The husband and wife behind the award-winning Freshwater venue said it would take something big to entice them to the Sydney CBD.
It took more than two decades to tempt the duo behind northern beaches dining jewel Pilu at Freshwater across the Harbour Bridge. Now Giovanni Pilu and Marilyn Annecchini will open a spin-off restaurant at Circular Quay, with the project’s inspiration going even further back in history.
Flaminia, which opens in late November, takes its name from the ship that started the Australian migrant story for the husband-and-wife team who steers the chefs’-hatted Pilu restaurant.
“It docked at Circular Quay,” Annecchini said of her mother’s arrival from Italy aboard the Flaminia in 1959. If she’d peered out the east-facing portholes, her first view of Sydney might’ve been the site where her daughter is now opening a restaurant, perched on the edge of Sydney Cove.
Since Pilu launched in 2004, the owners of the award-winning restaurant have fielded several offers to expand to the Sydney CBD. They said it’d take something big, and the view from Q Dining at the Pullman Quay Grand Sydney Harbour matched that criteria, so they’ve struck a deal with the hotel to take over the restaurant space on level 2.
The location belongs to the Macquarie Street complex Sydneysiders dubbed “The Toaster” when it was built nearly 30 years ago. Despite the strip being bookended by fine-diner Aria and chef’s-hatted Japanese newcomer Oborozuki, the site is largely home to lesser-known eateries and burger joints. With Flaminia, Pilu and Annecchini hope to add some shine to the development.
Flaminia’s owners are aware that Sydney has no shortage of Italian restaurants. “If we were making such a big move, it needed to be a big idea,” Annecchini said. Flaminia will anchor its seafood-heavy menu in the food traditions of Italian port cities.
“[Flaminia] represents our journey, leaving one coast behind and arriving on another, and everything that’s come from it,” said Pilu, whose own migratory trip from Italy was more recent.
“I came in 1992. Back then, you could still smoke on Qantas,” Pilu said.
Where the menu at the Freshwater restaurant is more closely wed to Pilu’s native Sardinian cuisine, the Italian port theme gives Pilu flexibility to wander around Italy for culinary inspiration.
That might mean vongole from Venice, Amalfi-style spaghetti allo scoglio (mixed seafood) or fish soup from the Mediterranean port of Livorno. Pilu will also include a veal dish stuffed and rolled with pine nuts and parmesan from Genoa, and you’ll be able to eat octopus at Flaminia’s 15-seat crudo bar. “You get octopus anywhere in Italy, really,” Pilu said.
While the couple points out that ports are places of “movement, exchange and new beginnings”, the chef said this extends to unique food cultures. He’ll find room on the menu for at least one Sardinian specialty, from the Port of Olbia. “For as long as I can remember, people would line up at a bar at the ferry for the panino with octopus and potato with olive oil, garlic and parsley.”
Given its location, and with hotel guests in the building, Flaminia will also open for breakfast. Expect “Italian eggs” with parmigiano reggiano to hit the menu alongside regular breakfast staples.
“We’ll do cocktails from cruise ships,” Annecchini said of the bar program. And Flaminia’s wine list will sweep Italian wines, alongside Australian wines using Italian varietals.
Building work on the waterfront venue begins in the next fortnight, but the finished design won’t include any maritime motifs when the space is unveiled later this year. Annecchini said they’ll steer clear of “cliched coastal” design, leaning on a colour palette of terracotta tones and green, instead. The new restaurant will expand into a little-used neighbouring room, creating space for a 100-seat restaurant with its own bar and private dining room.
Flaminia is also nicely positioned at the edge of the booming Circular Quay hospitality precinct, where a new generation of operators has made a mark with restaurants including Allta and Lana and Clam Bar. Another high-profile hotel, Capella Sydney on Bridge Street, also recently welcomed the team from chefs’-hatted Bentley restaurant at Brasserie 1930. And there’s more ahead, with the coming Waldorf Sydney to include a number of hospitality outlets.
“Not fine dining, elevated casual,” Annecchini said of Flaminia’s pitch and price point. While the Sydney CBD restaurant market is competitive, the duo is confident the widespread appeal and approachability of Italian food can prosper.
“Even the way the economy is at the moment, [Italian] is approachable. You can have it at all levels,” Annecchini said.
The pair might be expanding to the Sydney CBD, but Pilu’s loyal northside clientele can relax – the Pilu mothership isn’t going anywhere.
“We’re never leaving the northern beaches,” Annecchini said.
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