Words: Lara Pacillo // Photos: Jack Fenby
When Nicola Pau and Luca Baioni were young boys growing up in Milan, their mothers would send them to the corner store to buy milk, butter, and cheese.
As they grew older and people looked more to supermarkets for groceries, this corner store, or ‘latteria’, began to evolve. Many transformed into lunch spots, or ‘tavola calda’ serving small menus with the likes of antipasti, arancini, pasta, and one of their favourites, pizzetta (mini pizza).
“And then, as soon as you eat in Italy, there’s the drink,” Nicola grins.
“In Milano, we’re obsessed with aperitivo hour.
“You’d pop in, have a negroni, maybe a couple of nibbles. It was still the latteria you went to as a kid to buy milk, cheese, some groceries. But you don’t buy groceries there anymore. You just go for an aperitivo.”
It’s this concept that Latteria on Hutt Street was inspired from.
Opened in early 2024, Latteria has become a favourite for good-time goers, blending Italianesque nostalgia with suburbia Adelaide.
Latteria is the brainchild of Nicola and Maxwell O’Callaghan, co-owners of Osteria Oggi, along former Campari Brand Ambassador and Black Pearl bar’s Luca Baioni, and former Sol Rooftop & Bar’s Rhys Nicholson.
While it’s clear Latteria shares DNA with Osteria Oggi — one of Adelaide’s favourite Italian restaurants since it opened ten years ago — it stands apart with its own identity, characterised more as a “bar first, restaurant second.”
The venue reimagines the elements that stand out in Nicola’s memory of the latteria of his youth.
“You see the colours, the baby blue, the grandma window, the timber, the chrome parts — all those little things we used to see,” Nicola says.
“But now they’re in a very different type of shop. It’s a cocktail bar in Adelaide, yet still in a residential area, just like the corner store.”
Joining the growing lineup of hospitality venues on Hutt Street has been an exciting move for the Latteria team. Unlike the high-rise buzz of Pirie Street, where Osteria Oggi is located, Hutt Street offers the suburban charm that fits perfectly with Latteria’s ethos.
“Hutt Street is beautiful. It’s stunning,” Nicola says. “It feels like you’re in the hills all the time.”
Designed by architecture and interior design practice Studio Gram, the venue — formerly a bank and TAB — tells the tale of Milanese dining culture, with a seamless flow from drinks to food, back to drinks, and finally to party.
At its heart is an island bar which “had to be in the middle of the venue,” Nicola emphasises.
“We wanted to communicate that this is what we do. If you’re a pizzeria, you need to see the pizza maker. If you make cocktails, you need to see the people shaking.”
Guests can start their afternoon perched on high stools around the bar, progress to traditional dining tables for dinner, and eventually make their way to the back lounge by the DJ booth.
“The Latteria lounge is where it gets dangerous,” Nicola adds. “The venue flows. It’s like a story.”
Serving up reinvented Italian bites, the menu always features pizzetta, alongside creative takes on classics like savoury Crunchy Cannolo and Tiramisù-Lamington.
As for ingredients? “Everything is local, of course,” Nicola says, noting that focaccias and pastas are all made in-house.
“Being in South Australia, it would be silly to source things interstate or overseas. There’s no reason. Wines? Let’s not even talk about it!”
The cocktail list reflects the modern twist on nostalgic classics, with drinks like the Rhubarb Sbagliato capturing the evolution of the Negroni Sbagliato, and the Mediterranean Martini with a blood lime twist.
“The aim is definitely to push party every day,” Nicola says. Things get particularly lively from Friday to Sunday with DJs into the late night, and the occasional themed party.
“We want people to get loose. It’s mostly playful, and very much a celebration.”
At Latteria, nostalgia isn’t about being stuck in the past — it’s about celebrating the best parts of it.
“We’re attached to memories. We love it,” Nicola says.
“Some of us aren’t from here, and we’re nostalgic for what we remember from home. But we’re in love with this country. This is what it feels like to be in modern day Adelaide, and we’re proud of it.”
Latteria: 185 Hutt Street Adelaide 5000
