It's a love affair for the ages. A bold, ground-breaking meeting of minds between a Piedmontese and Finn. And a story that can only be told in the setting of a cafe that's closed its doors for the night.

For those of you that haven't had the pleasure, let us introduce you to sommelier Giorgio Di Maria – ex-121 BC wine bar, and man on the ground tonight, armed with a whole lot of natural wine. And here's Pasi Petanen – Good Food Guide 2016 Chef of the Year. His longstanding pop-up Cafe Paci was a Sydney favourite till closing its doors late in 2015. Together, they've been running a series of dinners through March at the Alexandria branch of Mecca.

That means you have one final chance to take a run at this unlikely but very likable collaboration. The last dinners are running over the 23rd, 24th and 25th of this month.

The idea behind the weekly changing menu is that its retro-engineered to fit with the Di Maria's wines (when he's not pouring at pop-ups, he's running his new online wine store, Fun Wines). Or, as Di Maria puts it as he runs a little house-baked bread and butter to the table, "we just sit in the park, you know, drink some wines and have a nice time then go to the market".

It's this kind of under-the-wire, louche attitude to menu-writing that makes me wish they were sticking around.

That, and the lightly pickled carrot rounds, strewn with dill and hiding an underskirt of 'nduja – a soft and spicy Calabrian pork sausage care of the LP's Quality Meats crew, further enriched with even more pork fat to create something between a paste and a sauce.

Or the delicate, light briny oyster emulsion that dresses perfectly ripe pieces of avocado finished with a thicket of salted parsley.

Petanen's ode to panzanella – the classic Italian bread salad – is all smoke and gentle fat thanks to fine cubes of smoked bonito sweetened with roast capsicum and finished with hunklets of yesterday's sourdough.

There's only one dish that doesn't quite kick goals, and that's the rice blitzed with squid ink. The end result is a crazily rich-and-salty glutinous black mass draped with translucent ribbons of lardo and finished with toasted hazelnuts. While it doesn't quite work as a standalone course, it'd be a very cool amuse. And hey, this is a pop-up that celebrates experimentation so there are no failures, just this one small "well, I'm pretty happy to put my spoon down now" moment.

This is a tasting menu with no ego, and plenty of brains. Word on the street is this is a dry-run for the pair who may go on to opening a roolio troolio restaurant together. And that, friends, truly would be amore.

The lowdown: $75 set menu, available sittings 23rd-25th March; 6.30pm, 7pm, 7.30pm or 8pm, book via thatsamoreinsydney@gmail.com