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It’s a cold, dark Tuesday night in Coogee, and the place is pumping. If you’re not of this ’hood, you may not have heard of Louie. Millions haven’t, yet the big 100-seat Italian restaurant is stacked with people and humming with buzzy cocktail-fuelled chatter. Then I remember: Tuesday night is the new Friday night.

Louie opened in January and has been a hit from day one. The mostly local crowd crosses three generations, each having a wow of a time downing Splice gin fizzes, glasses of pinot grigio, or, as babes in arms, bottled milk.

Owner Chris Lu, former owner of Happy As Larry Pizzeria and the pretty-as-a-picture Flower Child cafes, copped the nickname Louie as a kid and it stuck. This is the sort of restaurant he always wanted; a casual beachside setting where people can kick back and relax with Italian summer holiday food, a soulful soundtrack, and curated natural wines.

Lu worked with young Sydney designer Sean Virili to achieve a coastal chic makeover of the large square room, installing comfy banquettes and a row of semi-circular booths, with a bottle-backed, stool-lined bar. The arched windows repeat their motif along the streetside, adding majorly to the charm.

Consultant chef Michael Otto, formerly of Darlinghurst’s Sagra, has done a nostalgia-poking Italian menu that runs from fun to classic, from calamari fritti, stuffed zucchini flowers and prosciutto with burrata to Sicilian eggplant parmigiana and three popular pastas.

Crusty, house-baked sourdough bread arrives free of charge (it’s listed on the menu at $6 if you want seconds), with whipped truffle and pecorino butter.

Never one to ignore the obvious, I jump into a golden pile of deep-fried calamari ($21) with plenty of squiggly legs, a wedge of fresh lemon and a bowl of saffron aioli.

Skewers of lamb and pork lardo ($23) echo the Abruzzo’s chargrilled arrosticini, served with a brushstroke of white bean puree and straggles of caramelised agrodolce onions. A bit busy, but there’s good flavour.

Pasta is hand-rolled, sheeted and extruded in-house on a daily basis, and shouldn’t be missed; especially the bell-shaped campanelle with blue swimmer crab, prawn, tomato and chilli oil ($36).

Bucatini all’amatriciana ($31) is great, the fat hollow tubes dressed with the famous sauce of Amatrice, near Rome; made here with cherry tomatoes, guanciale, chilli and garlic, and topped with a splodge of stracciatella cheese that gently turns it into something deliciously creamy.

Apart from the pasta, the kitchen has had a tendency to overcook rather than undercook, so I wonder about the wisdom of ordering “zuppa-style” seafood ($44/$88). But it’s the dish of the night, vibing on a traditional zuppa di pesce yet lightening and brightening it.

The mix of octopus, squid, seared barramundi, prawn and vongole is sauced with a ladleful of fragrant tomato broth, made from slow-roasted cherry tomatoes, the shellfish cooking juices, fish stock, crustacean butter and a squeeze of lemon juice. It comes with heaps of grilled and oiled sourdough bread for dunking; as a true zuppa should.

Keen young staff are happy to jump in and help where needed, and the shortish wine list is interesting, with its Italian varietals and small-batch winemakers such as Aristotelis Ke Anthoula from the far south coast of NSW. A glass of the Veneto’s 2021 Farina Le Pezze Pinot Grigio ($14) speaks the same language as the food.

Desserts are resolutely classic (tiramisu) and a delicate, vanilla-flecked panna cotta ($14) wobbles convincingly in its moat of strawberry and rosewater syrup. Nothing to scare the horses, but it’s fresh and bright. And you can end on an amaro because, says Chris Lu, “there’s no better way to finish a meal”.

No wonder Louie is packed. It’s professional, cheery, well-run, casual enough for an early family meal but good enough for an occasion. I’d hate to see it on a Friday – or is that the new Tuesday?