Sydney favourite Totti’s opening at Lorne Hotel in summer 2023

Pack the car, Sydney’s favourite pasta palace is opening its first Victorian outpost in Lorne this summer.

Sydney pasta palace Totti’s is opening in Lorne this summer.

The fourth outpost of the Merivale cash-cow will move into the Lorne Hotel from February.

Mega-rich Justin Hemmes’ beachside trattoria will give southsiders a taste of Bondi’s famous ballooning flatbread and housemade pasta with Totti’s creator Mike Eggert and Matt Germanchis (of Anglesea’s Captain Moonlite) leading the kitchen.

The restaurant will permanently move into the ground floor space occupied by MoVida, which closed earlier this year after a four-year tenancy.

Justin Hemmes. Picture: Darren Leigh Roberts

It’s understood the Lorne Hotel’s bistro and Coda will remain for now.

Billionaire hospitality player Hemmes made waves when he bought the Surf Coast pub last year, one month after buying Tomasetti House in the city for a reported $40m.

Merivale is remaining tight-lipped on the progress of its CBD development, saying its priority is opening Totti’s in Lorne.

Totti’s has developed a cult following in Sydney’s eastern suburbs after opening in Bondi in 2018, with venues in the city and inner-city Rozelle following soon after.

Eat Sacred lands in Hawthorn

Bayside sandwich slinger Dean Fourtzis has always been big on flavour but since lockdown he’s been conscious of his health.

“Eating healthy has helped my mental health,” he said.

“I know a lot of men struggled during lockdown and went through their own battles but when I changed my diet and improved my gut health, it transformed me.”

The fitness-mad cafe owner plans to open his next project, Eat Sacred, in Hawthorn next month.

Fourtzis told the Herald Sun last June he was set on opening Sons of Sandwiches with business partner Rishit Patel in Bentleigh.

Eat Sacred’s Dean Fourtzis with some of his healthy sandwiches and health bowls. Picture: Jason Edwards.

But after a few months of reflection he’s changed tact, after falling in love with a Glenferrie Rd shopfront.

Unlike SOS, Eat Sacred will serve made-to-order sangers and build-you-own health bowls – costing no more than $14 and $16 respectively.

“I don’t want people to be spending $16 on a sandwich. I want people to come in daily and eat healthy. Eating healthy should be affordable for everyone,” he said.

Fourtzis will also step into the kitchen, making lunch fare inspired by his Israel and Greek roots. He’s even busting out his 101-year-old yiayia’s beef brisket recipe.

“(The sandwich is) inspired by my family’s slow cooked Sunday roast, with the recipe going from my yiayia to my mum, aunties and now me,” he said.

Eat Sacred will also serve toasties, breakfast bowls and ‘filling’ sangers packed with panko crumbed chicken schnitzel and beef brisket, as well as vegetarian and vegan options.

Fourtzis, who also runs cafes Stevie in Sandringham and Highett’s Son’s of Mischief, gets the keys to the building next week.

He hopes to have the 40-seater up and running by the first week of December.

Eat Sacred, 769C Glenferrie Rd, Hawthorn

Open for businesses

Flood-stricken Echuca is open for business, despite what you may think.

While a levy protected homes and businesses from rising water, coverage of last month’s devastation continues to deter tourists from visiting the holiday centre during what’s typically its busiest time of year.

Echuca Chocolate Company owner Richard McLean said after two years of Covid, his business was now down on trade because of the floods.

“It’s our strongest trade period leading into Christmas. We estimate we are 80 per cent down and it’s entirely to do with the flooding, messaging and perception,” he said.

“With all of the confusing messages around road closures, people are staying away. We’d love to welcome them back and it’s not happening.”

Thankfully for the McLeans, they have seen an uptick in Melbourne customers buying their chocolates online, not just through their own website but via Visit Victoria’s Click for Vic campaign.

The state tourism body launched the initiative as a way for people to support the hospitality and travel industries during lockdown. Now the program has been reinstated to help flood-affected small businesses.

Visit Victoria chief Brendan McClements said: “We’re reinstating our much-loved Click for Vic campaign to encourage consumers to buy local and support Victorian businesses, especially those in parts of the state that are impacted by flooding. Most of the state is still safe to travel to so it’s also important travellers check the VicEmergency website before changing their plans, and reschedule their bookings rather than cancel where possible.”