Get the first look at Bar Rocco, an osteria-style concept from the Ramona Trattoria crew now open in Coorparoo
In the final weeks of 2023, just before Brisbane hunkered down for the festive weekend, the team behind cherished Italian restaurant Ramona Trattoria gave Coorparoo locals a sneak peek at Bar Rocco – the team’s brand-new next-door wine bar and eatery that’s giving die-hard diners a chance to devour a sensational selection of snacks, hand-shaped pizzetta and woodfire-grilled mains. We scored the first look at the new nosh spot – here’s what we saw …
When Ashley-Maree Kent moved to Brisbane with the intent of opening a restaurant of her own, she could have gone anywhere. The City, Fortitude Valley, South Brisbane – any of these high-profile neighbourhoods would have been a logical landing point for a chef with Ashley’s top-tier pedigree.
But that wasn’t Ashley’s style.
In August 2022, Ashley opened Ramona Trattoria in the leafy heart of Coorparoo – a suburb known more for its abundance of cafes than its upscale restaurants. Ramona immediately blew the suburb’s socks off with a menu anchored by an old-school approach to Italian cooking. It’s the kind of fare diners previously had to trek closer to the inner city to find – we’re talking naturally leavened pizze, serves of hand-sheeted, hand-cut and hand-shaped pasta, and glasses of mighty fine Italian wine (plus the odd cocktail or two).
It’s this offering (and Ashley’s community-facing accessibility) that has kept Ramona Trattoria busy most evenings (even on Monday nights), buoyed by the support of a solid cadre of Coorparoo-based regulars and fans from further afield. “I just wanted a suburban restaurant – I didn’t want anything more than that,” says Ashley. “Now I have people come here that know me by my first, middle and last name. When I look at my booking system, some have come here 25 times.”
While Romana flourishing is exactly the kind of result Ashley hoped for, running an uber-popular suburban restaurant comes with a few complications. For most of its existence, the restaurant has been largely unable to accommodate those that arrived early for their booking and groups eager to linger after their meal had nowhere to enjoy an extra dash of the restaurant’s hospitality before calling it a night.
Bar Rocco – Ramona Trattoria’s more casual drink-and-snack-slinging sibling – looks to alleviate these issues. The venue is conveniently located right next door to Ramona in the space originally home to Spanish-inspired restaurant Paella y Pa’ Mi, which closed in July. When Ashley was approached with the offer of taking over the premises, her first thoughts were focused on extending her restaurant. But then the idea of adding something a little bit different – and purposefully informal – gained traction.
“We were contemplating either extending Ramona or just doing something different,” recalls Ashley. “I started to think more about it and realised that this place needed to stand on its own two feet, so I was going to have to lift the bar a little bit. Being in the ‘burbs, I felt that becoming a well-rounded Italian restaurant was the way to go.”
At its core, Bar Rocco is an osteria and bar – a place where locals can saunter in for a light bite on a whim, grab a wine before their booking or enjoy a digestivo afterwards.
Working with Alkot Studio, Ashley has swapped Paella y Pa’ Mi’s Andalusian-inspired aesthetic for one predicated on colour and fun. Green features, burgundy tiles and pops of pale pink offset dark marble-like benchtops and ivory render, with a use of shapes creating a sense of playfulness. “[The brief] was basically just to be a fun quirky space.” says Ashley. “Think Italian. Like green grass – the grass in Italy is so green – and red wine, where the burgundy colour comes from. The light pinks are added just to soften the tone.”
Across a bunch of circular 60-cm tables, tiled two-seater high tops and a strip of bench seating facing the street, Bar Rocco can seat 30. As the venue is geared more towards impromptu and casual dining, six seats are always set aside for walk ins, while group bookings cater to a maximum of six guests. That said, Bar Rocco’s flexible set up allows the team to cater for large-scale functions for up to 30 people.
While Ramona and Rocco share DNA, their respective menus are more specialised. At Rocco, it’s more of a free-flowing affair. “I would say it’s spuntini style, with things at a price per each so that people can choose what they want to spend,” explains Ashley. “People are in control of how they eat – I didn’t want them to feel forced.”
The menu starts by drilling down into antipasti-style snacks, with 48-hour-fermented focaccia, cured meats, crocchette di patate (potato croquettes with parmigiano, scarmorza and pepper), fiori di zucca fritti (fried zucchini flowers filled with lemon and herb buffalo ricotta), crumbed veal panino, and burrata with ox heart tomato, wood-roasted peach and basil.
Ramona’s handmade ethos continues at Rocca with a four-strong selection of pizzetta, topped with the likes of ‘nduja, honey, parmigiano and mascarpone, zucchini, blossoms, herbs and ricotta, and mortadella, pistachio and straciatella. And then there’s the mains. A custom woodfired grill (made by Samuel Fraraccio, who crafted Ramona’s barrel-vault pizza oven) is being utilised to cook the likes of Skull Island tiger prawns with capers, herbs and lemon, and house salsiccia condita e fagioli. Finally, one key point of difference between Rocco and its sibling is the presence of mains. Whereas Ramona’s menu caps out with pizza and pasta, Rocco gives patrons a choice of more subtantial plates, which right now includes picanha tagliata wagyu with rocket, and swordfish with tomato and olives.
Ashley is relishing the chance to experiment at Rocco. Some of the mains that feature here might appear at Ramona as a special, drawing more upon the fantastic produce at her disposal. “I feel like over here there’s opportunity to test the waters a little bit more and see how things will sell,” says Ashley. “It would be great to be able to use more variating produce than having to stick with something for six weeks.”
On the beverage front, Ashley has taken the opportunity to broaden the wine and cocktail list. The beverage menu is shared across both venues, with Bar Rocco’s bar now the central nexus for drink dispensing. “I still wanted a wine focus, but I wanted a more cocktails that weren’t just variations of basics,” says Ashley. “I also wanted to offer more amaros and more bitters.”
The wine list has been extended to showcase more than just Italian varieties – you’ll now find French champagne, touriga nacional from Portugal, Austrian zweigelt and more, plus two whites and two reds available via Coravin in 75- and 150-ml pours. As for cocktails, you’ll find four kinds of spritz, but the panettone-infused batch negroni, amaro sour and Manhattan D’Puglia are stand-out sips worth a try.
Propelled by the same conscientious produce-driven approach to cooking and specialising in carefully crafted Italian eats, Bar Rocco isn’t a mere extension of Ramona Trattoria’s footprint. Though the two venues share a symbiotic relationship, Rocco is a whole new concept that’s standing on its own two feet and giving Coorparoo locals another spot to spend a few hours.
“We haven’t sacrificed our standard,” Ashley assures us. “We just wanted to make a space that’s more approachable for people so that they can sit longer and chill out.”
Bar Rocco is now open to the public from Wednesday to Saturday. Operating hours and booking details can be found in the Stumble Guide.
The Stumble Guide is our comprehensive Brisbane dining guide with more than 2400 places to eat, drink, shop and play.