2025 marks ten years of one of Adelaide’s most beloved modern Italian restaurants. CityMag sat down with owner-operator Nicola Pau to see how far Osteria Oggi has come, and what’s planned for the milestone celebrations.
When Osteria Oggi opened on Pirie Street ten years ago, the strip – in the heart of the CBD’s office district – looked far different.
Rhino Room was yet to move from Frome Street, The Golden Wattle was but a twinkle in Damien Kelly and Tom Byrnes eyes and you’d be hard pressed to find somewhere for a nice dinner or lunch on the weekend. Across the road, the former Planet Nightclub was just a derelict, empty space.
Such is the impact of the restaurant – known informally as just Oggi – on Adelaide’s dining scene.
Opening was a risk too; nowadays, you can throw a stone in any direction and hit one of Adelaide’s many modern Italian restaurants. Back then, though, customers were baffled at the lack of garlic bread on the dining space’s menu.
Having changed our dining landscape, Osteria Oggi this week turns 10. They’re celebrating with a 10-day festival of food and wine from October 3, closing with a one-night-only Italian disco party.
On the menu will be plenty of favourites from over the decade that hold special places in both the hearts of those who worked there and those who’ve found warmth and company on the long tables that span the main room of the restaurant. If you ask Nicola, he’ll tell you those are the best seats in the house – the comfy booths be damned.
An anniversary set menu ($125pp) features ten of the most beloved dishes, like Oggi’s classic carpaccio, the original anchovy soldier, a celebratory birthday crudo, signature pastas and desserts that have become part of the restaurant’s legacy.
A curated drinks list will also be centre stage for the celebrations, featuring producers and partners who have played a role in the restaurant’s journey over the years, including the likes of Coopers, Shaw & Smith, and Never Never Distilling Co.
Not content with just food and drinks, a special line of celebratory merch will be released, available online and in-house.
Just one globe has the ‘OGGI’ name on it in the entire restaurant. Photo: David Simmons/CityMag
While Oggi might be a landmark modern Italian restaurant in Adelaide, it wasn’t always so easy for the restaurant which opened in a different market and on a quieter Pirie Street.
“Adelaide in 2015 was a completely different scenario,” Nicola tells CityMag.
“Now, you look around and there are so many modern Italian restaurants. Back then, a lot of places were pushing the authentic Italian meal – we didn’t jump on that. We didn’t have any Italian anywhere – in a way it looks like Florence in the 20s but there are no flags or hanging cured meat sausages.
“In the first days we were open there was a lot of educating happening, because people were not as used to our restaurant’s food.”
Customers would come in, take a look at the menu, and were instantly confused.
“’Where’s the pizza?’, ‘Where’s the garlic bread?’. Now it’s so much easier. Also, we opened with a very challenging layout – it’s a big communal table and we only have six booths. People walked in and said, ‘we’re not sitting here!’,” he says.
Oggi has always prided itself on its fresh pasta – made in-house daily: “it’s a very different experience”. Photo: Jack Fenby
“It was very futuristic in way,” he says, noting that customers didn’t even know what a Negroni was, thinking it was a beer.
“Now we have people asking for a spritz. Back then, people didn’t have that sort of education.”
Five years into the Oggi journey, and the restaurant – like all hospitality businesses – was forced to grapple with COVID restrictions. As many of the restaurant’s staff were employed on full-time contracts, Nicola says he was able to keep most of them working thanks to the Jobkeeper program.
This writer remembers lining up – face mask on – to pick up a bottle of wine and takeaway pasta and tiramisu on his birthday; a bright spot in the middle of a trying year.
Oggi’s take away spirit lives on, five years after the pandemic. Photo: David Simmons/CityMag
Oggi has also changed the area around it too. Pirie Street is now considered a premier dining strip in the CBD, but ten years ago there was no Olive and no Longplay. The various daytime fast casual spots have taken up leases in neighbouring properties, and Oggi remains a seven-day-a-week go-to.
“I remember people walking out onto Pirie Street on a Saturday afternoon and saying ‘how do you feel about being on a side street?’,” he says.
“Monday to Friday, this is not a side street. But on a Saturday it was pretty different.”
Don’t call Oggi an ‘institution’ – Nicola is too humble for that. But he admits the restaurant “made room for modern Italian”.
“Hopefully we played a little part in driving the Italian dining scene,” he says.
Oggi’s impact on Pirie Street is understated, but obvious to those who have watched the street transform. Photo: David Simmons/CityMag.
The knives and forks will be put away on October 12, when Oggi’s dining service will close and the space will transform into an Italian disco party.
With a welcome drink on arrival, roaming canapés inspired by Oggi favourites and DJs, the space will become a late-night family celebration.
That night, Alfonso Frawls will spin tracks as well as a back-to-back set from DJs Ash Dente and Henry.
“It’s gonna be so much fun,” Nicola says.
“It’ll be great to see the venue with a different layout, a different setup.
“For a lot of people who spent a lot of time here during the years, coming back is going to be such a beautiful thing.”
Osteria Oggi’s 10th Birthday Celebrations
– When: Thursday, October 3 – Sunday, October 12. 2025
– Where: Osteria Oggi, 76 Pirie Street, Adelaide SA
– How: Bookings via: www.osteriaoggi.com.au for the 10-Year Set Menu ($125pp)
– Tickets: Italian Disco Party ($110pp)
Dining and Cooking