Every Thursday, a plane lands at Melbourne’s Tullamarine airport with a delivery of buffalo mozzarella fresh from Naples. The Italian cheese is bound for Lucas Restaurants, the major Melbourne hospo group led by restaurateur Chris Lucas that includes Grill Americano, Chin Chin, Society and the recently opened Tombo Den.
As of next week, that stable will include Carlotta in Canberra, a 120-seat Mediterranean diner in the heart of the city. Not only is it the group’s first venue in the ACT, it’s also the group’s first outside Victoria since Chin Chin landed in Sydney seven years ago. And you’d better believe the mozzarella’s on its way.
“It feels like a mini Melbourne,” says Lucas of the capital’s vibrant dining scene. “[Because] we're not languishing in this massive market of five million or six million people, it gives us an opportunity to do something really beautiful and bespoke.”
Never miss a moment. Make sure you're subscribed to our newsletter today.
SUBSCRIBE NOWBeautiful and bespoke meant bringing in a team of chefs and sommeliers to train more than a hundred new employees, with the aim of creating a dining experience that’s “pretty significant and very international” says Lucas. “I think that’s what might set it apart from anything else in Canberra.”
Carlotta’s menu centres on “rustic Italian” cooking, and was a collab between Lucas and the group’s head of culinary, Mark Glenn, who’s excited to be back in Canberra after several years away.
“We want people to use [Carlotta] however they feel. Pop in for a glass of wine after work, tiramisu before a movie, or really lean in and give it a crack over a long lunch with a big bottle of barolo and a bistecca,” he says.
A giant woodfire oven – handmade in Naples and surrounded by a maroon marble bar – powers much of the menu. But don’t expect to see pizza coming out. “We're doing our beautiful breads, our focaccia, our garlic bread,” says Lucas. “We're also doing all of our braised dishes; we’ve got a whole lamb shoulder slow cooked for about four or five hours.”
Glenn is also making good use of some “really beautiful toys” in the dedicated pasta room and out the back of the restaurant. “We've got an extruder that does all of our fancy frilly pastas like campanelle with our lobster, mafaldine and casarecce.”
Like Matt Moran before him with Compa and &Sando, Lucas plans to deliver a one-two punch of his own. This week, he announced the opening of a second Canberra venue next year: an yet-to-be-named French bistro around the corner in the old Botswana Butchery site.
“We want to be part of the community, and to do that we want to be able to have more than one restaurant,” says Lucas. “Restaurants best perform when they are part of a broader precinct. I'm hoping our restaurants will very much feel a part of the Canberra scene, and that they add another level of excitement to what's already going on here.”
Carlotta opens on Monday, October 21.
Carlotta
20 Scotts Crossing Canberra
(02) 6103 7010
Hours:
Mon to Sun: 11.30am–late
Cafes
Restaurants
Bars
Accommodation
Shop
Broadsheet Pick
Recently Opened