It's lunch time on a Friday and The Italian Corner at Wickham is empty when I walk in. But not for long.
Within half an hour most of the tables have been taken and the woodfired pizza oven is in overdrive.
Not bad for a restaurant that officially opened its doors to the public just two days earlier.
Chef and owner Rocky Singh had a good template to work from: The Italian Cottage in Cessnock. It closed last week to enable existing staff members to mentor new staff at the Wickham restaurant.
For Singh, customer service is king. If the customer is happy, everything else falls into place.
"Service is so important. Thirty or 40 per cent of the experience for me is food, 60 or 70 per cent is customer service," he tells Weekender.
It was his customers who encouraged him to open a second restaurant, he says, by giving him "good feedback". That and the fact that The Italian Cottage's chef has been "working for us for ages and is looking after it really well". It has freed Singh up to spend time in the kitchen at The Italian Corner.
"Some people come to The Italian Cottage twice a week. Three or four couples come every week, some come more," Singh tells Weekender.
"So many people come back from Sydney, too, just for us.
"We have a booking system that tells us how many times people have been here - some people have been here 50, 60 times.
"If you look at our reviews, you will see what we're about, and what we're proud of."
Singh moved to Australia from India in 2013. He had studied mechanical engineering in India and planned to complete a masters in Sydney but the scarcity of jobs in that field at the time - and the travel - forced him to rethink his options.
"I used to travel from Bowral to Sydney and back for study, which took me three or four hours, and then worked at an Italian restaurant in the evenings where I did my culinary apprenticeship," he says.
"I picked it up really quickly - the owners used to go overseas and leave the restaurant in my hands and when they retired 15 years ago they offered it to me to buy, but back then I didn't have enough money.
"I moved to Sydney which is where a new journey started, and I got lots of cheffing experience."
He then headed north to Newcastle, working at a hotel as a chef while looking for a space to open his own restaurant. He found that further afield, at Cessnock, where he opened The Italian Cottage in 2019.
"We opened in Cessnock on September 12, 2019, and in November and December we had the Wollombi fires, which lasted a month or two - we used to find ash in the wine glasses - and business was a little slow," he says.
"Then there was COVID-19. Everyone struggled, we weren't the only ones. If we were the only ones, we'd have to think about it a bit more."
Singh wants The Italian Corner to be a neighbourhood restaurant, and the family-friendly menu certainly fits the bill.
Entrees can be shared, and the gamberi e picante (baby squid, prawns and oyster mushrooms sauteed with cognac, tomato and cream, served with bread) was simply delicious. I'd happily go back just for that dish.
There's plenty of pasta dishes to choose from, including butternut pumpkin, sage and amaretti ravioli; duck ravioli with caramelised onions in a light Napolitana sauce; a four-cheese gnocchi; angel hair pasta with crab meat and cherry tomatoes; and a seafood linguine and mafaldine with veal and pork mince meatballs, tomatoes and ricotta, to name a few.
There's also risotto, an antipasto platter for two, a choice of sides, a special lunch menu for time-poor diners and, of course, a pizza menu. I tried the capricciosa and was impressed: a thin but (not too thin) base, a light and flavoursome sauce and a generous topping (with juicy artichokes).
The drinks menu is extensive and includes a long list of whiskies, which surprised me.
The service, Singh will be pleased to know, was friendly and attentive without being pushy.
"I had a look at a few restaurants in Newcastle before deciding on Wickham and I didn't feel that warmth from the staff," he says.
"At Cessnock we talk to the customers. Our staff know their names, where they're from, if they have kids, and vice versa.
"I want whoever enters the door to feel at home, to enjoy themselves with a wine and feel relaxed in a casual setting."
