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Pilu chef Giovanni Pilu to open spin-off Italian restaurant at iconic Toaster building

Pilu chef Giovanni Pilu to open spin-off Italian restaurant at iconic Toaster building

The Age24-07-2025
It took more than two decades to tempt the duo behind northern beaches dining jewel Pilu at Freshwater across the Harbour Bridge. Now Giovanni Pilu and Marilyn Annecchini will open a spin-off restaurant at Circular Quay, with the project's inspiration going even further back in history.
Flaminia, which opens in late November, takes its name from the ship that started the Australian migrant story for the husband-and-wife team who steer the chefs' hatted Pilu restaurant.
'It docked at Circular Quay,' Annecchini said of her mother's arrival from Italy aboard the Flaminia, in 1959. If she'd peered out the east-facing portholes, her first view of Sydney might've been the site where her daughter is now opening a restaurant, perched on the edge of Sydney Cove.
Since Pilu launched in 2004, the owners of the award-winning restaurant have fielded several offers to expand to the Sydney CBD. They said it'd take something big, and the view from Q Dining at the Pullman Quay Grand Sydney Harbour matched that criteria, so they've struck a deal with the hotel to take over the restaurant space on level 2.
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