Gallery: Broadsheet Access x Roma Readers’ Preview Dinner

Many restaurants aspire to open feeling “lived in”, like they’ve been there for decades already. With its confident grey-haired waiters, chequered stone floors, vintage Italian chandeliers and suave continental playlist pre-dating the invention of pop music, Roma absolutely pulled it off on opening last week.

We’d expect nothing less from Con Christopoulos, the accomplished restaurateur behind other old world-feeling Melbourne institutions including The European, City Wine Shop, Kafeneion, French Saloon and Kirks. To build this loving homage to Rome, he partnered with chef and Pope Joan founder Matt Wilkinson, floor manager Giovanni Patane (last seen at Supermaxi) and drinks specialist Warwick Harty, who’s worked with Christopoulos for three decades.

Last Wednesday, the night before the restaurant opened to the public, Broadsheet Access members and a large table of Christopoulos’s proud family members enjoyed a relaxed four-course dinner featuring the Roman street food suppli al telefono (rice and tomato croquettes with molten mozzarella centres), sea bream crudo with glistening jewels of grapefruit, braised artichokes, trippa alla romana (tripe in tomato and wine sauce) and grilled rose veal.

Just before a simple dessert of fior di latte gelato and tart amarena cherries, Christopoulos stood up with Broadsheet’s Australia editor, Nick Connellan, to discuss the various influences that shaped the room and menu. Guests heard that Christopoulous is obsessed with contemporary Rome – he’s been there at least nine times in recent years – but also the vintage version depicted in Fellini films.

The restaurant’s white lattice ceiling, for example, is a replica of that found in Rome’s Trattoria al Moro, founded in 1929 and famously frequented by Fellini. Trattoria al Moro also happens to be Christopoulos’s favourite restaurant in the city. Later, chef Wilkinson chimed in to explain how staple Roman veggies like radicchio and puntarelle have become so much more available in Australia – an exciting development for his menu.

If you missed out, it’s time to sign up for Broadsheet Access. We host exclusive previews like this whenever there’s a hot new restaurant opening in Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, Adelaide or Perth. To stay in the know, and nab your seat at the next one, subscribe to Broadsheet and join our membership program today.