First Look: At Roma Ristorante, There’s No Place Like Rome

Con Christopoulos needs another restaurant like Melbourne needs more puffer jackets. With various business partners, he co-owns Supper Club, The European, City Wine Shop, Siglo, Kafeneion, Butchers Diner, Angel Music Bar, French Saloon, Kirks, Le Pub and Bossa Nova Sushi.

Yet today he opens Roma, a glamorous yet understated dining room off Collins Street decked with green marble, intricate chequered stone floors, vintage Italian lamps and chandeliers.

Like Christopoulos, the other three partners are all veterans in their respective domains. There’s chef Matt Wilkinson (of Pope Joan fame), front-of-house gun Giovanni Patane (who ran Supermaxi for 12 years) and drinks guru Warwick Harty, who’s worked at Christopoulos venues on and off for 30 years.

Together, they’ve built the purest interpretation of a Roman trattoria we’ve yet seen in Melbourne, a city where Italian restaurants tend not to worry about regional boundaries.

“I’ve got a slight obsession with Rome, I go there all the time,” Christopoulos says. Later, he casually mentions that between trips with those business partners and his daughter Claudia Christopoulos (who works the floor at Roma), he’s touched down in the Eternal City at least nine times in the past couple of years. Not an exaggeration then.

While Christopoulos admires the fresh wave of culinary energy sweeping Rome, he’s more enamoured with the version chronicled by director Federico Fellini in films like Roma (1972), and the restaurants that have survived since then. His favourite is Trattoria al Moro, founded in 1929 and famously frequented by Fellini. Roma’s white lattice ceiling is an homage to al Moro’s.

Other references abound, if you know where to look. The distinctive grille on the terrace facade was lifted from a Roman house briefly featured in Sergio Leone: The Italian Who Invented America, a documentary about the famous spaghetti Western director. The cutlery is the same type used at the Fendi Hotel, where Christopoulos stays in Rome. Then there’s the Italian-made crockery he calls “out of control beautiful”, sourced from 291-year-old company Ginori.

The food, too, harks back to Fellini’s era, itself built upon centuries of tradition. In Rome offal is referred to as quinto quarto (“fifth quarter”), a reference to the days when the four quarters of each animal were given to nobility, the clergy, the bourgeoisie and soldiers in that order, with entrails left over for the peasants. Testaccio, an area once dominated by slaughterhouses, is still a hotspot for eating offal.

The menu therefore features a classic trippa alla romana, or tripe simmered in tomato and wine, alongside rose veal chops, pork scotch neck and lamb shoulder chops from the grill. Beef fillets are sold in 100-gram portions that encourage customising your plate. If you’re keen for a good fish – baked whole rock flathead, for example – head over to the ice-filled drawers by the kitchen and take your pick.

For all this protein, chef Wilkinson is most excited about the availability of veggies. He says there are now seven types of radicchio available locally, compared to just one previously. Puntarelle, a type of chicory often used in Roman cooking, is also more and more available here. And these veggies don’t need much to sing – just a splash of olive oil or lemon juice. The opening menu features braised artichokes with thyme and mint, for example.

Other highlights are a simple crudo of sea bream, chilli and nubs of grapefruit; a ricotta and wild greens ravioli in sugo; and house-made fior di latte gelato drizzled with amarena cherry syrup. Classic stuff.

The cellar also hews classic – just not in a way you might recognise. While there are bottles from Australia, France and wider Italy, Christopoulos has focused on wines from Lazio, the unsung region Rome sits in. It specialises in the white grape bellone, trebbiano (also white) and multiple types of malvasia (you guessed it, white). Combine these varieties and others and you get Frascati, a DOC blend with an outdated reputation for being cheap and nasty.

Christopoulos travelled to Italy’s biggest wine fair to source these wines, which are virtually impossible to get in Australia. He brought back his favourite bottles and held a blind staff tasting at the European, with a few known favourites mixed in. The Lazio wines scored well.

“When I told them it was wine from Lazio, no one could believe me,” he says. “Historically, it hasn’t been celebrated, because they had such a massive market in Rome.”

All this effort makes clear Roma is a passion project for the prolific restaurateur. But why open it in the first place? And why now?

“They gave me an offer I couldn’t refuse,” Christopoulos offers with a wry grin. “It took years to do the deal, because of course I had zero appetite for it.”

“They” is Investa, a property group that owns the 50-storey tower at 120 Collins Street, including a lush off-street garden and the smaller building that houses Roma. The restaurant’s front terrace and old-timey takeaway kiosk open directly onto the garden – a dream al fresco set-up in anyone’s books. 

“I knew the space and historically the garden was never maintained well,” Christopoulos says. “Then there was a wind issue. The landlord spent a fortune on the foyer. With computer-generated models they put these shards up and they’ve reduced the wind problem out there enormously.”

But he still had a major issue with light. While the first-floor space sits in the Russell Street treeline, with voyeuristic views, the windows were tinted and fixed shut. At Christopolous’s request, the landlord replaced them with motorised frames that can swing open in under 30 seconds, making Roma spring/summer 2026’s hottest balcony seat. 

“They ticked all the boxes,” Christopoulos says. “One thing led to another, it got to the point where I couldn’t say no – that’s why I’m here.”

Roma
Rear, 120 Collins Street, Melbourne (alternate access also via 100 Russell Street)
(03) 9989 1314

Hours
Terrace breakfast Mon to Sat 7.30am–11.30am
Roma Ristorante Tue to Sat 11.30am–3pm & 5.30pm–late
Snack kiosk Mon to Sat 7.30am–late

romamelbourne.com.au