whenever he has to make a major decision about café olimpico, owner jonathan vannelli always asks himself the same question. what would rocco think?
rocco would be his late grandfather rocco furfaro, a guy from calabria in southern italy who arrived in montreal in the early 1960s and in 1970 decided to open a coffee shop near his home on st-viateur st. in mile end. at first, it didn’t really have a name and was known informally as rocco’s bar.
vannelli is set to open a fourth olimpico outlet, this one in the space formerly occupied by café crème, just south of the metro grocery store on victoria ave. in westmount. there are also olimpico cafés in the old port (in the william gray hotel) and on robert-bourassa blvd. downtown.
“i think if my grandfather was around he’d probably first say: ‘hey, what’s happening here? four cafés?'” said vannelli, 31. “but i think he’d be super proud. i just want to make him proud. that’s important. everything i do, i think of him first.”
rocco furfaro in 1997.
john mahoney
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montreal gazette files
when rocco first opened the place at the corner of waverly st. and st-viateur, he bought a coffee machine, a pool table and a satellite dish and, in the early years, it was really mostly a hang-out for him and his italian buddies to watch european soccer and knock back cappuccinos. for ages, it was known as open da night, a reference to the café’s sign ‘open day and night,’ which had lost a couple of letters over the years.