OUR STORY
Fitzrovia is an all day dining restaurant overlooking Albert Park from Chef Paul Jewson. Our ethos is to create luxe comfort food, inspired by provincial Italian and British cuisine – big flavours with rough edges.
From 7.30am when the first breakfast dishes leave the kitchen, and the wonderful smell of Cian firing up the Synesso for our morning coffee fix, right the way through to the bustle of dinner service and late night cocktails, we love food; We spend most of our day working with it, selecting it, arguing about it and dreaming up new ways of using it.
Our produce is sourced from free range and organic ingredients where possible, with minimal food miles, promoting food from within 100 kilometres of Melbourne: Non-homogenized milk from Jonsey’s, butter from Tatura, Romsey Range beef, salt, olives and oil from Mount Zero, Sutton Grange lamb, buffalo mozzarella from Shaw River, chicken from Bacchus Marsh, free-range eggs direct from Sth Gippsland, organic Port Phillip mussels, St ALi single estate coffees and fresh herbs from the community allotment in Caulfield.
This is a chronicle of the journey we’ve taken on the road to Fitzrovia…
ABOUT US
Fitzrovia is a collaboration between Paul Jewson and his partner Marco Pugnaloni. The pair have worked together for over fifteen years throughout the UK and most recently as partners at Outpost; with Marco’s charming front of house demeanour and high quality service being a constant draw card for regulars.
Paul cut his teeth on some of London’s finest – Terrence Conran’s Bluebird and Soho House and River Café. From 2005 until his return to Australia in 2009, Paul ran the kitchens of The Admirable Crichton, Europe’s event caterers to the stars.
Paul designed all the British Royal family’s events along with a host of clients including Bill Clinton, Sting and Trudy Styler, Ralph Fiennes, Charles Saatchi, Karl Lagerfeld, Nigella Lawson, Cartier, Chanel, and Asprey.
Moving back to Australia in 2009, Paul and Marco opened their first venture, Outpost Café in South Yarra in collaboration with Salvatore Malatesta. Outpost became an overnight success through positive critical review from both the press and the blogging community, and the focus on locally produced, fairtrade and organic produce was the inspiration behind the development of Fitzrovia.
WHAT’S IN A NAME?
The restaurant’s name is not just a play on its location in Fitzroy Street, but harks back to the infamous neighbourhood of Fitzrovia in the West End of London where Paul and Marco lived for many years during the 90’s.
A bohemian and artistic hub with notoriety dating back to the mid 1920’s, Fitzrovia was home to writers such as Virginia Woolf, George Bernard Shaw, Joe Orton and Arthur Rimbaud.
View or download our Lunch Menu here.
View or download Dinner Menu here.