The Italian restaurant that gave a tiny village its soul back
With a population of just 270, Carcour isn’t an obvious choice on the foodie map. Or it wasn’t, until Paolo and Kelly Picarazzi started Antica Australis, and diners began coming in droves.
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Italian steelworker Paolo Picarazzi had a vision and took to heart the old mantra that if he built it they will come.
And food lovers have come in droves to his hyper-local Italian locanda, Antica Australis, in the tiny village of Carcoar, 30 minutes south of Orange.
“I wanted to run a restaurant that is not really a restaurant and restore the soul of the people,” he said of his original vision.
He and wife Kelly (pictured) found a former antique shop in the village and opened the restaurant based on the cuisine of his local area of Ciociaria between Naples and Rome.
“This is exactly what Paolo said he wanted it to be when we met while working in Abu Dhabi,” Kelly said. “Organic and underground, building up a reputation among our followers in Sydney’s food scene.”
The restaurant is only open over the weekend from Friday to Sunday and has become a popular stop on the food trail that takes in nearby Millthorpe and Orange.
At night, diners spend at least three hours over a set dinner, drinking wine from ceramic cups and hearing the stories of the hyper local produce that has gone into the food.
“Our local butcher at Blayney orders twice as much steak when we put it on the menu because he knows all of our customers will go there to buy it the next day,” Kelly said.
Visitors have transformed the Carcoar economy, booking into accommodation and packing cafes for breakfast and lunch.
The village is also the location of Sunrise newsreader Edwina Bartholomew’s latest country project.
Bartholomew and husband Neil Varcoe bought the Victoria Hotel after selling their Sydney home in March and they are restoring it into a boutique hotel which is set to open in 2025.
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