In red, white and green

When Civico 47 opened its doors last month at 47 Windsor St, it followed a tradition laid down long ago in Paddington. Occupying the majestic corner terrace that for 40 years housed Lucio’s Italian restaurant, Civico 47 — a phrase that translates as No. 47 — once again brings pasta and the scent of sizzling garlic to the leafy streets of middle Paddington.

“Lucio’s was Italian but we don’t want to follow in his footsteps 100% or ride on his coattails,” says Civico 47 restaurant manager Benn Moncelet. “There’s plenty of room for Italian restaurants in the eastern suburbs. People love the nostalgic feel that they get from Italian style of cooking.”

Civico 47 — which has a silent owner who has installed chef Matteo Zamboni (ex-Jonah’s) in the kitchen, and Moncelet on the floor — may be a break from the Ligurian cuisine and sunny yellow walls of the old restaurant, but for many locals, the new venue may go some way to assuaging its loss.

“We feel there’s room for it here,” Moncelet says. “Mediterranean and Italian style food are always going to interest people.”

Civico 47 chef Matteo Zamboni. Picture: Steve Woodburn

Civico 47 promises upmarket trattoria food in the $30-$48 price range and will be one of three Italian restaurants to have opened in Paddington during the past year. It will join Bootleg Italian at 312 Oxford St, which is offering entirely plant-based Italian food, and the wine-bar style Paski at 239 Oxford St, Darlinghurst.

The trio follows already established favourites into the area, including Cipri, 10 William St, Il Baretto (at the back of the Paddo Inn), I Maccheroni on Jersey Rd, Woollahra, and the long-running Buon Ricordo, which has occupied its Tuscan-style corner terrace on Boundary St since 1987.

Add to those, Rushcutters Bay’s Marta and Bar M, as well as the Italian-themed cafés — Barbetta, Alimentari, Tramezzo and Apache. Then there are the pizzerias: Love Supreme, Arthur’s, Christo’s and Vino e Cucina. It can’t be denied that Paddington loves Italian food.

“I just love the area, it’s so cool here,” says Paski’s Giorgio de Maria, a well-known name in Sydney hospitality for his excellent (mostly Italian) wine importation business, Giorgio de Maria Fun Wines.

De Maria opened Paski in November with ex-10 William St head chef Enrico Tomelleri and fellow wine importer Mattia Dicati in a run-down stretch of Oxford St near Taylor Square. Paski is a two-floor operation, with a 30-seat bar area downstairs and a 40-seat more formal (yet still casual) restaurant/dining space upstairs.

The Paski team including De Maria, second from right

Tomelleri’s menu is inventive and playful, bringing new and unexplored dishes to Sydney. Recently on his menu, for instance, have been spaghetti with squid, bottarga and squid ink, and polpo alla Luciana, an octopus and tomato stew hailing from north-western Italy. There’s also an emphasis on Italian charcuterie and cheese, perfect for the 400-plus bottles of Italian wine on offer.

“We want to get back to some really amazing heritage recipes and bring them back to life and in a beautiful way,” de Mario says. “We go back to Italy all the time and we want to bring back things from there that we find and share them in Sydney.”

For de Mario, moving to the Paddington-Darlinghurst area was tempting not just because of the clientele in the big nearby suburbs, but due to the appeal of Oxford St itself. Paski inhabits a Victorian retail terrace space on a strip that is shabby but set to experience rapid gentrification.

A slew of new hotel projects is under construction nearby, including the transformation of the old Grand Pacific Ballroom, and the overhaul of the Rose, Shamrock & Thistle and the Arts Hotel, projects that will bring new lifeblood into the zone.

“Already it is changing,” de Mario says. “You have Freda’s (at Taylor Square), and Dimitri’s is doing really good food, and once the hotels come up it will change again. It’s kind of cool right now, though. It’s a run down strip but the heritage buildings are amazing and the heritage of the area is great. There’s a real buzz when you come to our bar.”

De Mario says the reason so many Italian restaurants can co-exist in Paddington is because each one offers something different to the next.

“Every one is not alike,” he says. “And also, Italian food, it is comfort food. The dishes are simple, not too many ingredients. Most of the time, it’s quite light, too. In the summer, you can do light dishes from the south of Italy. In the winter you can do heavier dishes from the north of Italy.”

The established Italian restaurants of the area are welcoming of the newcomers, seeing their arrival as an opportunity to bring publicity and to promote the many permutations of Italian cuisine.

“Sometimes people say that new restaurants are rivals but I think it is good when they open,” says I Maccheroni owner and chef Marcello Farioli. “They’re cool, and they bring new people to the area.”

He says the European nature of Paddington and Woollahra lends familiarity to the cuisine for most locals, many of whom have visited the continent and are cognisant with the food.

I Maccheroni’s Marcello Farioli. Picture: Trent van der Jagt

“Woollahra has always had a lot of mansions and beautiful homes, there is definitely a European feel here,” Farioli says. “There’s a lot of Italian food here and I think it brings back memories for people of holidays in Italy. Also, there have always been a lot of Italian and Greek migrants in the area, the demographic here is very European. People also appreciate the simplicity of the food, it’s comfort food.”

Farioli says Paddington and Woollahra are suburbs undergoing a change in demographic, with more young people coming into the area and cooler venues opening.

“Paddington is on the rise,” he says. “It is a better neighbourhood now than it has ever been.”

Our Editor’s picks

Everyone has their favourites in a neighbourhood crammed with stars. Here are mine.

10 William St

This glorious tiny wine bar has been a leading light in Australian food and wine for more than a decade. A tiny kitchen produces beautiful pasta and Italian-style snacks, while the wines are geared towards natural and small Italian vineyards. It’s intimate, cool and fun.

10 William St

Barbetta

It would be hard to find a better café in Sydney than this exceptional slice of Italy on Elizabeth St. The room is so luxe, with its leather booths and bistro tables that look on to the street, that you might forget how great the food is, too. Go for Italian classics such as vitello tonnato, or simply for coffee and pastries.

2 Elizabeth St

Alimentari

Amazingly, this terrace-dwelling cafe has been a food store, deli or café for more than a century. With Italian heritage seeped in its bones, it remains a sunny continental corner at the juncture of William and Hopetoun streets, overseen by owner Laraine Russo, with aplomb. Andre’s coffee never disappoints.

2 Hopetoun St

I Maccheroni

Occupying a gorgeous freestanding terrace on Jersey Rd, I Maccheroni is a powerhouse of regional Italian dining. Chef-owner Marcello Farioli hails from Modena, in Italy’s north, and is passionate about producing classic Italian dishes, such as hand-rolled spinach ravioli or beef cheek ragú, in unpretentious surroundings.

3 Jersey Rd, Woollahra

Marta

Born in Rome, Marta owner Flavio Carnevale brings a Roman influence to this bustling osteria. Go for dishes such as polpette — veal meatballs with tomato and pecorino — or the really fabulous pizzas. But equally, do not miss the Roman bakery that operates from the restaurant in the mornings. The most wonderful breads, pastries, buns and pizzas are piled high as people flock from across Sydney for these incredible treats.

30 McLachlan Ave, Rushcutters Bay

Il Baretto

Surry Hills’ loss was Paddington’s gain when Il Baretto moved into the restaurant space at the back of the Paddo Inn in 2020. In this roomy space go for simple but excellent Italian staples, from lasagne to gnocchi al pesto. The simplicity is its strength. The restaurant is now also servicing the Paddo Inn’s front bar.

338 Oxford St (entry on William St)

Paski

Enrico Tomelleri did a wonderful job for years as head chef at 10 William St, and brings that background to this similar venue, closer to town. Book in to the upstairs restaurant for an inventive menu with the likes of scallop cappellacci with prawns, peas and garlic scapes, or trenette al pesto Genovese, combining traditional pesto with green beans, pickled potatoes and pine nuts. The dishes are original and interesting and the vibe is urbane and cool. The menus upstairs and downstairs may differ, so you will definitely need to go twice.

239 Oxford St, Darlinghurst