40 years in business in the one location. That’s a good innings. I have known the Tozzi family for a very long time now but about 18 years ago I opened a small nightclub with Danilo’s brother Antonello and an old friend named Julian Tobias.
The story goes, briefly, I had been asked to DJ one night to see if we could pull a crowd, at the time I was solely doing weddings but I had a knack for getting people onto the dance floor. Antonello, through our common lawyer, who happened to be my cousin, James, asked me to turn the wheels of steel for one night only. My friend Julian decided to bring Lance Bass from NSYNC, the night was a hit with Lance dancing behind the DJ booth with all of us and from that point Antonello asked me if I would like to become his partner. But as I said to him at the time, I could never fill a room that big consistently, so I asked if we could make a kind of private members bar in the back and renovate it to my taste.
When my friend Julian rode with me one night to meet with Antonello, he said “Nikki if you do anything here I want to be in” and it was fortuitous, well, jury is still out, for Julian went on to have an entire career in nightclubs and hospitality though I am not sure the vampire lifestyle is always good for him, but he loves it and he continues to do it and each to their own.
The nightclub was decorated to be a little like a bordello. Lots of red velvet, red chilac walls, small tables, candlelight, art on the walls. To be honest I would be lying if I said I could totally remember what was in each room because I was barely sober the year I worked it before selling out. But we had a blast.
But this is where I came to know Caffe Roma to well. Our red light above our red painted door lead out onto Mansion Lane and from there, through broken bottles and garbage bins we could make our way to the kitchen door of Caffe Roma, walk through the kitchen and sit out the back next to the bar and have supper in between turning those wheels of steel and keeping the customers drinking until 6 in the morning.
And the Tozzi brothers were at that time having the usual arguments brothers can sometimes have and we would need to tread lightly between each of the four to ensure we didn’t get dragged into it. So it was that I became friends with all four brothers individually and Danilo I especially love because we both swim Camp Cove in the morning and over the years we have maintained a consistent dyad of beeping our horns when we drive past each other and catching up next to the kiosk at Camp Cove.
I love him. He is so Italian. He hasn’t changed, he doesnt have resurrections, he just holds the line, delivering good food into the late hours and it’s so nice to know, if it runs late, you always have Roma’s on Kellet Street. Congratulations Danilo, so many memories we all owe to you.