There’s a new mood settling into the Italian Club on Carrington Street, where the former Vespa Cafe has been transformed into Per Te, a warm new Italian restaurant designed to feel a little more like dinner at nonna’s house.
The new restaurant already looks very different from its former daytime identity, with olive tones, warmer finishes and a rendered concrete-style feature wall setting the scene for long dinners and family catch-ups.
For owners Rita and Sam, the change was about creating a space that feels distinctly different once the sun goes down.
“Vespa was more of a daytime, casual, easy-flow type vibe,” Rita told Glam Adelaide.
“Now we’ve changed it to more of a warm feeling when you come in here, a nighttime vibe where you can come with your family, have a good home-cooked meal.”
The idea is less about rushing through dinner and more about settling in, sharing dishes and taking your time around the table, drawing on the relaxed, generous style of dining Rita and Sam associate with Italy.
The name Per Te, meaning “for you” in Italian, ties neatly into that philosophy, with the restaurant centred around hospitality, comfort and food that feels familiar.
Rather than chasing overly complicated dishes, the kitchen is going back to basics.
Sam, who heads up the kitchen, says the menu is inspired by the food he and Rita remember eating at home growing up.
“We really want to do that nonna, mum, dad, family-on-a-Sunday, Sunday lunch type vibe,” Rita said.
That means lasagne, handmade ravioli, Napoletana sauce and casarecce tossed through an eight-hour ragu, with the focus firmly on simple ingredients, traditional techniques and giving dishes the time they need.
“Our cuisine is quite unique because it’s very simple, but people love that,” Sam said.
“We don’t complicate it … we don’t take shortcuts.”
The restaurant’s arancini are another standout, made with saffron and prepared using a traditional Sicilian method.
“Everything is cooked separately and then combined together, which is the traditional Sicilian way of cooking arancini,” Sam said.
The team also uses locally selected mince for its ragu and Grana Padano for its grated parmesan, while much of the food is made by hand rather than relying on production lines or machinery.
Dessert keeps things classic too, with traditional tiramisu, vanilla panna cotta and a deconstructed Sicilian cannoli among the options.
The renovated space has hosted around four private functions ahead of the restaurant’s official opening, including corporate events, baby showers, bridal showers and meetings, giving Rita and Sam an early taste of how the new space feels when it is filled with people.
There is also plenty of history in the building to make the new chapter feel fitting.
Per Te sits alongside the Carrington Function Centre within the Italian Club, a space that has been part of Adelaide’s Italian community for decades.
Rita says people still walk through the doors and share stories about weddings, parties and Saturday night discos, including more than a few tales of couples who first met there.
“The stories we’ve heard are so funny,” she said. “We should write a book.”
Now, Per Te is adding another chapter to that history, bringing the focus back to food, family and the simple pleasure of sitting around a table together.
Come summer, Rita also hopes to revive one particularly nostalgic family tradition, fresh peaches soaked in wine and served at the end of a Sunday lunch.
It’s a simple Italian take on sangria and exactly the kind of detail that sums up what Per Te is trying to create, familiar, unfussy and rooted in the traditions its owners grew up with.
Per Te
When: Opening September 15 from 5.30pm onwards
Where: 262 Carrington Street, Adelaide
To find out more, click here.
