When seventeen-year-old Peter Picone stepped onto a boat in Puglia, Southern Italy in 1960, little did he know that he was embarking on a journey which would culminate in the opening of Pentolina, a pasta bar in Melbourne, some 58 years later.
Settling in Sydney, Peter became an expert pasta chef in his uncle’s iconic restaurant, the Grotta Capri. His passion for pasta was inherited by his son Matt, who joined the family business as soon as he was tall enough to see over the stovetop.
Peter and Matt opened up Picone’s Pasta Pronta in 1994, selling freshly-made pasta, but dreamed of bigger things.
In 1997 Matt took a break from Picone’s Pasta Pronta to visit Melbourne. A chance visit to Melbourne icon Pellegrini’s Espresso Bar turned into a 19-year career as a Pellegrini’s barista.
Peter shared Matt’s love for Pellegrini’s. “When Dad came to visit me at Pellegrini’s in 1997, he said it reminded him of the pasta bars he’d seen in Italy growing up. It was his dream to open up something like that together.” A few months later, Peter passed away from a long-term illness. Twenty-one years later, Matt has finally brought the father-son dream to life.
