Riso: Cafe & Restauarant Riso: Cafe & Restauarant

Riso, a daytime cafe and night-time restaurant

Riso will open in stages at 60 Rose Street, Fitzroy

broadsheet.com.au says..

When he arrived in Melbourne almost a decade ago, ambitious Italian chef Paolo Arlotta didn't mess around; he quickly landed a job at one of the city's best restaurants - Vue de Monde.

He spent a couple of years there honing his fine-dining skills, before taking a more relaxed turn at popular pasta spot Tipo 00. He went on to helm the kitchen at vegetarian cafe Kinfolk.

In recent years he's been freelancing, though, most notably running Herbivorous Nights, an intimate north-side vegetarian dinner series, which regularly sells out a month in advance.

Soon, Arlotta will channel his broad CV into a single venture: Riso, a daytime cafe and night-time restaurant, taking over the Young Bloods Diner space at Fitzroy's Rose Street Market.

The menu for both will be "Italian-inspired, but nothing you would expect from a classic Italian restaurant", Arlotta says.

That equates to seasonal, sustainable, local produce, with a focus on low-waste, healthy dining. And everything will be vegetarian, with plenty of options for vegans.

During the day, think rye focaccia with pickled zucchini, fermented buffalo ricotta and pesto; and chickpea fritters with eggplant jam, kimchi and pickled eggs. At night, you might get cacio e pepe risotto with black garlic and burnt eggplant; pesto tortelli with stracciatella and koji butter; or baked brillat-savarin (a triple-cream cow's-milk cheese) with preserved figs.

The cafe will serve coffee from Brunswick roaster Ona and open seven days, initially for takeaway only. Eventually, it'll open late as a restaurant on Fridays and Saturdays, serving six-course degustation dinners in the vein of Herbivorous Nights (pending incoming restrictions).

The name Riso comes from the Italian word meaning both rice and laughter - two things Arlotto hopes his first permanent venue will have plenty of.

"I come from a region in Italy where rice production and risotto are kind of the main thing in the cuisine, so it's an ode to my roots," he says. "[The word] also means laughter, which is the vibe we want to cultivate through our service - really friendly and casual, but always with high-quality food."

The former industrial space, which has been brightened up with sapphire paint and lots of plant life, is already split into three zones - a main dining room, courtyard and the rooftop.

Arlotta hopes the indoor-outdoor dining room can be set-up to meet any new rules for al fresco dining.

Riso will open in stages at 60 Rose Street, Fitzroy from mid-October 2020.

Published on 09 September 2020
by JO ROBIN | broadsheet.com.au

❊ Address ❊

 ℅ Ngar-go
 ⊜  60 Rose Street  Fitzroy  View Map
 ✆ Telephone: 9419 3864

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❊ Web Links ❊

➼ Riso: Cafe & Restauarant 

❊ Also See... ❊

➼ Rose Street Artists' Market

➼ Tipo 00






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