Anyone who’s been to Italian and Sons over the past couple of years has no doubt been greeted at the door by Tony Lo Terzo. He’s a man that puts the hospitality into hospitality, a warm welcome, checking in during the night, he genuinely wants you to have a good night and he realises it’s about more than the food.
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Now, after six years at Italian and Sons, Lo Terzo is heading out on his own, wanting to carve out his own little piece of Italy in Braddon.
“I want to create a place where people will come for the food and the service, a place where they’ll feel at home,” says the industry veteran who has been in the game for 45 years.
The Italian Place will be a casual venue, where you can pop in over the course of the day, for a morning coffee, for a panini on the run at lunch, or come in after work for a drink and kick on for dinner. The expected opening is late March.
Fronting the kitchen is chef Francesco Petrillo, who’s been head chef at Mezzalira and Italian and Sons, since moving to Canberra eight years ago.
They’re taking over the site on Mort Street where Baked used to be, converting the narrow space into something new to Canberra. There’ll be a delicatessen at the front providing Italian style smallgoods, cheeses and gourmet deli products not currently available in the Braddon precinct.
“These will be sourced from Australia and Italy so that our customers can appreciate the differences and similarities,” Lo Terzo says.
They’ll maintain the seating down the right-hand side and put in some large communal tables at the front. There’ll be seats at the bar as well.
Recognising that a growing market in the hospitality industry is take-home meals, The Italian Place will feature a substantial range ready to heat and eat.
“The menu will feature handmade pasta and antipasti to eat in or take home, made with the best local or Italian ingredients,” Lo Terzo says.
“We will be going back to rustic classic Italian dishes based on ‘cucina povera’, the concept of making the most of what is available to you at the time, which fits well with our commitment to local produce cooked well.
“Our food will showcase the many regions of Italy, which are very different from the north to the south. Some of our dishes will be different from what we have become familiar with in Australia, as we go back to origins.”
The pair crossed paths at Italian and Sons for a couple of years and Lo Terzo says Petrillo is like a son to him and the pair say they share the same passion for Italian food and the Italian way.
“I met Tony on day one here in Australia,” Petrillo says. “It was an honour to work with him at Italian and Sons, he’s very different, I don’t know how to say it, he knows customers, knows what they want, and he has so much experience.”
Lo Terzo saw a gap in the market for such a venue, but he’s proud of how the Canberra scene has evolved during his time here, moving up from Melbourne eight years ago.
“When I first arrived from Melbourne it wasn't a great scene here but over the last four or five years the restaurant industry has blossomed,” he says.
“We now have quite a number of good restaurants, the level of service, unfortunately, has stagnated; it’s not easy to find good staff in Canberra, but it's all about training, in the kitchen and front of house.”
That’s part of his reasoning behind making this move.
“A friend asked why I wanted to do it and I really had to think about it. Apart from the opportunity, I feel as though I want to give something back to the industry, to customers and to Canberra.”
