Previous SlideNext Slide

A few weeks ago, if you’d asked me what kind of restaurant Fitzroy needs, “pasta-focused trattoria” would have been very far down my list. The amount of great pasta available in Fitzroy, the CBD and Carlton is overwhelming; people requesting recommendations for good Italian food in this part of town are likely to come away with dozens of options.

And so I came to stop by Alta, a new trattoria focusing on the food and wine of Italy’s Piedmont region, without much thought or excitement; just another pasta joint in a sea of inner-north Italian options, right?

Alta is in the former Little Odessa location, tucked away off Brunswick Street. Despite being steps from one of Melbourne’s most raucous thoroughfares, it manages to feel quiet and intimate, those extra few metres making all the difference.

The fit-out is simple and elegant, with a front room that looks out over the street and a back room with a central bar, warm lighting and banquette seating. The place feels classic: there are white tablecloths, the glassware is delicate and expensive, and the service has all the skill of fine dining, but none of the stuffiness.

These details should come as no surprise given the team behind Alta. The restaurant’s four partners come from some of Melbourne’s most accomplished venues: restaurateur Carlo Grossi, manager Luke Drum, who was formerly at Carlton Wine Room, sommelier James Tait, ex-King and Godfree, and chef McKay Wilday, who spent time in the Grossi stable before a stint at Copenhagen’s Geranium restaurant, which last year claimed the No. 1 spot on the World’s 50 Best list.

The pasta so impossibly thin but also incredibly rich, while the ragu is juicy and warming. It is one of my favourite dishes of the year.

Passion projects in cooking often take one of two forms: those that are creative, often driven by brilliance, but also ego, and those that are devotional. Alta is very much the latter kind of undertaking, endeavouring to honour the food and drink of Piedmont.

There are dishes – and beverages – that veer from this formula, but the restaurant is at its most thrilling when at its most reverential.

Take the tajarin ($36), a pasta that’s narrow like spaghetti but flat like tagliatelle, made with egg yolks. Wilday serves this ethereal noodle with a rabbit ragu and the dish, as a whole, is almost magical: the pasta so impossibly thin but also incredibly rich, thanks to its egg-yolk content, while the ragu is juicy and warming. It is one of my favourite dishes of the year thus far.

Heavier, and yet still somehow delicate, is the ravioli del plin ($34), small and tight and made with veal cheeks, beef brisket and pork shoulder while bathed in a sugo di arrosto, a sauce that comprises concentrated pan drippings bolstered by stock and herbs.

The gnocchi ($32) is long and thin at the ends, not round and plump, and served with butter, hazelnuts and sage.

As is traditional in many parts of Italy, the kitchen will split your single order of pasta between diners, making for a communal meal.

This is not a large menu – there are only four pastas, which are, undoubtedly, the stars of the show – but I suspect that allows for the intense focus Wilday is bringing to this project.

There’s a lovely, oily focaccia ($8), a vitello tonnato ($23) that’s more restrained and elegant than many versions I’ve had, and a beef tartare ($30) that’s so pared back it’s basically just raw beef, a yolk and some thin, sage-heavy crackers. That minimalism allows the deep, beefy flavour to shine.

It’s hard to argue with a tomato salad that uses very, very good tomatoes at the height of tomato season, but Alta’s version ($27), which also includes plums, was my least favourite dish, partly because you can get tomatoes and stracciatella everywhere in this town, and partly because I would have liked more stracciatella, given the price.

There are a couple of beautiful, faultless main courses, including a John Dory with lemon and olives ($46) that is a paragon of the form: simple and allowing the freshness to shine through.

I’ll be going back to Alta mainly for the pasta, though you might tempt me with a plum crostata with double cream ($16), a dessert that is all about good fruit, good pastry and the wonder of rich, thick dairy.

Despite the ubiquity of Italian food in this town, Alta manages to stand out by doing something new. Fitzroy may not have needed another pasta-focused trattoria, but Melbourne certainly benefits from it.

This review was originally published in Good Weekend magazine