Freshwater’s Pilu expands to the North Shore
Giovanni Pilu, the owner-chef behind Freshwater’s fine-dining Italian restaurant Pilu at Freshwater is planning to introduce as new casual eatery to the North Shore.
He is looking to do it sometime in May and it will be located as part of the huge new Harbord Diggers development, a site that’s being redeveloped to include restaurants, cafes and apartments
The trattoria will have views stretching across neighbouring Freshwater Beach.
The 120-seater will have an open plan structure.
It will include a communal table and an open kitchen, all in the works at the moment.
What the Sardinian born chef wants is a place where people will be able to pull up a chair at what he says will feel like his own dining-room table.
The focus will be very much on Sardinian fare.
Pilu is keeping it simple: pizza, pasta, and a little antipasto. That is what to expect.
But, he says, if it’s simple, it will also be special.
“Of course only pizza made with beautiful ingredients,” Pilu told Good Food. “I want to make sure it’s only top, top notch what we offer. We really focus on the base. To make it we are going to use a flour that has been especially made for us in Sardinia.”
The pizza will be done Neapolitan style – thin in the centre but puffy at the edges.
And the antipasto will include grilled vegetables, prosciutto, vitello tonnato which is basically cold, sliced veal covered in a creamy mayonnaise sauce with tuna and of course, house-made fingers of focaccia
In addition to the traditional pizza options, there will also be a series of pasta dishes.
He is planning to have four or five that rotate regularly.
Add to that the desserts.
And there will be a gelato cart catering for the restaurant customers and passers-by.
by Leon Gettler, February 12th 2017.
