All hands on deck: Coorparoo’s old-school attraction is ready to roll
With a seasoned hospitality veteran at the helm (boasting experience at Quay, Biota, Paper Daisy and a year-long stint at Tartine in San Francisco), Ramona Trattoria will be serving natural wines, cocktails and Italian eats made the old-school way.
The exciting new eatery will officially open to the public on Sunday August 14, marking another tremendous score for a suburb that is rapidly vaulting into the ranks of the city’s best foodie hubs. Here’s what we know:
When COVID-19 hit, Ashley-Maree Kent rediscovered her love of using her hands to knead, shape and serve. The chef, who has worked in numerous restaurants across Australia and abroad, found herself spending more and more time kneading, shaping, cutting and extruding dough by hand into pasta and bread – a practice that ignited a passion for (and a desire to explore) a more rustic style of cooking.
In early 2021, Ashley channelled this new-found fervour into Cross Eyed Mary, a pasta-slinging eatery in Coolangatta that Ashley co-owned and worked as head chef. Here Ashley’s plump ravioli, ribbons of pappardelle and pillowy piles of gnocchi (all kneaded, rolled and shaped by hand) had our Gold Coast team swooning.
Now, Ashley has struck out on her own, divesting from Cross Eyed Mary and bringing her pasta-making talents to Brisbane to open Ramona Trattoria, her own 48-seat restaurant currently taking shape on Leicester Street in Coorparoo.
The development is an exciting one for Coorparoo locals, who have been spoiled in recent months with the openings of seductive Spanish eatery Paella y Pa’mi and Shizen Japanese Cuisine. Ramona Trattoria will add a dose of polished casual dining to the street, with Ashley eager to open a place where guests can dine several times a week without depleting their bank account.
Ashley’s old-school techniques will be employed to bring the best out of her selected produce, with a small menu focusing on hand-shaped pasta, hand-stretched pizza and pizzette. Expect the likes of papardelle doused in Tuscan wild boar ragu and pecorino Romano, hand-cut tagliatelle with ragu bolognese and parmigiano reggiano, and agnolotti del plin with chestnut and truffle in brodo.
The restaurant will also boast a beverage list featuring a mix of natural and conventional wines as well as a cocktail list assembled by HOTA’s Tom Angel. Ashley is also keeping mum on the space itself, only revealing that Ramona Trattoria will boast a worn-in aesthetic and an open kitchen.
