Two Chaps is already a hit with Marrickville locals during the day, when the former welding workshop pumps out Blind Man coffee and simple, vegetarian treats like peach, frangipane, and rosemary tart.

Until December 19 the cafe will also be open Thursday and Friday evenings for northern Italian fare and housemade pasta.

"I want people from Surry Hills to come to Marrickville and try my pasta," says Two Chaps owner Piero Pignatti Morano. "I'm always heading over there to visit them!"

Kim Douglas (ex Rockpool Bar and Grill, Henrietta Supper Club) has joined Morano on the pans.

"It's summer time so fresh pastas, fresh cheeses and your bottle of pignoletto," says Morano. "The menu is part my grandmother, part Kim's badass food ethic and part [UK-based Italian chef] Giorgio Locatelli."

The menu features tagliatelle with braised fennel, smoked and sauteed mushrooms, gremolata, and taleggio ($18) and rotolo di zucca - a pumpkin-and-ricotta-stuffed pasta roll with fontina cheese, burnt sage butter and walnut aillade for $20.

Dessert has us the most excited, though: both the ice-cream sandwich of rosemary and olive oil gelato held in a pine-nut cookie ($10) and a poached peach with frangelico custard, vanilla mascarpone, and hazelnut praline ($12).

Two Chaps Nights is BYO (corkage $3 per person) and has a no-bookings policy. Gluten-free and vegan alternatives are available on request.

122 Chapel Street, Marrickville, 9572 8858