A taste of Italy is coming to Orange with Pellegrini's Italian set to bring it's one-metre pizza's to the city when the restaurant opens next month.
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Owner Jeet Samra is opening the Italian restaurant at the Village on Summer Street, formerly known as the Summer Centre, at a date to be confirmed in August.
The restaurant will be located at the corner of the centre where Choox and Sugar Mill Cafe were previously located.
Pellegrini's Italian general manager Giovanni Convertino is excited about opening in Orange, which will be the first regional site after the first of three Pellegrini's restaurants opened during the COVID pandemic.
"This is the third venue that we're opening, the first one it was the venue in Kirrawee, that was the venue in Sutherland Shire there in Sydney that we opened it in 2020," Mr Convertino said.
"We started that in January 2020 and of course in March we locked down when COVID hit us but we survived through that and one more opportunity came to us, that is our second venue that was in Chatswood, which we opened in July, we took it over in July 2021 and opened it in October.
However, by that time Mr Samra and Mr Convertino had already visited Orange with a view to opening a restaurant here.
"The same guy who was leasing us the place in Chatswood he told us about this place in Orange," Mr Convertino said.
"We came in 2021, in June before second lock down and we saw Orange and say wow, what is this place, we never been anywhere like it, it's amazing.
We are really excited, it's going to be our first shop outside Sydney and we are very excited about Orange.
- Pellegrini Italian general manager Giovanni Convertino
"We saw all the restaurants, we saw such a big food culture like very good restaurants and what we noticed was there's nothing like what we can offer.
"Our trademark is the wood-fire pizza, our wood-fired pizza is like a really classic Italian wood-fired pizza ... so it's crust and thin in the middle ... plus we've got traditional Italian dishes and that we twist a bit with our Australian flavour. We've got dishes for everybody.
However, the best seller is the one-metre pizza.
"It's classic Italian with an Australian twist."
He said he saw a gap between the high-end fine dining restaurants and the more casual establishments and described it as a place for families or for young people to go on dates.
"We signed the lease one year ago," Mr Convertino said.
"In June we started with our job and we should be able to open in August ... we don't know the date yet but some time in August it's going to happen.
"We are really excited, it's going to be our first shop outside Sydney and we are very excited about Orange.
"We see so much potential in Orange, as a town, this town is going crazy and is growing. The people in Orange are very relaxed and I love the vibes there."
The restaurant will provide dine in and take away options and for the first time since the business started they also plan to open for breakfast.
"Here' in Orange we've got a window where we are going to offer takeaway coffee so we will be open from 8am but we won't start straight away with serving dine-in breakfast, we will have pastries and cakes," he said.
"This is something new that we don't do in any of the other restaurants.
"At the moment we are just running a pop-up coffee cart, it's just in front of the IGA, this is the second week that we are running it but it is just coffee takeaways.
"That one will be relocated when we open, the coffee window is part of the design of the restaurant."
Mr Convertino said about 80 per cent of the staff have been hired so far and they are locals, however some of the chefs from Sydney will travel to Orange to help the new staff while the restaurant gets off the ground.
He said since they posted on social media that they were opening soon people have expressed their excitement.
"People want to book already but we cannot open the book because we don't have a date," Mr Convertino said.
"People are so excited, it's amazing, the response from people is very amazing.
"There is a big community of Italians here in Orange and they are so excited to come here and try the food.
"We've got a couple of people from Bathurst who work in Orange and they came in for a coffee and they said 'when are you going to open'.
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Tanya Marschke
I am based at Orange and cover a wide range of subjects as well as the weekly business column. I've worked consistently in the the media industry since 2006 including the past seven years at the Central Western Daily. Before moving to Orange, I worked as a journalist at weekly newspapers the Beaudesert Times and the Gold Coast Sun in Queensland, as well as the Scone Advocate in the Hunter Valley. I started my career at the Ridge News in Lightning Ridge while I completed my journalism studies remotely at Charles Sturt University in Bathurst.
I am based at Orange and cover a wide range of subjects as well as the weekly business column. I've worked consistently in the the media industry since 2006 including the past seven years at the Central Western Daily. Before moving to Orange, I worked as a journalist at weekly newspapers the Beaudesert Times and the Gold Coast Sun in Queensland, as well as the Scone Advocate in the Hunter Valley. I started my career at the Ridge News in Lightning Ridge while I completed my journalism studies remotely at Charles Sturt University in Bathurst.
