A
new venture from restaurateur
Rinaldo Di Stasio was never going
to slip under the radar, but even
his most ardent fans might not
have anticipated the seismic e ect his
city outpost has had on the dining scene.
That vibration? The sound of a gauntlet
being thrown down.
When Di Stasio Città landed on
Spring Street in February, all marble,
terrazzo, Murano glass and jittery video
art, it was a guns-blazing reminder that
great restaurants are not just about food.
They must also be places of theatre, of
fantasy, of fl irtation and fun. It reminded
us that it’s exciting to get dressed up for
dinner, to eat fried pastries from silver trays,
to surrender time to celebrating the things
that can’t be valued via spreadsheet. You
know, life stu.
Città arrived an undiluted expression
of the gospel according to Ronnie.“When I opened Café Di Stasio in St Kilda
it was because I wanted to be in business...
I wanted to be my own boss,” he says. “But
with Città, it’s not business, it’s personal.
I wanted it to be an amalgamation of all the
things that I love: Italianality, art, architecture
and food. It’s like a personal journey where
I can include my love of Venice and Milan
with my love of Melbourne.”
The best thing about Città is that it
works as successfully as a place to get fed
and watered, all day every day, as it does as
a manifesto. It might not be for everybody,
and grand expressions like these never
come cheap, but it’s fi lled a gap and added
something important to the dining scene,
not just of Melbourne but of the country.
Everybody can come here and be a little
more glamorous, have a little more fun, drink
and eat a little more than they should and
then head back into the world a little better
for it. That’s something we can all get behind.NEW RESTAURANT
OF THE YEARDi Stasio Città
Melbourne