This was published 8 years ago
Sagra celebrates fine taste for la dolce vita
By Stephen Crafti
Sagra – Italian for "celebration" – is steeped in Italian history.
The restaurant/bar/art gallery in Glenferrie Road, Malvern, is the brainchild of Ross Chessari.
Fine dining in a stunning space at the Sagra restaurant and gallery in Malvern. Credit: Simon O'Dwyer
Chessari, who is shown in overscaled photos on walls with his parents as a baby wrapped up in a bundle in the family grocery store, says it all: "It's in my genes."
Chessari points out his father in his second grocery store, which opened in North Fitzroy in the 1970s.
Among the features at Sagra are the one-metre-wide pipes that ventilate the space.Credit: Simon O'Dwyer
"It was so different then. The idea was to cater for a family's entire needs for the week. You even knew when a birthday cake was needed for an upcoming celebration," he says.
Chessari didn't want to emulate his parents' grocery stores. Instead, his mantra was to create a community resource, one that went beyond one function. The goal was also to provide a rich culinary experience where food from all the regions in Italy was represented. Having an art and furniture gallery in the same building (located on the first floor) seemed to fulfil his broader vision to provide a cultural destination.
"We recently had a group of women here staying almost 10 hours. They started in the cafe and moved to the gallery, before spending time on the terrace (second floor)," Chessari says.
Chessari collaborated with architect Andrew Trollope in reworking the former antique showroom.
Apart from the Victorian wrought iron gates at the entrance and an impressive leadlight window in a private function room, little remains of the former tenant.
"One of the main issues was the lack of natural light. It felt far too cavernous," says Trollope, who enlarged the windows at the front and replaced the pastiche Victorian trimmed windows with large steel and glass apertures.
As pivotal in the design is the light, well placed directly above the kitchen. The glass-tiled floor in the function room above allows filtered light through the core of the warehouse-style space.
"It was crucial to place the kitchen centre stage. Seeing the food prepared is part of the experience," Trollope says.
Among the most impressive features at Sagra are the one-metre-wide pipes that ventilate the space.
Expressed, rather than concealed, these pipes become almost an art form in their own right.
However, it's the painting, sculpture and furniture in the gallery on the first floor that draw diners upstairs.
Curated by arts media specialist Gerri Williams and artist Phillip Doggett-Williams, the ever-changing exhibitions by some of Australia's leading artists such as John Kelly and Geoffrey Bartlett can be enjoyed from the comfort of an Ernest Race high-back armchair. Although Race isn't Italian, the post-war furniture designer received a gold medal at the Milan Triennial for his designs in 1955.
Those sitting in one of Race's cafe-style chairs at ground level, or on the banquette-style seating, will also enjoy the whimsical humour of the printed images covering the restaurant walls. Trollope went to Palermo in Italy, visiting numerous flea markets and bric-a-brac stores. In one image, there are finely detailed marble floors, with just a hint of Trollope's red-footed sock in the foreground. In another image, there's the Virgin Mary complete with a mobile phone. Even Chessari's own Alfa is neatly positioned in the foreground of an Italian Renaissance fresco.
Keen to create a broad dining experience, Chessari is about to open a new section dedicated to wine and prepared gourmet food for people to take away. The wine, for example, is beautifully display in plywood boxes reminiscent of an Italian farmhouse.
Sagra, as pointed out by Chessari, is a valuable resource, not just for Malvern, but also for wider Melbourne, celebrating the pleasure of life that seems integral to Italian territory.