10 Feb 2023
It would be hard to find a more iconic or historic bar in Melbourne than Jimmy Watson’s.
And with a reborn Lygon Street festival fast approaching, an event that Jimmy’s son Allan helped found, we sat down with Simon Watson, Jimmy’s grandson, to talk about the incredible impact the Watson family has had on Melbourne’s food and wine culture, as well as what they are planning for the upcoming festival.
Founded in 1935 by James “Jimmy” Watson, who was the son of a Tasmanian coalminer and an Italian immigrant, the Carlton bar and restaurant has played an outsized role in influencing the way Australians approach eating and drinking, especially how they think about wine.
“My grandfather promoted drinking table wine with food, which was of course very familiar to Europeans but was not the done thing in Australia at that time. Australians had a very different mentality,” Simon said.
Jimmy not only encouraged wine drinking with food as a civilised and cosmopolitan thing to do at a time when most Australians thought only hobos drank wine, he tirelessly championed the Victorian wine industry. He bought and sold local wines in his bar to educate his customers about their quality. After he died in 1962, the Jimmy Watson’s Wine Trophy was named in his honour, and it is still one of the most prestigious wine prizes in Australia.
The family’s legacy, according to Simon, is that the way it approached wine eventually spread throughout the city.
“I think it’s the continental way of eating and drinking wine with friends, that’s what we have passed down because it [Jimmy Watson’s] kicked off a whole different way of drinking wine.”
“That we were also in close proximity to [Melbourne] University so you had a lot of international lecturers and professors that came down here and they obviously saw what was going on, and it’s been a bit of a catalyst to what we see now with the dining and drinking in Melbourne.”
Jimmy’s attitude to wine was no doubt influenced by his Italian mother, so that his son Allan, who took over the business, would go on to cofound the Lygon Street Festa seems fitting.
“In the 1960s, originally, the festival idea was part of the model Twiggy coming to Carlton, but dad was influential in starting the Lygon Street Festa and organising it.”
“It was incredibly big in the 1970s and 1980s as I recall and then it sort of diminished but it’s definitely time for a rebirth for the Lygon Street Festa.”
As part of that rebirth, the festival, which in its latest iteration is called the Melbourne Italian Festa, will be held on Sunday April 3. It will break the bounds of Argyle Square and spill over into Lygon Street for the first time in many years.
As always, the festival will be a celebration of all things Italian in Australia, with Italian music, art, performances and of course food taking centre stage. Simon says Jimmy Watson’s will be out on the footpath ready with a pincho cabinet full of delicious snacks, perfect with a glass of wine. They will also be doing a barbecue with pork and fennel sausages in ciabatta rolls with a range of toppings, as well as a stand with homemade cakes.
“There’s going to be a lot of people walking around so I think if we can give them something quick and give them something special, we would love to do that, especially since everything has been so disrupted by Covid, if we can do our part to bring back the celebration then we will!”
This attitude is typical of a family who has long been steeped in the tradition of genuine hospitality. One look at the Watson family tree shows that it wasn’t just Jimmy who has positively impacted our food and wine culture.
His Italian grandfather, who migrated in the 1880s, was a market gardener who is thought to have grown the first zucchini in Australia. His mother’s sister married Calexte Denat and together they owned the Café Denat, considered Melbourne’s premier dining destination in the 19th century.
Fast forward to the 20th century, and Jimmy was connected to what became the Ferguson Plarre bakery empire and the restaurant-owning Virgona and Massoni families too. The latter began what today is Melbourne stalwart Grossi Florentino.
It’s a stunning family tree but when asked if he was proud of what his family had accomplished in hospitality, Simon was characteristically humble.
“Yes, I’m proud. But I think just do what you do and keep doing it and I think Melburnians will love it.”
And long may that attitude and Jimmy Watson’s continue.
What you need to know:
Jimmy Watson’s: 333 Lygon Street, Carlton 3053
Melbourne Italian Festa 2022: Sunday April 3, 10am -9pm, Argyle Square and Lygon Street, Carlton