First Look: Busy Italian Hotspot Da Orazio Is Back in Its Original Bondi Spot With its Pizzas and Sydney-Famous Porchetta Sandwich

Da Orazio Pizza + Porchetta landed in Bondi’s Hall Street dining precinct in January 2014 with a thud. The casual Italian restaurant was by Icebergs restaurateur Maurice Terzini and the fine diner’s general manager Rachel Duffy, with on-the-rise Orazio D’Elia as its charismatic star chef.

It quickly became Sydney’s hottest new restaurant, known for outstanding woodfired pizzas, hulking rotisserie porchetta and good-looking, gregarious staff who were as stylish as the clientele.

D’Elia sold out of the restaurant in 2018 and went on to open Matteo in Double Bay (and later one in the city). Terzini closed Da Orazio the following year, and replaced it with Cicciabella, which shut last year.

Now D’Elia has come full circle, returning to the pretty corner spot to open his own version of the bustling pizzeria and bar with a slight name change.

Like its original, Da Orazio is simultaneously casual yet smart and chic, and has a fun anything-goes vibe. The space has been given a makeover by Loopcreative to give it an unassuming Italian beach-club look and feel. There’s plenty of natural light, and an energy permeates from the kitchen and the bar. Its fire-engine red door is also back.

“When I was asked to give a quote about my new restaurant, I thought ‘il primo amore non si scorda mai’, which means ‘the first love you never forget’,” D’Elia tells Broadsheet. “Da Orazio was my first love. Covid, I guess, changed a lot of things for me, and one of those changes was I ended up buying this one back.”

The new restaurant is not an homage to the original Da Orazio – although about half of its dishes are on the new menu. If anything, it feels more of an evolution of D’Elia’s cooking style and a reflection of the team he’s assembled, which includes general manager and partner Cristiano Poddine and pizza chef Matteo Ernandes (who also worked at the original Da Orazio).

Old-school diners will recognise the grilled lamb skewers, the fregola pasta with seafood and the slow-roasted deboned free-range Berkshire pork that, when it’s finished cooking on the rotisserie for hours, takes pride of place on the marble kitchen bar for everyone to see.

One of Da Orazio’s signature dishes is also back: the spectacular focaccia con porchetta. The famous dish is made by taking slices of the rotisserie pork, marinated grilled eggplant and crisp cos lettuce, and laying that pile between two pizza breads that are smeared with mayo and chilli. Oof – it’s a big boy – a tasty two-hander sandwich that’s an essential order (just make sure you bring some buddies to help you eat it).

“It’s back,” D’Elia says enthusiastically. “It’s such a great sandwich. The pork is from Taluca Park.”

There are also new dishes, such as an Italian version of saganaki (asiago cheese sizzled in a hot pan with anchovies, confit tomato and olives) and mortadella slathered with a cacio e pepe sauce then crumbed and deep-fried.

The excellent pizzas are back, too, but there’s been a significant change made to the recipe. Da Orazio has always known for its blistered puffy Neapolitan-style pizzas, but Ernandes has perfected the biga-style fermentation process, which results in lighter, more digestible bases.

His pizzas now have impressive high-walled edges that are delightfully spongy and squishy. “In Europe they call it pizza contemporary. He’s done a great job. It means you can eat more pizza,” says D’Elia.

Like the original, Da Orazio encourages families to come for an early dinner seating, about 5pm, and there’s a succinct bambini menu that includes spag bol, simple pizzas and scoops of ice-cream.

For the adults there’s house wine for $8 and one-litre carafes for $50. “It’s served like my nonna did [it], in a jug and with peaches inside so at the end you eat the fruit.” There are also four types of Espresso Martini, White Russians and a cocktail devoted to Maurice Terzini. “It’s the MT8, with vodka, Campari and ruby red grapefruit. It’s basically his Number 8 at Icebergs. Maurice has been my greatest mentor, teacher and father – he’s taught me a lot, so I wanted to put a drink on the menu with [his] name on it.”

And it wouldn’t be an Italian restaurant without tiramisu.

There’s also plans for the space next door. “The vision for me is if you’re waiting for a table, you have a drink there, or you can choose to eat there – you do what you want. There’ll be couches, lounges and tables outside. There’s a jukebox with stuff from the ’80s and ’90s so people can play music and have fun,” he says.

Eventually there’ll also be a space for D’Elia’s catering business, and Bondi’s first private dining room.

Da Orazio
75–79 Hall St, Bondi Beach
(02) 8376 1600

Hours:
Mon–Sun 5pm–late
Sat & Sun lunch from midday

daorazio.com.au

@da_orazio
@chef_orazio