After a mad dash to renovate in just a week, Simone Presta is bringing an “elevated casual” vibe to Oxford Street.
Romeo wasn’t built in a day. It was built in seven.
“We are so exhausted, but we’re proud,” owner Simone Presta says.
“It took us a bit longer to finalise negotiations for the lease than we expected, but we’d already hired all the staff, and you’ve pre-ordered a lot of stuff, so we just wanted to push on through.”
Presta isn’t kidding. He’s talking to this masthead on Monday, May 18 – just 10 days after getting the keys to the Bulimba premises previously occupied by Mede on the corner of Oxford and Smallman streets, and two days after Romeo opened.
This is Presta’s fifth Brisbane venue after Scugnizzi on Adelaide Street, Doughcraft in Albion and then on Mary Street, and a now-closed Scugnizzi outlet in Chermside Shopping Centre. But where Scugnizzi focuses on grab-and-go Roman food and Doughcraft on French-Italian baked goods (including pinsa at night), Romeo drills down on Italian small plates.
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“Brisbane has some fantastic Italian restaurants,” Presta says. “I dine at a lot of them, they’re friends of mine. But I wanted to have a point of differentiation that’s not your classic pizza restaurant or trattoria-style of venue. It’s not simply fun dining, but it is an elevation of casual – this is what I wanted to explore.”
Presta isn’t holding back, with a generous list of small plates front-end loaded on the menu.
There’s crumbed burrata served with red and yellow cherry tomatoes; savoury cannoli filled with a carbonara compote and guanciale; charred beef lasagne skewers served with a parmigiana fonduta; braised duck legs risotto served with porcini mushrooms; and crispy potato tartan with seared scallop and hollandaise sauce.
All are designed to be shared, or perhaps ordered as two or three per diner. There’s also a 10-course “degustation” that presents eight small plates and two desserts.
“We always want to give people what they’re familiar with, but in a different way,” he says. “We were a bit concerned that maybe people wouldn’t understand the concept, but they’ve embraced it over the first weekend.”
Not that the menu doesn’t hedge a little. There’s your usual clutch of mains and a bunch of larger pasta plates, but even here there’s a spirt of experimentation: the prawn risotto comes with zucchini cream and mint; the bolognese is a white ragu number; and the vodka pasta is served with guanciale and ribbony mafaldine.
The drinks are anchored by a 100-bottle wine list that favours Italian drops, with the balance split between Australian and French producers.
With such a tight turnaround, the fitout remains largely unchanged from the premises’ Mede days, but a liberal application of green paint inside has helped tie the whole space together.
On its first Saturday night service, it’s packed with locals.
“I wanted a change from the city to explore the suburban vibe, and Bulimba was a good compromise. A lot of people here know my work,” says Presta, who won the 2024 season of My Kitchen Rules with cooking partner Viviana Barile. “But it’s also very family friendly.”
Tue-Thu 11am-9pm, Fri-Sat 7am-9.30pm
161 Oxford Street, Bulimba, 0489 027 666
Matt Shea is Food and Culture Editor at Brisbane Times. He is a former editor and editor-at-large at Broadsheet Brisbane, and has written for Escape, Qantas Magazine, the Guardian, Jetstar Magazine and SilverKris, among many others.From our partners
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: www.smh.com.au
