Arrowtown’s favourite restaurant Aosta has announced they will be welcoming a little bambino into its family with ‘Little Aosta’ set to open next door later this month.
Little Aosta is anticipated to be a family-friendly, fast-paced restaurant offering dine-in and takeaway options for locals and visitors to Arrowtown. Opening Saturday 26 February, the new venture is backed by a small group of investors including chef Ben Bayly and businessman/philanthropist Michael Hill.
The cuisine of both Aosta and Little Aosta is inspired by the cooking techniques of Northern Italy blended with ingredients of the South Island. Bayly lived and cooked for four years in the namesake city of Aosta that remarkably shares similar latitude, elevation, climate, flora, fauna, and soil characteristics with the Central Otago Southern Alps.
During Bayly’s time away in Italy as a young chef his love of Italian cooking flourished, and his Arrowtown establishments combine that inspiration with almost exclusively local products and produce from selected growers, breeders, fishermen, hunters, foragers, and other suppliers.
Little Aosta will be run day-to-day by a talented team led by executive chef Steven Sepsy and head chef Darren Lynch, with the pasta and drinks list curated by Giulio Barducci, and the front of house led by Vanessa Cagnola.
Bayly said he and his family have fallen in love with Arrowtown and bringing the Little Aosta concept to life had been on his mind since opening Aosta three years ago.
“I wanted a casual, fun and chaotic little Italian place that complemented Aosta well - a place that was focused on simple, delish Italian food with zero faff,” explained Bayly. “Arrowtown is all about family and lots of families visit too, so we wanted to appeal to them. We are grateful that Aosta is now booked out most nights, and it makes sense to expand our offering so as not to disappoint.”
The menu has been divided into antipasti, sourdough wood fired pizzetta, woodfired meatballs and salsicce (sausage), hand-crafted family sizes pastas that serve 2-4, secondi (mains) that serve 2-4, and dolci (dessert).
Bayly and his team have created dishes to share and to please all ages and appetites. Meanwhile, the drinks menu offers delicious Italian inspired spritzes, including the Americano, Negroni Sbagliato (which translates to “Negroni by mistake”), Elderberry kombucha spritz and a Sgroppino spritz made with vodka, prosecco, and lemon sorbet. The wine list will be based around Central Otago’s six sub-regions, balanced with vibrant Italian table wines served by the tumbler, carafe, and bottle.
Local architect and designer Anna-Marie Chin worked with Bayly to fit out the restaurant, creating a sense of space, warmth, and cosiness to match the casual dining vibe of the menu. Little Aosta is all about shared meals and families eating together and the Chin’s design details successfully reflect that.
“We have a ton of banquette seating to make the restaurant cosy and family-friendly,” she said. “We’ve also given people the option of table seating or sitting at the bar, which also features a wood-fired oven and Florentine grill.”
