Expect traditional dishes you'd find in Venice at Osteria Polpo, set to open next month.

When Paul Serafin welcomes CityMag into what will be the Osteria Polpo premises, the first thing we notice is the size of the space.

The building, on the corner of East Terrace and Carrington Street, once belonged to Sir William Henry Bragg who made important x-ray discoveries “right in this house”.

“It’s got a lot of historical relevance, this property, so I don’t want to lose that. I’m going to try and pay homage to William Bragg [who was] a very important figure in South Australia’s history,” Paul says.

He walks us to the opposite half of the building currently being used by the Public Schools Club and we sit in a library for a chat.

Osteria Polpo is the first venture to use this space outside of the Public Schools Club and Paul wanted to keep the heritage shining by highlighting the older touches.

“As soon as I walked in this place, it had that warm timber feel about it. It had that two-tone feeling about it,” Paul says.

“It had all the photographs on the wall that you’d find in a lot of Italian restaurants, and I thought, yeah, this just really gives me that impression of those warm natures of Italian restaurants.

“It’s a great view of the park land… it’s your neighbourhood restaurant.

“The residents can take ownership of this restaurant — it’s their restaurant.”

Osteria Polpo WIP

Osteria Polpo will feature dishes from northern Italy.

“My parents are from that part of the world,” Paul says.

“I was brought up with that food and I thought I’d bring it to life here.

“They’re probably half an hour away from Venice [in Castello di Godego]. They’re in the Veneto regions… in the foothills.”

Paul says that while Adelaide has many southern-style Italian restaurants, “there aren’t many that are doing [northern Italian style food]”.

Southern Italian style is “oil [and] tomatoes: that’s their staples, essentially,” he says.

“Staples for us is mainly rice, polenta, radicchio, but given the weather and what have you, it’s fairly hearty food,” he says.

“Although Venice is very fish-based. But where my parents are from, it’s probably hearty food, being from farming land.”

Oh, the character

While Paul wants to focus on traditional northern dishes, he also says the food at Osteria Polpo will be adapted to “the Australian climate”.

“We’re going to do the bigoli in salsa – bigoli is a thicket style of spaghetti made with wholemeal wheat… made with anchovies” he says.

“We’ll have baccala which is very traditional.”

The menu list also includes an Italian rice and peas dish, risotto and many more “hearty” inclusions.

“We’re trying to keep it as traditional as we possibly can,” Paul says.

Much like the menu, the alcohol list will also be in line with what the average punter would find in Venice.

“We’re just keeping the cocktail list, very basic, very Italian,” Paul says.

“Doing a Negroni, Americano, the spritzers — we’re doing just the basic spritzers you’d find in Venice and with the Aperol, obviously, Campari, and then Cynar, which is also very common through Venice.

“We’ve got a very good wine list… with a good blend of Italian and Australian wines in there as well.”

Paul is no stranger to the food and hosp game. He used to own The Flying Fig in North Adelaide and says hospitality is “something [he’s] been doing all his life”. Osteria Polpo has been a long-time dream.

“It’s always something I wanted to do,” Paul says. “I think it’s a great-looking space.

“Really the ambience in there, as soon as I walked in, gave me that Venetian feel, you know,

“It really gave me that old world feel. I thought, wow, this really suits that.”

Osteria Polpo is located at 207 East Terrace, Adelaide and is slated to open in mid-May.

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