Jock Zonfrillo is making big changes to his Adelaide restaurant business over the next week. The proprietor’s flagship Restaurant Orana remains dedicated to exploring native Australian ingredients in bold dégustation menus, but the large ground-floor space below it on Rundle Street will run its last service as Street ADL on Sunday night.
It reopens Tuesday night as Blackwood – a bistro version of Orana. While the dishes won’t be identical to Orana, many of the key ingredients and techniques will feature in Blackwood dishes.
“We spend a lot of time and resources working with communities but [the ingredients] don’t always fit into the framework of Orana’s menu,” says Zonfrillo. “The plan is to use all the ingredients and techniques we’ve learned over the years in a different way downstairs in a more bistro-style setting.”
The room’s same striking wall art will be retained, but the communal bar-style seating will be reconfigured into more restaurant-oriented smaller tables. Blackwood will present an à la carte menu with four choices of entrée, main course, sides and dessert, or a four-course kitchen menu for $90 ($140 with matched wines).
But this isn’t the last we’ll see of Street. It’s set to re-emerge at suburban Henley Beach, pending a site, and many of the Street staff will be relocated from the CBD to the new premises.
“It’s great to bring native ingredients at multiple levels of gastronomy and demonstrate really positive, delicious results,” says Zonfrillo.
Zonfrillo also has plans to introduce a new food truck to Adelaide. Nonna Mallozzi is named for his great-great-grandmother, whose southern Italian dishes have been central to the family’s culinary repertoire, and the truck will offer two pasta dishes and two panini. Its first outing will be in the Global Food Village at the WOMADelaide music festival in Botanic Park, from March 11 to 14.
Blackwood, 285 Rundle St, Adelaide, SA, (08) 8227 0344
