PROFILE : A taste of the real thing-Joe Pisano

REGULAR customer Murray strolls into Il Vero Gusto in Northbridge and eyes owner Joe Pisano sipping an espresso talking to this reporter in a corner booth near the till.

“You’re drinking a coffee, too?” Murray says casually as Mr Pisano looks up.

“The boss is not here,” Mr Pisano quips.

The friendly, light-hearted atmosphere generated by Mr Pisano’s larger-than-life personality is what’s kept his regulars coming back to his various coffee shop ventures for almost four decades.

Sixty-year-old Mr Pisano was born in Benevento, near Naples, and came to Australia in 1970 “to start a new life” and leave some unspoken troubles behind.

For five years he worked in various jobs in Melbourne, struggling to learn English as he went along.

Despite the challenge, Mr Pisano travelled to Perth in 1975 and started cafe Pisconeri on the corner of Lake and Newcastle streets.

“The business to start up was not hard because here it is very easy to start a business,” Mr Pisano says.

“If you know what you are doing it’s very easy. In Italy it is a bit more harder [sic] than here, but my problem was a little bit with the language.

“But slowly, slowly I learn but you know if someone doesn’t understand me the first time, I tell him a second time, and if they don’t understand a second time, I tell him a third time.”

After returning to Italy, briefly, Mr Pisano came back to Northbridge in the spring of 1983 and opened Bar Italia, which was renowned for its classic Italian cuisine, rich coffee and ambience.

Mr Pisano sold the cafe, which continues to trade under the name Villa Italia, in 1986.

“Then I went back home again for holidays. When I came back I opened Caffé Sport and I was there for about 17 years,” Mr Pisano says.

“It was an institution, because we used to get everybody there – criminals, good people, lawyers, doctors, it was great.

“Caffé Sport was not the best I had but it was all good. There was something about it that made it incredible.”

In the 1990s, Caffé Sport was at the height of its popularity; an attractive meeting place for the city’s artists, writers, filmmakers and musicians.

Even professionals, businesspeople, blue-collar workers and members of Northbridge’s gay community would rub shoulders at the coffee shop.

But in mid-1995 it became the centre of controversy when Mr Pisano asked a female patron and her girlfriend to stop kissing or he would throw them out.

When they became irate, Mr Pisano told them to leave.

In revenge, the girls organised a ‘kiss-in’ some weeks later where a reported 40 people, including gay, lesbian and straight couples, met on a Saturday night and, after ordering meals, began kissing.

“I don’t have nothing against them or the boys, it’s their life, I just don’t think that sort of thing is nice in public,” Mr Pisano says.

“That’s the only reason I told them off.

“But I really enjoyed myself when I was there [at the cafe]. Then I sold it when I got a little bit sick, I just wanted a bit of a rest.”

After another brief visit to Benevento, Mr Pisano flew back to Perth and began working at Funtastico in Subiaco, where he stayed seven years before launching his latest venture – Il Vero Gusto, on William Street.

“I love cafes, it’s my job, it’s what I’ve always done even when I was 11 years old in Italy,” Mr Pisano says.

“All the cafes have a memory and they are all good memories.

“I can’t say one was bad, one was good, I enjoyed every minute because I love to do this stuff and that’s the way I enjoy it.

“I treat people with respect, I look after to them, and that’s why they come back.

“I find the customers they follow me everywhere I go; they used to come even at Funtastico for coffee, because they used to say ‘we miss you on William Street and we come here’, they used to say, ‘because you are the best coffee maker’.

“I don’t know, maybe it’s true, I don’t know.”

Mr Pisano is currently seeking bigger premises to cater for Il Vero Gusto’s growing customer base.

A taste of the
real thing
Where is your hometown?
Near Napoli, called Benevento.
What brought you to Australia?
(Laughs) That's a funny question. You want to know the truth? (Laughs) Because I was a bad boy there; I decided that I wanted to change my life, I said 'I don't want to be with these sort of people anymore' so I came to Australia and I haven't looked back.
How hard was it coming over here?
I did not speak one word of English. It was the worst time of my life. I learned here, I never went to school here, even in Italy I never went to school. But I do alright, I get by. I still learn now because I can't speak [English] now (laughs).
What do you do for leisure?
I enjoy my son. He's two-and-half-years old. I have no
grandkids, but I have another boy who is 33 years old, the
first one, and I've got a daughter who's 26. But the kids keep
me busy, keep me younger.
What would you be doing if you weren't running a cafe?
I have to run a cafe because I enjoy it. It's in my blood. When I was young just a boy in Italy I started work in a cafe, I worked until I was 20 then I come [sic] here.