"The idea of charging 1986 prices to celebrate our 30th anniversary is crazy, but it’s a way of thanking people". This is what restaurateur Mario Maccarone, co-founder of iconic ‘Marios’ with Mario De Pasquale – came up after thinking for months about a proper way to celebrate the event.
“As long as they don’t pay us waiters with 1986 wages” adds Massimo Di Sora, the first waiter ever employed at ‘Marios’.
On April 28, ‘Marios’ takes customers time travelling back to 1986 to celebrate the day the iconic café opened and began the transformation of Brunswick Street and Fitzroy, from a slightly dodgy suburb to the place to be for artists and hipsters.
Mario Maccarone greets us in his cafè and remembers how this suburb has changed in the last thirty years.Unrecognisable today, Brunswick Street was home to shopfronts converted into cheap living and rehearsal spaces frequented by a growing artistic community. At the times buying a shop was cheaper than a house, the only perk of the area being the proximity with Melbourne’s CBD.
Thirty years later, this advantage has completely changed Brunswick Street, making it one of the most desirable locations of the city.
Waiter Massimo Di Sora has joined ‘Marios’ almost at the beginning of the adventure.
A man escaping Roman’s life, he was looking for something else in Melbourne, the farthest place from Italy he could find on a map. Massimo first found love, followed by a job at ‘Marios’.
Massimo tells us how Brunswick Street has changed in the last thirty years.
Massimo Di Sora di Marios fuori dal locale. Source: SBS
