Tears as 1950s Melbourne cafe closes due to crippling lockdown

A cafe that’s hosted some of the city’s most colourful characters for six decades has shut, with its famous owner describing the decision as “devastating”.

Don Camillo has operated in Victoria St, West Melbourne, for 66 years.

Landmark Melbourne cafe Don Camillo has fallen victim to Covid lockdowns.

Don Camillo has for decades been a meeting place for sporting figures, boxing identities, Queen Victoria Market traders and an assortment of other colourful old-school characters.

Its owner, respected fight game figure Sam Greco, admitted shedding tears after calling it quits on the venue, which has operated in Victoria St, West Melbourne, for 66 years.

He said he realised in April this year that he could not open the newly renovated Don Camillo again.

“Without a word of a lie, it was the hardest decision and thing to do to date,” Mr Greco said.

“I must admit, I did shed tears as this was a place that I’d been coming to for the last 30 years and owned it for the 15 years of that time.

Brian Taylor doing the dishes at Don Camillo Restaurant.

Sam Greco at his Don Camillo restaurant.

“It was such a unique place. A place where pretty much you could see or meet anyone from any walk of life. It was a place to be seen but most importantly a place where people called home.”

Mr Greco said business was hard enough without the uncertainty of a Covid world in which rents did not stop when doors closed for lockdowns.

He said plenty of others he knew had been forced to shut businesses they loved and some were “just scraping through the skin of their teeth”.

“It’s very sad and heartbreaking watching people and businesses crumble under an unimaginable pandemic,” Mr Greco said.

Coffees were served for six decades.

“We have been governed by state premiers and health orders and unfortunately neither have really helped retain our businesses.”

Don Camillo – adorned with sports photos and memorabilia – opened in 1955 amid a wave of Italian immigration to Australia.

There is debate in the city’s cafe scene about whether its coffee espresso machine was Melbourne’s first.

Mr Greco said the restaurant’s regular customers had been left deeply disappointed.

“Devastated to say the least. I had long time customers coming in literally crying. Unfortunately it has taken a little bit of everyone’s soul since the closing,” he said.

The former world karate champion, sometime actor, businessman, fitness coach and motivational speaker suffered a heart attack several years ago.

Greco said he was back on top of his health after undergoing triple-bypass surgery.

“I’m keeping fit the best way possible, given the conditions and situation we are all in. (I) try and keep myself mentally and physically stable at all costs,” he said.

Greco recently featured in the big-budget television production Australian Gangster.

He had previously also had small parts in various versions of the successful Underbelly crime series.