Lulu La Delizia’s New Cantina Is Casual, Concrete-Clad and Coming Soon to Subiaco

“I wouldn’t call it a separate business,” says Joel Valvasori, chef-owner of Lulu La Delizia, a tightly run osteria that has earned a devoted following for its house-made pasta and its faithful, occasionally left-of-centre interpretations of Friulian cuisine from Italy’s northeast. “It’s another room for us. It’s part of Lulu’s.”

That “room” is a new 24-seat cantina, set to open by the end of June next door to the Subiaco institution. Small but thoughtful, the cantina shares the same ethos of Lulu La Delizia but has a more relaxed format.

“It’s a more casual space,” says Valvasori. “It’s walk-in only. The menu isn’t the same, but it’s along the same lines, just more casual in service and style. There’s panini at lunch, antipasti and aperitivo in the afternoon, and a couple of hot dishes in the evening, like a daily pasta special and meatballs coming out of Lulu’s kitchen.”

Unlike Lulu’s, which evokes the warmth and conviviality of a Northern Italian osteria, the cantina leans cooler and more sculptural. There’s dark timber and bentwood chairs but also textured concrete walls, polished curves and a quiet brutalist throughline. Valvasori worked with friend and interior designer Angelica Nordstrom of Rezen Studio on the fit-out. “That whole concrete thing is a reflection of my childhood and my grandparents’ cantina under their house. It was all very practical with old wood trims, things my nonno made. Not designer furniture, but solid. That was the feel we wanted.”

The heart of the menu is the panini: five of them, made on “slipper-sized” ciabatta bread from Osborne Park bakery Il Granino, and rotating with the seasons. Think grilled eggplant with cherry tomato sugo and fior di latte, or mortadella with asiago pressato and marinated artichokes. There’s a sandwich of roasted pork and fennel sausage with cime di rapa and provolone, and another of wood-grilled rare roast beef, rocket and mayonnaise. One panino, with coppa, provolone and pickled capsicum, is “our little ode to Tony Soprano.”

While the space has its own kitchen for chefs to slice salumi and plate up antipasti, the hot food will come from next door. “We’ll only do the pasta and meatballs when Lulu’s is open,” Valvasori says.

The drinks list is short, sharp and looser than the one next door. “We’ve never had a Margaret River chardonnay or an Australian pinot noir on the list at Lulu,” Valvasori says. “Here, we will. We’re still drawing on Italy, especially the north, but we’ve got a bit more scope.” There’ll also be a small selection of cocktails and, a first for Lulu’s, a Martini.

In true Italian fashion, the cantina will offer an aperitivo plate from 4pm to 6pm. Expect olives, crostini, nuts and other snacky things that pair well with an afternoon drink.

And yes, there’s coffee. “We’re not here to enter the coffee competition,” says Valvasori. “We’re not doing oat milk, we’re not doing takeaway. That’s not the Italian way. In Italy, it’s a bar. You stop in, have your espresso, and go. That’s what we want to encourage.”

Lulu La Delizia’s cantina is expected to open by the end of June.

@lululadelizia