It Seems Like This Is Curtains for Fitzroy North’s Pinotta

“I sound really clichéd, but we really wanted to open a good local restaurant that’s popular not for just 12 months,” Heidi Modra told Broadsheet the year after opening Pinotta in 2011. “We want to be here for ages, we want to become part of the landscape.”

Well, mission achieved. Over the past 14 years, the little Italian restaurant that could has become a treasured institution for Fitzroy North residents, almost as integral to the village as Piedimonte’s. Modra’s loved her time, but she’s tired. On April 26 she’ll hang up her apron for good and pass the business to Kafeneion ’s former venue manager Yianni Malindretos, who’s reportedly planning to flip it into a Greek restaurant.

“I’m very overwhelmed,” Modra says. “There’s been a huge outpouring of love for Pinotta and for me over the past 24 hours, and it’s taken me by surprise.”

The sale of the business is dependent on the transfer of the liquor licence, but Modra hopes to settle in the first or second week of May. Executive chef Philippa Sibley, who’s been in the role since 2023, will depart in mid-May to focus on her catering business and create more of her striking food portraits.

Surprisingly, Modra already has a new gig lined up too. She’ll be working the floor at The Local Drop, a forthcoming wine bar and bottle shop in Collingwood.

“I’m so ready for my next chapter, and having time to do things for myself,” she says. “I’m really happy this is how I’m finishing up. It feels like I’m finishing on a real positive note.”

Pinotta
32 Best Street, Fitzroy North
(03) 9481 3393

Hours
Wed 4pm–11pm
Thu to Sat midday–11pm

pinotta.com