Top Adelaide chef Adam Liston is opening a new restaurant, Mozza, inside Southwark Hotel

Top Adelaide chef Adam Liston, of Shobosho and ShoSho fame, is opening a new restaurant in an unlikely location.

Adelaide top 20 chef Adam Liston, of Shobosho fame, is opening a new restaurant in Thebarton.

Mōzza will resurrect an unused function space of the Southwark Hotel as a 50-seat Italian-American diner.

In a venture separate to the Kardachi restaurant group – which is behind Liston’s Japanese-inspired restaurants Shobosho in the city and ShoSho in Hyde Park – Liston joins business partner Nathan Scutter, while chef Phil Carey will eventually take the reins in the kitchen.

“The owners (of the hotel) approached us; they were looking to outsource the food and activate the restaurant,” Liston, 41, said.

Adam Liston, front, with co-owner Nate Scutter and head chef Phil Carey are set to open Mozza restaurant inside Southwark Hotel. Picture: Matt Loxton

“It will be a freestanding restaurant, separate from the pub. The focus will be on wood-fired New York-style pizza, three or four handmade pastas – everything will be made from scratch in-house – and a take on the ol’ crumbed veal parmigiana. It’s a nod to Italy and pub culture.”

Liston, known for his contemporary Japanese yakitori and izakaya style of cooking, said he’s “always loved cooking pizza, especially with fire”.

“It’s been a passion of mine at home for years,” he said. “I love Italian/American cuisine and culture; I’ve travelled through America and experienced it first hand.

“We wanted to do something food-wise that would appeal to the local market. It’s a neighbourhood eatery, with a good wine list and high-end ingredients, open to both families and younger people. We also want to have fun with the food offering but respect technique and ingredients.”

Bar food, which will “offset what we’re doing in the restaurant”, will kick off towards the end of next week, and the restaurant is slated to open by the start of December.

Mōzza is yet another coup for Adelaide’s inner west, following the imminent opening of the revamped Brompton Hotel with Michelin-trained chef Andrew Wandless in the kitchen.

Other popular restaurants to have opened in recent years include delicious. 100 restaurant Bloom, My Grandma Ben in the Plant 4 Bowden complex and Pizza Meccanica.