This inviting slice of Italy boasts a meat-free menu and Bronx-inspired vibes

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Painted sunshine yellow, its front framed by baskets of growing rosemary above a wide counter window and footpath tables, Don Fred, is a northern Italian restaurant at the top of King Street.

It is also a marvellous place to revel in an expertly executed plant-based menu.

Owned and run by Lorenzo Petrachi, former manager of Gigi Pizzeria down the road, ardent food-lover from Trieste in north-eastern Italy and unwavering vegan, Don Fred is named after Petrachi’s Uncle Alfredo.

He emigrated from Trieste in Italy in the 1960s to open a panino shop in
New York City’s Bronx district and Don Fred conjures that feel, an inner west osteria filled with potted plants, rust-red and yellow hues, a wall mural, wine bottle-lined shelves and wooden tables with mismatching azure blue chairs.

And Petrachi, who welcomes all with a vigour and geniality matched only by his passion for food made from plants.

“We are vegan for health, for animal welfare and for environmental protection,” he says.

“Meat is over. But we judge no one, everyone is welcome.”

Everyone who goes to Don Fred, he says, is walking into his home.

“Even though I have no idea who you are, or why you have come, to me you’re a guest in my house,” he says. “You have walked into my lounge.”

While the point is not to hide the menu’s veganism, it takes a deep perusal of the menu to realise it is entirely animal-free.

Snacks, or share plates, range from plant-based carpaccio, beautifully grilled capsicum topped with vegan parmesan to hand-cut, rosemary and salt-flecked potato crisps, juicy slabs of crumbed zucchini fritti and crispy fried konjac matched with pungent house-made seaweed tartare sauce.

Mains include five kinds of burgers, each filled with vegan patties made juicier by Petrachi’s generous beetroot addition, and six ways with focaccia, including eggplant parmigiana, ricotta and zucchini, “polpetz” roasted olive meatballs and crunchy schnitzel; and weekly pasta nights.

The zucchini fritti is unmissable – fat, lolling ribbons served with rich Napoletana sauce. As is the rich and chunky mushroom ragu, made from
Fable’s shiitake mushroom-based “beef ” and served on creamy potato mash.
Nothing makes you pine for cow.

A winner in the bun department is the smokey pepper. A flavourful patty with roasted olive tapenade, plus more of that marvellous grilled capsicum, it comes with melted cheddar cheese, a thicket of rocket and Petrachi’s smokey sauce.

‘Even though I have no idea who you are, or why you have come, to me you’re a guest in my house.’

Lorenzo Petrachi

Magical, filling without being stodgy and your heart will earnestly thank you.

“That is my favourite, too,” Petrachi says. “To me, the olive tapenade is heaven, we make it every day. But, also, the grilled capsicum, it is something I can still see my dad grilling on a summer night in his vegetable garden where he just picked it to cook. The whole suburb in Trieste would smell of this wonderful food.”

Petrachi’s dad has passed away, but he taught his son more than how to cook.

“It was also the passion of cooking,” he says. “The love for food, the love of putting together food, the love of serving it to somebody, whether it’s your brother, your partner or someone you’ve just met. It’s saying, ‘Please, enjoy with me.’”

Petrachi reckons Don Fred is too pricey for the nearby student population, but it is far from exorbitant. Most mains hover around $20-$25 and they are made with particularly fresh produce, high-end vegan “meats”, cheeses and baking ingredients.

The popular Thursday pasta nights, which rotate between carbonara, polpetz, seaweed marina and sausage and rosemary, are just $19 a plate, a bargain considering each order sparks a fresh cooking of pasta and the handmade sauces are built in-house.

It’s also worth ordering the frozen negroni, a frozen delight he spotted in Italy recently, and everyone should beat the mugginess with a house-made lemon granita and a dairy-free, luscious chocolate mousse dessert.

“Italian food is my culture,” Petrachi says. “It’s what I grew up with. So, whether I’m making mushroom ragu with mashed potatoes, or putting a parmigiana focaccia on the menu or rice arancini, I need to make sure that I nail it. Because me, myself, Lorenzo, I would never eat if it wasn’t 100 per cent. And, I’m not gonna give it to my public until it’s 100 per cent.”