All roads lead to Torquay’s Mortadeli Pasta Bar for Rome-inspired classics

Installing a restaurant inside a deli was the brief. July was the deadline. And last Friday, Torquay’s Mortadeli achieved both those goals, opening its Roman-inspired pasta bar after a mammoth 15-hour day of finishing touches and a just-in-time liquor licence approval.

Couple Glenn Laurie and Lolo Hanser (ex La Cantina) have come on board to drive the cosy Mortadeli Pasta Bar, joining the deli and sandwich shop’s founder and owner Jake Cassar.

Cassar wanted to create a casual, family-friendly restaurant that built on Mortadeli’s reputation for celebrating artisanal products and European traditions. Laurie and Hanser met at London’s River Cafe and previously ran Little Black Pig and Sons in Heidelberg, before their Surf Coast sea change.

“It’s a restaurant which focuses on pasta and is a bit more casual,” says Hanser. “You can come with your kids, you’re in and out, it’s a bit of a faster pace.”

Located across a piazza from the original sandwich shop, the 35-seat restaurant co-exists with the deli’s seven-day operation, with stacked cans of tomatoes doubling as waiter stations, house-made focaccia cooling on top of the deli cabinet, and legs of prosciutto hanging overhead.

There’s crossover on the offering, too. Salumi from the cabinet is sliced to order as antipasti and there are plans for Laurie’s hand-made pasta, made in the front window, to be stocked in the deli.

Dining in, there are seven pasta dishes, with plans to grow this number. Otways venison ragu is simmered for nine hours with juniper and barbaresco and served on tagliatelle. Risotto, cooked to order, is currently sausage, radicchio and borlotti bean.

Less seasonal dishes, such as bucatini carbonara or cacio e pepe, will be staples, according to Cassar.

“I want to have those Roman classics that are always there. People can come in and always order the same thing if they want,” he says.

The extensive antipasti line-up includes salted cod with grilled polenta, Port Lincoln sardines stuffed with pine nuts and raisins, and bolognese-filled arancini. Oozy mozzarella en carrozza is there for big kids and little ones, too.

Desserts include house-made sorbets, perhaps blood orange; preserved cherry tart; and crowd-pleasing tiramisu.

In the nostalgia-tinged design by Fowler & Ward architects, shelves of jam, hot sauce and crackers have made way for timber furniture and a 13-seat stained timber bar with a pale yellow laminex top and brown leather stools.

Alongside the fire engine-coloured deli cabinet, the colour palette nods to Cisk, the national beer of Malta, where Cassar’s family is from.

That joins a broad sweep of European drinks curated by Hanser, who’s running the floor, plucking wines from France and Italy, building a hefty spritz line-up, and offering amari, grappa and limoncello from local and international producers.

Open Fri-Sat noon-2.30pm and 5.30pm-8.30pm; Sun and Mon noon-4pm.

Shop 9, 4-6 Gilbert Street, Torquay, mortadeli.com.au