Hot new Fitzroy restaurant Carnation Canteen walks the high-low tightrope with panache, balancing the fancy and the unfussy.

A radiant pink Italian marble bartop contrasts with intentionally stripped-back walls. Four-figure back-vintage champagne – from cult producer Egly-Ouriet – sits alongside $12-a-glass house wine from Abruzzo. And best-in-class produce gets the less-is-more treatment on deceptively simple plates.

It’s a decisive debut for owner-chef Audrey Shaw, who brings some serious culinary (and architectural) cred to the table. She’s worked for Ruth Rogers at iconic London restaurant The River Cafe, and Brigitte Hafner at the ever-impressive Osteria Tedesca.

But Shaw is an architect by trade, previously at acclaimed local practice Kerstin Thompson, where she assisted in the design of sibling CBD restaurants Sunda and Aru.

Three years ago, she began funnelling that experience into a site on Gore Street, once a Greek corner store called Les’s Mini World (the signage remains). “We’d walked past a million times, so I went full detective mode [to secure the site],” she says.

It’s become an intimate, charmingly poky 20-seater that glows like a lantern in the backstreets at night.

Shaw’s food philosophy is “loosely Mediterranean”, so the offering bears influences from across Italy, Greece and Spain. “We use a lot of olive oil, a lot of lemons, a lot of salt,” Shaw says. “Those are our core ingredients and everything moves around [them].”

The handwritten menu looks different from week to week, depending on what produce is at its peak. Shaw works directly with small suppliers such as certified-organic Day’s Walk Farm in the Keilor Valley and South Melbourne Market fromagerie K-Sein.

A recent menu offered treviso radicchio, the leaves tangling with hunks of Riverine Blue cheese, blushing apples and walnuts; and spanakorizo, a home-style Greek dish of spinach, rice and barrel-aged feta from cheese expert Will Studd. One dish haven’t been able to budge from the menu, though, is King George whiting. Delivered daily and butterflied and de-boned in-house, it’s grilled over charcoal and served in a pool of Yalla-y-poora biodynamic olive oil with a lemon cheek.

Don’t want a full meal? Visit from 4pm for aperitivi, which involves Grey Goose martinis (so popular “we’ve been pouring [them] like water”) and uncomplicated snacks.

Carnation Canteen is currently dinner-only, but there are plans to open for lunch soon. Bookings are via email at reservations@carnationcanteen.com or direct message through Instagram.

Open Wed-Sat 4pm-10pm

165 Gore Street, Fitzroy, instagram.com/carnationcanteen

A former cordial factory is now Collingwood’s hottest new restaurant and basement bar

The heritage-listed site of Orlo – Collingwood’s new Med-inspired diner and bar – has a colourful history. It was built in the late 1800s as a cordial factory for the brand Dyason.

That heritage is what attracted hospitality veteran James Klapanis (St Cloud Eating House, Young’s Wine Rooms), who’s transformed the building into a sprawling three-level venue that pays homage to its roots.

“I want people to walk in and get a feel for what was here,” he says. The original arched red-brick facade has been restored; likewise, the bluestone walls, and an old truss above the private-dining mezzanine (accessible by a spiral staircase).

Klapanis let executive chef Matteo Tine (Grossi Florentino, Bar Carolina, Tetto di Carolina) “go berserk” with the menu, powered by a Josper grill and pulling from – but not limited to – his Sicilian background.

There’s bubbling cacio e pepe conchiglie (giant pasta shells); swordfish spiedini (Italian skewers) souped up with miso; and wildcards such as Sommerlad chicken cooked in the style of Cantonese barbecue classic char siu.

After dinner, slink downstairs to Orlo’s dimly lit basement bar, aptly named The Cordial Club, for one of the cocktails curated by Joe Jones (Purple Pit), starring house-made seasonal cordials in flavours like orange and saffron.

Open daily noon-late.

44 Oxford Street, Collingwood, orlo.com.au