardening and spend time with their six grandchildren.
“Maybe next year, we can go to Italy, me and my beautiful wife,” he says.
On Monday, the City of Melbourne presented Elice with an award for his 50 years of service.
“A coffee with Rocco is like stepping back into the bygone era,” Lord Mayor Nick Reece said. “Not many people can say they’ve had a 50-year impact on a city.”
Sisto Malaspina in 2010: Rocco Elice says he considered the restaurant’s late owner as a brother.Credit: Joe Armao
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