Award-winning Fino restaurant to open second venue in Adelaide
Award-winning restaurant duo David Swain and Sharon Romeo will open a second venue, Fino Vino, in the heart of Adelaide.
They made waves in Willunga. Then they magnified their offering in the Barossa.
Now, award-winning restaurant duo David Swain and Sharon Romeo is setting up shop in the city - and their venue, Fino Vino, will be quintessentially South Australian.
“Pretty much everything that will be in the premises is sourced from South Australia,” says Swain, chef and co-owner of Fino Seppeltsfield, which won Best SA Restaurant (Winery) at the 2018 The Advertiser Food Awards.
“The stone benchtops for the bar and kitchen servery are from the Flinders Ranges; all the tile work through the restaurant and bathrooms is made by Bennetts Magill Pottery, the leather for the chairs is sourced locally and they’ve been designed and made in Adelaide by A&B Furniture.
“Even the porcelain wall lights are made by a local artist who went through the Jam Factory years ago.”
Popular Adelaide-based architects studio-gram will design the contemporary space at 82 Flinders St, which will seat 70. Size-wise, it’s a much closer offering to what Swain and front-of-house dynamo Sharon Romeo had at their original home, Fino Willunga, before it shut in 2016.
Capacity at Seppeltsfield is 160. “What has been hard to control is a plate of food being personable to the table,” Swain says. “It can be so fast and frenetic.
“We want to bring it back to a smaller restaurant again, where the food is so important to the dining experience. It still is important (at Seppeltsfield), but it can get lost in the chaos of Saturday dining.”
Local produce and interesting wine will be at the forefront of Fino Vino’s menu.
“The beverages and wine plays an equal role to food and service,” says Romeo, who herself has won awards for outstanding service. “After 13 years of being in business, especially in regional SA, we have just built some beautiful relationships with vignerons, farmers, growers, purveyors... I will always support small batch winemakers who have less intervention and sense of provenance. They’re the wines I want to stock and sell and match with food.
“There will be wines that will excite the wine enthusiast and the guest.”
Swain adds that the menu will be ever-changing, “because we may get a beautiful cauliflower for two weeks, and then it’s gone”.
Building such a venue doesn’t come cheap, but then, “restaurants are not cheap”, Swain says.
He wouldn’t put a dollar figure on the project (“It’s so much,” he laughs), but their ability to open a second space in turbulent times for the industry is testament to their “extreme passion” and commitment.
“I believe in the the Adelaide diner,” Swain says.
The pair will split their time between Barossa and Adelaide, and are training their kitchen and floor staff to “share our story” when they’re offsite.
And the vibe?
“We’re not a wine bar, we’re not a restaurant; we want to be a convivial space,” Romeo says. “People will feel like they’re home, because it’s our home.
“Regional restaurants are community restaurants, and we’re bringing that to the city.”
News of Fino Vino comes as The Advertiser announces its new food and wine publication, delicious. South Australia, which launches September 18. As well as covering the latest restaurant and bar openings, it will champion local produce and the people behind it.
Fino Vino opens in November, and will remain open through the Christmas and New Year period.
Celebrate our new food and wine publication: delicious. South Australia
Readers of The Advertiser are invited to celebrate the launch of delicious. South Australia with dinner at Adelaide’s hottest new pasta restaurant, Nido.
Join the delicious. team at the table as head chef Max Sharrad, named Young Chef of the Year at the 2018 Appetite for Excellence awards, and LauraCassai create contemporary Italian dishes that champion South Australian produce. Four courses will be matched with wine chosenby Chris Newton-Smith from Vinify. It’s on Wednesday, September 25 from 6pm, 2/160 King William Rd, Hyde Park. Limited tickets at $120, to book: nido.floktu.com