Fitzroy North's Lagotto restaurant is (truffle) hunting for a new landlord
Sharing its name with an Italian truffle-hunting dog breed and boasting Flack Studio-designed interiors, Lagotto restaurant in Melbourne’s Fitzroy North is looking for a new landlord.
The Good Food Guide one-hatted Italian eatery – along with its wine bar and food store – sits perched on a prominent corner at 1 York Street, about three kilometres from the CBD, close to the frenetically busy Nicholson Street and Alexandria Parade intersection.
Decked out with a chic vintage Italian vibe, with a burgundy-lit, L-shaped dining room paired with shades of peach, a marble bar and terrazzo flooring, the hospitality space may be for sale, but the spirited trattoria is sticking around.
The tenant, Lagotto Pty Ltd, has just signed a new five-year lease, with three five-year options. The well-established restaurant will provide a solid annual rent of $108,000.
The property is now offered to the market for the first time since the restaurant started serving up Mayura Station signature wagyu rump and Moreton Bay bug tortelloni to its loyal patrons.
The freehold is set to be auctioned through Nelson Alexander Commercial in the coming weeks, with price expectations of $1.6 million to $ 1.75 million.
Spanning 184 square metres, Lagotto – originally a cafe-cum-deli – has served as the anchor tenant of the Milieu-developed Nth FITZROY apartment complex since it was completed in 2019.
Designed by architects Fieldwork, the meshed-veil-wrapped inner-north complex contains 26 homes connected by a central staircase linking to a communal garden and the ground-floor retail.
Flack Studio – also behind the fitout of Australian singer-songwriter and actor Troye Sivan’s Carlton house – spearheaded Lagotto’s design, fixtures and fittings, including bold custom American oak joinery with brass inlay, striking floors curated stone palette, and completed it all to an extremely high standard, says Nelson Alexander’s Kristian Lunardi.
But it’s not just a ground-floor offering. While the restaurant spans 128 square metres, there’s also a lower-ground space stretching 56 square metres.
“It’s actually two levels, so you’ve got the ground floor restaurant and below a basement area where they have their cellar and bathrooms,” Lunardi says.
Making use of its York Street frontage – which sees a lot of foot traffic in a vibrant, forward-thinking locale where a three-bedroom home costs $1.625 million – Lagotto offers outdoor and indoor seated dining for up to 95 patrons.
The full commercial kitchen has all the trimmings, including a high-capacity exhaust, a 3000-litre grease trap and three-phase power.
Lagotto has won multiple awards for both the building and the well-established restaurant.
Its branding, featuring typography and imagery of a lagotto Romagnolo dog, won the best identity design award at the 2019 Eat Drink Design Awards.
It’s also no stranger to gastronomic accolades, having been awarded a Good Food Guide hat for many years running, Lunardi adds.
“I think they have won a chef hat continually every year,” he says.
The property will be auctioned at 1pm on Thursday, September 18.
