When Tracy Keely finally opens the door of her new restaurant next month, it will be a real family affair.
Lunetta is set to open on November 1, the end product of a long journey of Canberra history, local nostalgia and a finely tuned understanding of the capital's culinary landscape.
She and her sons Matthew and Nicholas, were longtime admirers of the quirky, retro dodecagon building perched on top of Red Hill.
They, like generations of Canberrans, had celebrated milestones upstairs inside the intriguing 12-sides mid-century structure.
It had been owned by a single family, the Vidovics, since they built it in 1963.
But after Peter and Lidia Vidovic died, the family put it on the market.
Another family, the Keeleys, snapped it up for $2.25 million, and have been renovating it ever since.
It's by no means the first food rodeo for Tracy Keeley.
She was a primary school teacher working at St Bede's in Red Hill before she bought her first hospitality venue, Cafe Momo in Bruce.
More recently she has owned and operated Bookplate, the National Library of Australia's cafe, and ran Pollen at the Australian Botanical Gardens.
And it won't be the building's first revamp; iconic Italian-Australian architect Enrico Taglietti was commissioned to create new bay windows in 1981, with a futuristic brief "in the style of 2001".
The building had been shuttered for nearly three years, but the Keeleys are now ready to show their revamped creation to the public.
Reimagined by Sydney architects ACME, the new version honours both the original form of Miles Jakl's futuristic "spaceship" restaurant, and the distinctive modernist expression later incorporated by Taglietti.
Lunetta will be "elevated dining" upstairs, and a casual trattoria downstairs, both drawing on Italian influences in homage to the late Taglietti, who died in 2019.
Ms Keeley said while Canberra's restaurant scene was now thriving, with several high-end Italian restaurants, Lunetta would be a singular offering.
"Consumers today seek more than just a meal - they desire an experience that feels authentic, thoughtful and immersive," she said.
"Lunetta is a fusion of heritage, design and elevated hospitality that few Canberra venues can match."
Not to mention the building's iconic status - the family's decision to keep it standing has been deliberate.
"We're not only offering great food and exceptional experience - we also sit within the cultural memory of a lot of local Canberrans," Ms Keeley told The Canberra Times.
"It's something that is very, very aligned to what's happening in hospitality in Canberra."
She likes the fact that the restaurant feels both near and far - perched on a hill, but close to where people live and work.
"We're very much a part of the Canberra landscape, in that we're surrounded by native bushland, but we also have the opportunity of seeing the growth in Canberra through our windows, and being able to see and be a part of the landscape of Canberra," she says.
"Our beautiful building that now has been restored and reimagined has a lot of memory around it as being the place to go in the 1960s."
The Keeleys have spent just as much time bringing together an experienced team to run the kitchen at Lunetta and Lunetta Trattoria, with Tristan Rebbettes as executive chef.
He worked as Sous Chef at Saint Peter in Sydney from 2017-2019, head chef at Sydney's Flying Fish Restaurant, and for the past three years has headed the kitchen at Mona Farm.
But Ms Keeley is adamant that Lunetta will be a strictly Canberra affair, serving food in intimate spaces, with a capacity of 84 upstairs, and around 40 in the trattoria downstairs.
"We are Canberrans - we are attuned to all the beauty that Canberra holds, and so that community aspect is another important part of our identity," she said.
"Having having elevated refined dining for our upstairs offering of Lunetta, but then having this beautiful, fun, energetic, joyful offering for Lunetta Trattoria, which is really about neighborhood, and it's about coming together - the community we feel with our two offerings are very much considered in what we have decided to to imbue in that building itself."
Lunetta opens November 1.
