In the eight years he’s been in Melbourne, Kiwi Joss Jenner-Leuthart always lived in the north. But when he and his wife moved to a particular pocket of South Yarra, he felt something was missing.
“I definitely found there was a lack of places you didn’t need to book, where you could pop into for a glass of wine and didn’t feel you had to dress up,” he says. “There’s an awesome food scene at the top end of Toorak – France-Soir, Gracie’s, Bar Carolina, Nobody’s Baby – but there’s a lack of stuff down this end.”
By “this end” he means the corner of Chapel Street and Toorak Road, closer to special-occasion restaurants Omnia, Yugen and Steer Dining Room. It’s here that Jenner-Leuthart has planted an Italian flag in Julietta, a romantic 35-seat wine bar with vintage touches such as upholstered corduroy bar stools and glass vases sourced from CCSS and others.
Though Jenner-Leuthart has a long history in the industry and took over Hot Listed Mexican institution Mamasita two years ago, this is the first restaurant he’s founded. With him are Mamasita’s executive chef Jimmy Garside (ex-The Apollo, Sydney) and operations director Merilin Nogo.
“We’d kind of been looking for something,” Jenner-Leuthart says. “We wanted to do a different concept, which we’re still going to do, much more Mamasita size and vibe but different cuisine. But this site came up and I was like, ‘What do you reckon we do like a little wine bar thing? Low-risk, low-key.’ And then kind of like all things I do, it became a much bigger project and we ended up doing a real restaurant.”
Italian food – comfortable, accessible and nostalgic to so many Australians – just felt right. Plus, Garside grew up cooking pasta at home in the UK thanks to a friendly nonna who lived down the road. Inside Julietta’s tiny kitchen, his extruder squeezes out lesser-known forms including the flat, sheeted fazzoletti (“handkerchiefs”) and radiatori, shaped like car radiators. The former is sauced with cacio e pepe, but using pine-y green peppercorns in place of the classic black. The latter is paired with spanner crab, saffron and orange-hued sungold tomatoes.
Elsewhere on the menu there’s focaccia, rotating cold-cuts like mortadella and prosciutto, prawn and scallop crudo, and burrata with pine nuts and raisin agrodolce. But Garside looks proudest when he talks about his hulking meatballs of Wagyu and house sausage, sauced up with buffalo ricotta and sugo.
While Jenner-Leuthart talks up Julietta’s classic character, drinks have more of a contemporary bent. Alongside legacy wines from the motherland, there are decidedly new-school options from Australian vintners like Sigurd, William Downie, Patrick Sullivan, Lucy M and Das Juice. The house prosecco, pinot grigio and sangiovese are all made in the King Valley-Alpine Valley region and feature cute labels designed by Jenner-Leuthart’s wife, who’s an artist.
But the decent selection of amaros (20, all up), fun house cocktails and five original takes on the Negroni could be the things that get locals into a committed relationship with Julietta. Thank consulting bartender Eduardo Conde for the Negroni Blanco (gin, Rinquinquin peach liqueur, citrussy Suze aperitif), the Andalusian Negroni (shiraz gin, Pedro Ximenez sherry, cream sherry) and the Julietta Martini (Archie Rose gin, Cocchi Americano aperitif, Amontillado sherry).
Per Jenner-Leuthart’s intention, you’re welcome to drop in for any or all of this, but we have a feeling bookings will become very essential very soon.
Julietta
220 Toorak Road, South Yarra
(03) 9426 7300
Hours
Wed & Thu 4pm–late
Fri to Sun 12pm–late