A 27-Year-Old Sydney Pasta Favourite Opens in the Inner West

At a time when people are dining out less, and often sticking to what they know when they do, returning to basics could be a winning move for hospitality teams. It’s exactly what Il Baretto is betting on in Newtown, where it’s just opened a much smaller, much more casual spin-off to its Paddington restaurant.

The Fedeli family has experience on its side. King Street’s new Il Baretto harks back to the original Il Baretto, a cosy neighbourhood trattoria that was adored in Surry Hills for over 20 years. 

Gabriella Fedeli opened her restaurant on Bourke Street in 1999. The menu was handwritten on a roll of butcher’s paper hanging on the wall, Peroni was on tap and Gabriella’s son Brendan Picchio worked on the floor. In 2020, it moved into the Paddo Inn’s dining room, the energy shifting to meet a new crowd of locals.

“I guess because Paddington was so different [as a suburb], it just morphed into another Italian restaurant,” says Kelly Fedeli, Gabriella’s daughter, who now runs the family business with her brother Brendan Picchio. Brendan looks after Paddington, while Kelly’s taken regional outpost Fiorini’s in Orange and, now, Newtown. Here, she wants you to drop by anytime. 

“Come in on your own, have a carbonara, a wine and leave,” she says. “In and out.” 

Whereas the full-service experience has been left to the east, the King Street eatery is keeping it classic: six signature pastas (all under $30), some easy add-ons, 10 speciality dishes and antipasti. “The whole idea for Newtown was to bring back all the old, original recipes, and just the nostalgia of that Surry Hills restaurant.”

Nearly everything is made in-house. Tomatoey arrabbiata and slow-cooked ragu, basil pesto to stir through penne or fluffy little gnocchi clouds. Risotto is silky with porcinis or that same pesto, meatballs arrive swimming in the family’s signature tomato sugo, and fat tubes of rigatoni are slick with carbonara. Lasagne? A well-done iteration of the classic, plus a tomatoey veggie number layered with bechamel and house-made sheets of spinach pasta. It’s just the dry pasta shapes – rigatoni, spaghetti, penne and a gluten-free casarecce – that the team brings in, as is standard in Rome.

Chef Julio Silveira is leading the inner west kitchen, after learning the ropes from Il Baretto’s first head chef and co-owner Domenico Santopadre. Silveira worked for close to 10 years in Surry Hills, made the move to Paddington and now, after a break, he’s back cooking those same recipes – long live the Surry Hills signature of duck ragu with house-made pappardelle.

The wine list ties Kelly’s two restaurants together. “Our restaurant is in wine country, so we’re surrounded by vineyards,” she says. The tight list comes exclusively from Orange – See Saw’s sparkling joins a white and red from both De Salis and Cha Lou. Plus, the house wines are made collaboratively with winemaking couple Nadja Wallington and Steve Mobbs (of Cha Lou), both $12 a glass.

“The grapes in the red wine come from the property Nadja grew up on, so they’ll never be replicated again,” says Kelly. “We were just lucky enough to get the last of that batch.”

Broadsheet’s tip: go soon if you want to try that exact drop – the walk-ins-only restaurant has been busy.

“The crowd just reminds me so much of what Surry Hills used to be,” says Kelly. “Newtown is a nostalgic kind of place. All the recipes – it’s all made exactly how it was 27 years ago.”

Il Baretto
365 King Street, Newtown
0408 987 042

Hours:
Mon to Thu 5pm–9pm
Fri to Sun midday–3pm, 5pm–9pm

ilbarettonewtown.com.au
@ilbaretto.newtown