Red Hill locals may remember Biagio in Musgrave Road dishing up hearty Italian fare with a seafood slant for five years. They sold up in 2012 and Colle Rosso moved into the neighbourhood.
In a kind of reverse sea-change, Biagio restaurant owners Biagio and Sarah Biuso have returned to Brisbane from Cairns, where they've lived for the past few years, and have hung their shingle in Fortitude Valley's M&A Lane, in the tenancy recently vacated by Mighty Mighty.
"Returning to Brisbane is more of a lifestyle change for our family than anything else – we missed the hustle and bustle of Brisbane and wanted to reconnect with our friends and customers," says Sarah Biuso.
"When the opportunity to open a new restaurant came up, we took it as a sign it was time to come home."
Casa Nostra ("our house") opened quietly last Monday, with Mighty Mighty's macho cowboy wall mural replaced by a Sicilian scene.
As at Biagio, the menu is a mix of traditional and contemporary Italian with everything made in house, including the pasta for dishes such as fettuccine served with local seafood in Biagio's Sicilian sauce, made to a family recipe, and agnolotti d'Arogosta filled with lobster and bechamel, with crustacean bisque sauce and cherry tomatoes.
Other dishes include a veal agrodolce (sweet and sour) and a less-traditional prawns with feta and avocado. There's also tomato sauce-based pizza and pizza "in bianco" (no tomato sauce), and a selection of $20 lunch specials.
As well as plenty of Australian drops, the wine list features about 30 Italians, from nebbiolo from Piedmonte, to a rosé from Sicily's Mount Etna region.
Open Mon-Sat, noon-2.30pm and 5.30pm-late.
Shop 6, 100 McLachlan Street, Fortitude Valley, 07 3257 0007, casanostraristorante.com.au
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