I was expecting New York, also with a large expat Italian community to be the same, but all they wanted to serve was piss-weak filter coffee from a pyrex jug, like it was the men's auxiliary meeting at Ringwood Golf Club. I went into one cafe where they had an espresso machine. The guy looked like an extra from Goodfellas, and when I suggested I might like a coffee from the espresso machine he started acting like one.

Pizza was good though.

When we got new staff at the restaurant, if they didn't know how to make coffee, our training was we'd send them up to Pellegrini's at tell them to sit by the coffee machine for a couple of hours and just watch.