FIRST LOOK: Icardi's restaurant is a Mediterranean love letter to one of North Adelaide's biggest hospitality names

For months, O’Connell Street has been guessing. Burgundy tones through the blinds, cryptic glimpses across social media, and whispers of a venue inspired by Greek mythology. The reveal is finally here, and it comes with a family story and a menu rooted in Euro classics.

Icardi’s is the debut restaurant from Jared Chahoud, a son paying tribute to his father, Gaby, a well-known figure on O’Connell Street, with a venue that reads like a love letter in courses.

“His first restaurant was on O’Connell, at Pellegini’s,” shares Jared. “Starting my first here too just feels right – back to our roots.”

Rather than pledge allegiance to one coastline, the menu pulls from across the Mediterranean. Greek, Italian and Turkish influence, not as a “fusion” but instead a family table where the favourite dishes show up at once. It’s generous, saucy, meant for mopping and sharing, so of course the wood-oven flatbread that’s proofed for 24 hours before hitting the heat anchors it all.

Food follows suit. Local clams tangled through linguine with brown butter, pork and fennel sausage folded through porcini-rich rigatoni, and wood-roasted Skull Island prawns glossed in garlic butter. The heartiest crowd-pleaser is a lamb abbacchio with fennel, kipfler potatoes and anchovies. Finish with the chocolate budino, a salted caramel and espresso cream that hits Euro dessert decadence in spades.

“We’ve tried to incorporate everything,” says Jared. “We’ve brought what’s great about O’Connell into one venue – all done exceptionally well.”

The wine list feels personal too. A second love letter, this time to South Australia. Guided by revered Barossa winemaker John Retsas of First Drop Wines, it spans the state’s best. DAOSA, Samuels Gorge, and Ministry of Clouds sit alongside a Barossa semillon from The Willows and a classic Eden Valley riesling from Dandelion.

“With the food being so homey, we wanted to keep the wine list local,” Jared says.

“Every bottle showcases the depth and diversity of our state’s wine country. South Australia is home for us. Adelaide’s home. O’Connell’s home. We wanted the wine to reflect that.”

If wine is the heart, cocktails are the flirt, reinterpreting classics through a Mediterranean lens.

Medusa’s Kiss – amaro, plum, rosemary – is dark and herbaceous, while The Truth reworks the Negroni with peach and honey for a sunlit twist. Athena’s Touch spikes a blood-orange Margarita with grapefruit limoncello, thyme, and chilli salt, and In Bloom refreshes with mandarin, basil, and limoncello. To close, Midnight Romance – a black-cherry Espresso Martini – offers just the right hint of indulgence.

And for non-drinkers, there’s no compromise. Creative numbers like All Roads Lead to Rhodes, a watermelon-lavender smash, and Apple of Eden, a zesty apple-sage highball, prove mocktails hold their own.

The fit-out also gets the mood right. Designer Eli has kept the bones and sharpened the edges, described by Jared as “rustic, Mediterranean and moody,” with custom pendants by Soda Objects casting a soft halo across mismatched artworks and surfaces.

“The kind of place that feels cosy like home, but elevated,” explains Jared.

“There’s a lot of burgundy and dark varnished wood, and when the lights are low, the lamps and pendants come alive.”

Branding and visual direction come via 2049 Design Studio, the hospo outfit behind a swathe of recognisable venues like Pinco and Pastel, lending Icardi’s that confident “of course it looks like this” inevitability.

If Icardi’s feels rooted in that classic warm hospitality, it’s because it follows the family playbook – a story that stretches across decades and more than twenty venues, most of which sit on O’Connell Street.

“Dad taught me to be resilient, to be persistent, to be the first to arrive and the last to leave,” Jared says.

“This restaurant is my love letter to him, to show him what it takes to grow his empire, and to the street where we both started.”

Icardi’s is a restaurant first, with a high-table nook for those nights that are more snacks-and-a-round than sit-down-and-stay. Fridays and Saturdays lean later, in step with North Adelaide’s growing after-dark scene. Mostly, though, Icardi’s is about familiarity. Food that’s assured and comfortable in a space with a Mediterranean heartbeat (and a banging cocktail list.)

Doors slated to swing open October 23.

What: Icardi’s
When: From October 23, Tuesday to Saturday, 5pm-11pm
Where: 67 O’Connell STreet, North Adelaide
To book, click here.
@icardis_adl