Seafood shines at Acciuga, Sandgate’s new contemporary Italian restaurant with soul
Simple and luxurious – that’s how the team behind Sandgate’s newest restaurant Acciuga describes its fare. But that description doesn’t really do the dining destination’s offering justice. The bayside eatery’s seafood-packed, Italian-leaning menu bucks culinary traditions in favour of vivacious experimentation, creating dishes filled with of-the-moment ingredients that burst with flavour. In a city obsessed with Italian cuisine, Acciuga stands out from the pack. Here’s why Sandgate locals are desperate to keep Acciuga a local secret and why it’s too good not to share.
When Beatrice Nember and Diego Metrangolo moved to Brisbane a year ago, they did so with a clear goal in mind. They wanted to open a restaurant, but not just any restaurant – one that was unapologetically theirs. When it comes to cooking, the Italian expats – who met each other while working in Sydney’s heaving dining scene – boast a shared passion for experimentation, maximal flavours and sensational seafood. At Acciuga – the couple’s brand-new restaurant that opened in Sandgate back in October – they’re showcasing their passion, or perhaps, their culinary soul, on a plate.
“We knew that we wanted to open a restaurant that was predominantly about seafood and being so close to the ocean fit that,” says Beatrice of Acciuga’s Brighton Road location. “What we liked about Sandgate is that there is a very strong sense of community, but we noticed that in this area you can go out and have a nice meal, but you often don’t get a sense of experiencing something.”
Beatrice and Diego are going to great lengths to deliver a unique dining experience – a tough task in a city where Italian is, far and away, the most popular cuisine. But Acciuga is vastly different from your traditional ristorante, entirely by design. You won’t find cacio e pepe here, but what you will find is something just as appetising.
“We are Italian, so there’s going to be a strong Italian influence to our menu,” says Beatrice. “People call us ‘modern Italian’, because we decided to drive away from traditional recipes on our menu – there is no lasagna and no carbonara, because we find that there is already a very big offering for that in Brisbane and it’s not something that brings us joy.
“We like to try new stuff – try new recipes and new products – so we don’t want anything to be traditional,” Diego adds.
Beatrice and Diego describe Acciuga’s offering as food with soul. Here, everything that makes it to the plate is dictated by the couple’s tastes and whims, considered and handcrafted without compromise. While the restaurant’s fare is recognisably Italian, Beatrice tells us that there’s an infusion of influence from countries like Japan and Thailand scattered throughout the menu, and an almost militant adherence to only using ingredients at their peak. That means the menu is always changing – even crowd-favourite dishes can disappear without notice.
“We put everything we have into what we make and every idea that influences the dishes comes from us and it’s what we like,” admits Beatrice. “It may not meet everybody’s taste, but we don’t go down the easy route. We like to be a bit challenging to people. We don’t focus all of our attention on expensive and mainstream ingredients – we keep a balance and maximise the potential of the food that we use. It’s not just thrown on a plate because it looks fancy or it looks cool, or whatever.”
The menu is free-flowing and loosely divided by portion size. While seafood is a foundational pillar, Beatrice and Diego are covering all bases by sprinkling vegan- and carnivore-friendly options across the offering. One mainstay of Acciuga’s menu is the house-made pane served with homemade salted butter or Cantabrico anchovies. The restaurant’s namesake can also be enjoyed in a tartelleta with capsicum, onion and Taggiasca olives.
A selection of small plates features dynamo dishes like grilled baby squid with edamame, spring onion, celery and house-made mayo, grilled leeks with tomato jam, focaccia crumble and chickpea sauce, culatta with rockmelon, dino melon and basil gel, and sous vide wagyu tongue with spicy capocollo, capsicum cream and parsley mayo. Though mains like marlin served tataki style with carrot salad, coconut milk and leek oil, and full-blood skirt steak with oyster mushrooms and pickled onions are showstoppers in their own right, Accigua’s pasta dishes are undoubtedly the restaurant’s headline act.
If the restaurant has a signature dish, it might be Acciuga’s linguine with king prawns, Moreton Bay bug, a luscious bisque and bagna cauda. That said, you’ll have trouble choosing between the rest of the available options, which include calamarata with baby calamari, mussels, bottarga and finger lime, pappardelle with ox-tail ragu, ravioli filled with rich mantis shrimp sauce, aged carnaroli risotto with cuttlefish, herb oil and passionfruit powder, and spaghettoni with clams, fish stock, chilli and salmon roe.
Beyond the use of exceptional of-the-moment ingredients, Acciuga’s home-made quality is a point of pride for the chef duo, who put in the hard yards to craft as much of the menu from scratch as possible.
“We are here seven days a week preparing everything we can,” says Beatrice. “We are particularly proud of our own homemade bread, which is a cross between a sourdough and a ciabatta – and then we do our own focaccia and we make our own butter, too. We are also making our own tofu, starting from a legume of some sort – at the moment it’s made from split peas. Something that we really strive to communicate is that whatever is on the menu is made with passion, and it’s not just there to make up a number.”
On the drinks front, Acciuga’s bar is stocked with a tight, yet considered range of wines from Australia and abroad, backed by Italian beers and a cocktail list boasting a couple of signatures (try the Acciuga Spritz with Ragazzi e succo aperitif and Cedrata Tassoni soda) and a number of classics.
“We are trying to keep a certain amount of crowd-pleasers in our drink list, but we are trying to prioritise little producers, particular grapes, or like some flavours that haven’t quite emerged on the Australian market yet,” says Beatrice. “We also put a big focus on buying wines from producers that work respectfully of the land, and this is regardless of the country of origin.”
Pair all of the above with a bright, coastal-inspired aesthetic and Acciuga is a wonderful fresh-faced addition to Sandgate’s dining offering. If you’re a seafood lover or a fanatic for Italian cuisine with a twist, this restaurant should be on your hit list. Get more information over in The Directory.