For all the influence Italian food has on our culinary landscape, I’m always a bit perplexed at the lack of quality enotecas, a place where you’d quaff wines and sample food from a particular region. But over the past few years there’s been a blurring of the lines between wine bar and restaurant, especially in Melbourne, where the ideal of an enoteca feels most at home. The reason may be Melbourne’s ability to cut through the casual and classy, or its Italian heritage. Of course, in this instance, it may well be that new enoteca Agostino is on Italian-influenced Lygon Street, too.

And although they’ve not got everything down pat just yet at Agostino, there’s something that feels right as soon as you arrive at the door.

The heritage-listed building, now owned by Luca Sbardella and Jamie Valmorbida, was built in 1884 and was run as a food store by George Godfree and Edwin King. They sold it to Luca and Jamie’s grandfather Carlo Valmorbida in 1955, and it’s remained in the family since. The current iteration – part deli, espresso bar, Pidapipó gelataria, and rooftop bar – is now joined by Agostino – an enoteca named after Carlo Valmorbida’s first food store Frank Agostino & Co.

Service is more formal than the feast requires, and although there can be long periods between courses, the staff are sharper than a 5B pencil. You can buy a bottle of wine from the wine store and cop a $20 corkage fee, or peruse sommelier James Tait’s Italian and Australian list that caters for those on a light budget, but mostly for those looking to go large.

In the kitchen, Anthony Musarra (ex-Van Haandel Group and Estelle Group) is culinary director, and although there are highlights, a few dishes miss the mark, too.

Capers, raisins and chilli bring a mild umami to yellowfin tuna crudo, while a salad of steamed new potatoes and charred octopus garners support from ‘nduja and salsa verde – nice though a little pedestrian. Better is salted persimmon which adds a refreshing edge to shaved culatello, perhaps the dish of the night, where a medley of prawn, crab, tomato, garlic, chilli and a dash of white wine (soave) entwine with spaghettini. More of this, please. Borlotti beans and fennel underpin a grilled blue-eye, and although ricotta-filled agnolotti is a miss, with small, under-cooked parcels barely filled, an almost bouillabaisse-style brodetto of John Dory, cuttlefish, mussels and vongole is warming, generous and points towards a bright future for the enoteca.