Enoteca Boccaccio Restaurant, Balwyn

Architect: Mim Design

Completed: 2023

Built by TCON, the following article (The Age – Good Food) was published with Enoteca receiving a “chef hat” within the first 6 weeks of opening:\

The D’Anna family has been luring Italians and food-obsessed Melburnians to Balwyn for 60 years, a testament to the family’s sourcing of quality products for primo grocer, Boccaccio Cellars. Now, the family is inviting them to stay for dinner at their new wine bar, Enoteca Boccaccio.\

Reached via a flight of stairs beside the grocer, Enoteca occupies three rooms where the D’Anna children would play after school while their parents worked in the shop.\

Now, that upper floor is a 50-seat venue with finely etched features such as fluted Italian marble, textured walls and handmade clay tiles that recall Italy’s streets and grand piazzas. Natural materials were chosen by Mim Design that would improve over time, much like the Italian craft of food preservation.\

CEO Anthony D’Anna, the second generation to run the business, first sketched out the plans in 2017, drawing heavily on his favourite dining experiences in Italy: sitting at the bar at Il Santino in Florence or Roscioli in Rome, two venues where wine shares top billing with the food.\

Wines he has collected over 25 years and stored in two cellars in Italy are the centerpiece of the offer, supported by small plates, pasta and two or three main courses by chef Andrew Beddoes (ex Tartine). Recent dishes include hibachi-grilled wagyu tongue with treviso, house-made veal agnolotti in brodo, and sea bream with vongole and grilled cabbage. A one-kilogram bistecca is sourced from the family’s Yarra Valley cattle farm.\

D’Anna has plucked out several vintages from Tuscan winemaker Gianfranco Soldera and Abruzzese producer Emidio Pepe, for his first reserve list, which is updated with rarities each week. BYO is also offered on Tuesday and Wednesday.\

The heart of the venue is the white marble bar, where brass-edged cabinets that sit atop the bar display that day’s fresh pasta, oysters and salumi selection, and two chefs assemble cold plates. Olivia Sutton (who ran Harper & Blohm) is selecting and maturing cheeses for the venue, maturing them in a wall of floor-to-ceiling cabinets that greets customers as they arrive.

Source: The Age