Love Thy Neighbour

It's double the fun with the opening of Tipo 00's sibling, Osteria Ilaria.

- Michael Harden

Before the octopus I had questions. What was the team behind Tipo 00, the Melbourne CBD pasta joint beloved by punters and pundits alike, thinking opening a second, bigger restaurant right next door? Sure, turn up to Tipo without a booking and it can be an hour or more before you’re seated, but that’s why God invented holding bars. Mightn’t opening an Italian restaurant beside your Italian restaurant feel like a consolation prize for its diners and dilute the buzz next door?

But then comes the octopus: bashed flat, char-grilled so the tentacle tips are blackened, and splayed across an artful splash of brick-red sauce rich with ’nduja, anchovies and olive oil. It’s all smoke, salt, heat and idealised Sicilian clifftop lunches. Now I get it. This is no consolation prize. Osteria Ilaria is doing it for itself.

Pasta is where the distinction is clearest. Tipo, as the name implies, is a pasta restaurant. Ilaria isn’t. But it’s not like they’re being doctrinaire about it, so there are still two pasta dishes on the extensive carte. One is paccheri tossed with pieces of prawn, a prawn oil-infused Napoli sauce and a citrusy, deep-green sorrel sauce, the other a ridiculously addictive nettle gnocchi with blue cheese and toasted almonds. They’re not to be missed, but there’s more going on here. Yes, we can nail pasta, they're saying, but that’s not all the good we can do.