How a Melbourne cafe inspired journalist and broadcaster Virginia Trioli

A second season of ABC TV’s Creative Types sees host Virginia Trioli sit down with virtuoso violinist Richard Tognetti, Australian fashion designer Jenny Kee and Melbourne legend Kate Ceberano – all who share their personal experiences while Trioli unpicks their artistic minds.

Exploring the creative process is the premise of her show; and Trioli discovered her own while renting in North Melbourne and exploring West Melbourne when she moved in the suburb in 1983 while studying at the University of Melbourne.

At the now closed-down Italian café Don Camillo, she made an arthouse film wearing a turtleneck sweater, mod skirt and shoes with a group of friends. She’s started her day with a coffee here – on Victoria Street West Melbourne; the main thoroughfare that divides North from West Melbourne.

“I loved the terrazzo floor; beautiful pieces of marble and granite lined the place and it had a massive old coffee machine from Italy when they Italians came to Melbourne in the 1940s,” says Virginia Trioli who is still a North Melbourne resident.

“They guy who owned the café was a foreboding serious man who sat behind the counter and was called the Boss; and the place became known as the Boss’s cafes. I shot a movie there once -a pastiche of a Jean-Luc Godard French new wave movie with friends. I still have it on video tape. It really was a favourite hang out in the 80s,” says Trioli.

Virginia Trioli (pictured with Kate Ceberano) on her North and West Melbourne favourites. Picture: Supplied

Stumbling on Errol Street North Melbourne as a strip didn’t leave much of an impression on Trioli who said there was nothing happening there in the ’80s.

“I was a second-year university student when I first walked along Errol Street, and there was absolutely nothing happening there. It was the saddest and loneliest country town street that existed one kilometre from the CBD,” she says.

“It was so weird then, and has been weird right up until now.

“There is an entire area right on the doorsteps of the CBD that nobody seems to know about!  That is all changing now. North and West Melbourne has been discovered by younger generations and has become hip, back then there was nothing- the odd sad bread shop and in the middle of it all holding it together was the Town Hall Hotel – a great and enduring pub.”

A place that’s stood the test of time

The Drycleaners on Errol Street has been there for decades. A big sign on the window says ‘we dry clean your doonas’ and I think that has been the secret to their success.

On discovering Errol Street

We discovered it by chance, friends lived above a doctor’s clinic in Victoria Street and we would go and visit. One of those living there was writer Christos Tsiolkas who is a friend of mine. They got vastly reduced rent if they cleaned the clinic. It was big old place and soon discovered it was much cheaper to rent here than Carlton, North Carlton, Fitzroy and Parkville which is where the students went at the time. I ended up moving into a terrace on Capel Street opposite the triangle park that has recently been done up.

A favourite that is no longer

An amazing French restaurant in West Melbourne I loved to go was called La Chaumiere – it opened in 1971 and the interior was a cave-like version of Stalactites. It was run by an old French couple, and it was like finding yourself buried deep in somewhere like Arles. It was where you went for really fantastic French cooking. It closed in 1997. The pepper steak was fabulous.

Virginia Trioli on her North and West Melbourne favourites. Picture: realcommercial.com.au

There was also a framer on Errol Street, she was very elegant woman who ran the store and had a great eye. I would take my artwork to get framed there. She also sold beautifully selected vintage and antique pieces. I went there one day and discovered an amber vase. I have always had a passion for amber coloured glass – there is something about the light hitting it. It looked handblown Murano to me; a tall curved vase she thought was Victorian. I paid $40 for it.

It’s one of my absolute treasures. I recently came home from a weekend away and my husband Russell had it one the bench filled with Easter daisies. The woman who ran the shop represented a thing in North Melbourne that has persisted – it’s a haven for creative people and artisans. Artists have always tried to make a home of it, turning their terraces into studios and she was part of that kind of push.

A local character

Anyone who lives in North Melbourne will know the guy who gets around with the orange hair, weird glasses and is always on a bicycle. I don’t know his name – and he looks like a more benign version of Pennywise. He is always wearing multi-coloured clothing. His weird character feels perfectly okay in North Melbourne, nobody looks at him twice.

Favourites now

We have the best IGA in Melbourne. It has really good variety. It’s maybe a little more expensive, but I like supporting independents rather than the big two. My test of a good supermarket is where you go to the yoghurt shelf and if you can see many good varieties you know you’re in a good one. They have good cheese and a good variety of oils. I go there regularly.

Virginia Trioli on her North and West Melbourne favourites. Picture: realcommercial.com.au

I also love Lumen People and Manze. Ferguson Plarre where I go for a sneaky meat pie and tomato sauce on top. The family who run 7/11 on the corner of Queensberry St are lovely and I am often at the North Melbourne Library as well.

What’s missing?

I really wish we had a local butcher; a family or independent one who makes their own sausages. I know we’re so close to the market, but I can dream. There was one on the strip back in 1975! I would also love to see restaurateur Andrew McConnell open his next joint in North Melbourne.