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Whetting the appetite

The look and feel of a restaurant is as important nowadays as the quality of its food and wine.

Fugazzi Bar & Dining Room, Adelaide.
Fugazzi Bar & Dining Room, Adelaide.

Going out for dinner now is about so much more than good food and good wine. Interior design has come into its own, and the way restaurants look, the way they make diners feel and the experience they help create is equally important. Adelaide restaurateur Simon Kardachi knows this well, and it has led to a 20-plus year career in hospitality and a mini-empire of restaurants and bars in the South Australian capital.

“Back in the old days I did a business and marketing degree, and I have applied those principles to restaurants,” he tells WISH. “Not being a chef, I have always designed my restaurants from the customer perspective; what they see, how they feel, and how they perceive the menu and price point. It is almost the reverse of what most chefs want to do when they set up a restaurant.”

Dishes from Fugazzi.
Dishes from Fugazzi.

For Kardachi, the experience starts as soon as the customer walks in the door. “It’s about creating the entire package,” he explains to WISH. “From the moment you are greeted, to the design of the tables and chairs, the interior cladding, the artwork and the carpets. It’s the details in the design that creates that memorable experience for guests. It’s not just about the food and wine.”

The site of his latest venture, Fugazzi Bar & Dining Room in Adelaide’s CBD, had a significant history, having been home to the famous Rigoni’s Bistro, where for more than 30 years the city’s most powerful lunched. The restaurant had closed and was derelict when Kardachi got the keys, but he wanted to pay tribute to the past as well as create a dining destination for the future.

“The original concept was to reinstate a great corporate lunch destination in Adelaide, but bring it forward with design, menus, food and service,” he explains. “We wanted to honour what it had been and what it meant to Adelaide. Italian was the easy pitch for that; long lunches of pasta, chargrilled meats. Basically we are want to give people the food they want to eat.”

Fugazzi Bar & Dining Room.
Fugazzi Bar & Dining Room.

Kardachi hired chef Max Sharrad to do the food (they already have another venue together called Nido) and Max’s wife Laura to oversee the front of house. He also got architect and interior design firm studio-gram, run by Graham Charbonneau and Dave Bickmore, to create Fugazzi.

“I have worked with them closely over the past 10 years,” the restaurateur says, “and my pitch was: this is the food we want to serve but I want an environment that feels like you can be in New York or in Milan. When you walk in the door you are no longer in Adelaide, you are transported somewhere else.

“We all have fond memories of dining overseas on holidays, whether it be the food you eat or the upholstery or the style of the room, so part of this experience is that you are transported and the designers nailed the brief.”

Fugazzi Bar & Dining Room
27 Leigh St, Adelaide

fugazzi.com.au

COOKBOOKS

MABU MABU: An Australian Kitchen Cookbook by Nornie Bero. Hardie Grant Books
MABU MABU: An Australian Kitchen Cookbook by Nornie Bero. Hardie Grant Books
Home Made: Cooking at Home with Melbourne’s Best Cooks, Chefs and Restauarnts. Broadsheet Media, Plum
Home Made: Cooking at Home with Melbourne’s Best Cooks, Chefs and Restauarnts. Broadsheet Media, Plum

We love Nornie Bero and what she is doing to promote Indigenous food. This is her first cookbook and recipes we can’t wait to try include Kangaroo Tartare and Pickled Succulents.

The Dessert Game by Reynold Poernomo. Murdoch Books
The Dessert Game by Reynold Poernomo. Murdoch Books

Melbourne is often crowned the dining capital of Australia but in the past two years it also scored an unwelcome title – the most locked-down city. As a result many of the city’s chefs were stuck at home and this book is a collection of their best recipes. Featuring food by Guy Grossi (Grossi Florentino), Andrew McConnell (Gimlet) and Benjamin Cooper (Chin Chin) among others.

It’s time to up the dessert stakes when you have people over, and this is where Reynold Poernomo comes in. The Sydney-based chef shows you how to seriously impress with some spectacular desserts. Think chocolate lava s’mores and a dessert inspired by Baileys called A Slice of Irish Cream.

Milanda Rout
Milanda RoutDeputy Editor Travel and Luxury Weekend

Milanda Rout is the deputy editor of The Weekend Australian's Travel + Luxury. A journalist with over two decades of experience, Milanda started her career at the Herald Sun and has been at The Australian since 2007, covering everything from prime ministers in Canberra to gangland murder trials in Melbourne. She started writing on travel and luxury in 2014 for The Australian's WISH magazine and was appointed deputy travel editor in 2023.

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Original URL: https://www.theaustralian.com.au/life/wish/whetting-the-appetite/news-story/d9b534e3e3f6610ea6eec1da33632a84