Viva Ilaria

Osteria Ilaria, the new sibling of Melbourne’s much-loved Tipo 00, has been an instant hit with its modern take on Italian cooking, showcased here in a snapshot of its winning spring menu.

Spoiler alert: you won’t find any pasta in this feature. That might come as a shock to fans of immensely popular pasta bar Tipo 00, but Osteria Ilaria, which opened to fevered interest next door to its sibling in Melbourne’s CBD earlier this year, is almost (but not quite) a pasta-free zone. Of course, there’s still plenty to like, but for a team who built their success on rolling out pasta dough, it’s a surprise move.

“What we wanted to do here was a wine-driven modern Italian restaurant,” says chef and co-owner Andreas Papadakis. “Sort of like the new-style osterias you’d find in Milan where tradition is mixed with modern technique and varied ingredients and influences.”

The chef admits it was tricky (and slightly stressful) trying to ensure the two restaurants were separate entities without losing the essence of Tipo’s success.

“The weight of expectation was pretty intense because we weren’t going to replicate Tipo,” he says. “But we did want to stay with the same ethic – a place where we’d go, serving food we want to eat that’s recognisably Italian. The most obvious difference is that there’s less emphasis on pasta at Ilaria. And the dishes are perhaps more elegant and modern, and we like to use different ingredients. If they’re using veal at Tipo, we might go with lamb.”

The recipes here provide a good snapshot of how Osteria Ilaria rolls. The octopus with ’nduja dressing already has something of a cult following, and others are a preview of what Papadakis will be dishing up on Ilaria’s first spring menu.

“We haven’t served the mascarpone dish, but thought that it was perfect with the great berries you can get at this time of year, and though we’ve done zucchini flowers before, the almond purée is something that we’ll also be using on our spring menu,” says Papadakis.

The seafood and vegetable emphasis here is, according to Papadakis, “a reflection of the way I like to eat mostly”.

“It’s not that we don’t serve meat,” he says. “But with spring I like the menus to be lighter, fresher and simpler. It’s the way I eat when I go to Italy and it’s the way I like to feed people when they come to Ilaria.” Osteria Ilaria, 367 Little Bourke St, Melbourne, Vic (03) 9642 2287, osteriailaria.com