‘Fresh off the trawlers’: inside new new Italian restaurant using locally-sourced seafood

The coastlines of two very different countries meet at this new Italian restaurant. Check out the super fresh menu with locally-sourced seafood.

Beach town dwellers will tell you life is better by the sea — the air is cool, the water is our playground and most importantly, the food is fresh.

Tweed Heads’ new restaurant Gallura Italian takes full advantage of its surroundings with fruits of the ocean pulled daily from the nearby river, paired seamlessly with distinctive coastal Mediterranean cooking.

“We wanted to keep it authentic but also appreciate our own coastline, we’ve got so much access to amazing seafood,” Gallura co-owner Maki Dackiw says.

“We’re sourcing all our seafood from Australia. The jumbo prawns are coming directly from the Tweed River, fresh off the trawlers.

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Gallura is a new Italian restaurant in Tweed Heads. Owners Maki and Mike Dackiw. Pic Tim Marsden

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“We’ve got local octopus coming from the Tweed River, too. Then there’s Western Australian scampi, Spring Bay muscles coming from Tasmania, and New Zealand vongole, that’s the closest kind you can get to clams from Italy.”

Gallura Italian is the product of Maki and her chef husband Mike Dackiw, both coming with decades of experience in Australian and overseas restaurants.

Maki’s passion for Italian hospitality began in Sydney as an adolescent working in Pinocchio’s Italian Restaurant, before moving to Milan to work for a trattoria.

“I started off by having my first ever restaurant in Milan with some business partners there — it was a typical Milanese trattoria,” she says.

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Jumbo prawns are sourced daily from the Tweed River. Pic Tim Marsden

“A trattoria, or osteria, is more concentrated on the specific cuisine. They’re all home cooking, like going back to basics, beautiful honest food from that region.

“We opened a beautiful cocktail bar in Milan. I met my husband in Milan at the end of that 10 years. He happened to be Australian.

“How Gallura came about — Gallura is in north Sardinia, it’s our most favourite holiday destination.

“We love their cuisine, their culture, love everything that Sardinia oozes.

“They concentrate on seaside and mountainous cuisine, so there’s also goat, lamb and suckling pig, and it’s all about the fresh coastal regions we’ve incorporated into Gallura.

“We’re going up and down the beautiful coast — Sicily, Calabria, Portofino.

“One of our famous dishes, which is the flamed brandy scampi, that’s from Liguria. Then we will be doing the chargrilled octopus from Sardinia.”

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The Pane Frattau is a Sardinian flat bread dish with tomato salsa, basil, lamb broth, pecorino sardo and a poached duck egg. Picture: Tim Marsden

Gallura’s wine list is solely Italian, a move Maki is hoping pays off for customers seeking an all-encompassing experience.

“We’re introducing ones that a lot of people have never heard of,” Maki says.

“We’re taking a little bit of a risk, educating and talking and experiencing different wines and matching them with our specific cuisine, but I think it’s going to be a winner.”

From the handmade pasta made daily to the thoughtfully designed coastal-themed fit out, Gallura is a reflection of the passion Italians have for good food and drink in a pocket of the southern Gold Coast.

“Originally I fell in love with how traditional they (Italians) kept things — really honest food, keeping it simple,” Maki says.

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Gallura’s chargrilled octopus with artichoke chips and saffron aioli. Pic Tim Marsden

“Over the years it started evolving, making it a bit more fun and a little bit more evolved, put it up a notch with presentation and flavours.

“Our passion is for the islands and the whole coastline as well.”

Gallura Italian is open Wednesday to Sunday at 1/20 Stuart St, Tweed Heads.