As venues around the country continue to close due to economic pressures, some operators are rethinking their business model and pivoting to more affordable and approachable offerings. (Melbourne’s trailblazing plant-based restaurant Smith & Daughters recently rebranded to the much more casual Smith & Daughters Social Club, with a snack-heavy menu of vegan dim sims, corndogs and pizzetta.) Now Adelaide’s CBD fine diner Eleven is flipping the script with owners Themis Chryssidis and Callum Hann reinventing their restaurant in response to tightened purse strings, as well as changing tastes.
“We loved Eleven, we had a lot of wonderful, loyal customers, but the dining scene has changed a lot the last few years – not just in terms of what the customer wants to eat, but also what I and Themis want to cook,” says Hann who, alongside frequent collaborator Chryssidis, also owns Olive Restaurant, Sprout Cooking School, and Lou’s Place in the Barossa.
“When we go out to restaurants and when we cook meals, we don’t want it to be crazy complicated or feel like you have to get dressed to the nines. We want to feel relaxed and casual; I just want to get a bunch of my mates together and hang out.”
The duo have rebranded their upscale Waymouth Street restaurant as Roma, a bright, colourful and laid-back Italian eatery designed to appeal to a broader crowd. “We built the whole thing around the open-air piazza-like space,” says Hann. “It’s a big open venue and there’s not much like that in the city. You feel like you’re in Europe. It also doesn't hurt that Adelaide has decided to get the sun out.”
The revamp is something of a re-introduction to the site, which had been partly concealed by construction of the nearby Marriott Hotel. “It was a really closed-off part of the city, so it was a bit more intimate and that fine-dining level made more sense,” says Hann. “But now the hotel has opened up in the last few weeks … the whole area feels completely different now, it’s really open and spacious. So with that change and that thoroughfare vibe, we liked the idea of sitting back, having a glass of wine and a snack or a coffee and watching the world go by.”
The Italian menu traverses the boot with dishes like Shark Bay scallops doused in fermented chilli butter and served in the half-shell; lamb arrosticini (skewers); pork cotoletta; a Florentine-style steak; and beef tartare cannoli. “It’s a bit of fun,” Hann says of the latter. “We make a darn good sweet cannoli too, but [for this] we use a different pastry, a savoury version, with the beautiful, crunchy texture you expect from a cannoli. We fill it with beef tartare, dip it in chives and a bit of black garlic, and away you go.”
It’s a huge menu and one that leans on snacks but also has plenty of options in the way of pasta, grilled meats, vegetables and dessert. The latter includes a bright, fresh salted blood orange panna cotta served with Campari granita and rosemary sherbet. “We had a long menu and then in the testing phase we were going to potentially weed out dishes we didn’t think were going to make the cut, and then all the dishes made the cut.”
The changes also include a brand new deli in an additional tenancy, which serves Roman-style pizza by the (square) slice, salads, pastries and coffee for city workers to grab and go.
Roma
11 Waymouth Street, Adelaide
Hours
Mon to Fri 8am–late
Sat 11am–late
