Matriarch of Brunswick Street : Maria D'Alessandro
Maria D'Alessandro, also fondly known as the matriarch of Brunswick Street, arrived in Australia in the 1950s with her parents. They bought the building with the Evelyn in it back in 1968, with the idea that it’d be an Aussie pub “with an Italian twist”, so they had Italian food and music, table service and stuff like that. They also had Fitzroy’s first coffee machine. Since then, Maria and her son John, who took over the place in 1991, have either adapted to new trends or, more often, created them. I’ve known Maria for over 40 years, and in many ways she’s utterly unique, and yet in others she’s pretty typically Italian. For instance, she has a reputation for both hadnosed decision-making, and also open-armed altruistic compassion, for instance regularly giving drinks to Fitzroy’s homeless people during Melbourne’s famously sweltering summers. I think that mix of traits, of making firm, potentially unpopular decisions, and “my house is your house” ethics, is pretty Italian, and it’s one of the reasons she’s loved by so many people. She’s seen literally generations of youth pass through her doors over the decades, so I think you could call her one of Fitzroy’s cauldrons of wisdom.