“It feels industrial, coastal and fun with an elegant European vibe.” That’s how chef Matteo Tine describes Orlo, the new Mediterranean eatery in Melbourne’s Collingwood that he’s been engaged to oversee.

It’s Friday afternoon when I chat to the chef who is rattling off ingredients that inform the menu at the 150-seater, three-storey venue housed in the former Dyason & Co. Cordial Factory.

At the moment, Tine is excited about the radicchio, sun chokes, bay leaves, macadamias, anchovies, cima di rapa, fioretti blossoms and fennel, to name just a few.

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“Orlo means ‘plinth’ in Italian in reference to the fact we’ve built it up from the foundations. Similarly, with our menu, we have built on the foundations of Mediterranean cuisine,” Tine says.

It’s clear Tine, who has worked at Grossi Florentino and Tetto di Carolina in Melbourne and Pixie Food & Wine in Byron Bay, takes great pleasure in his craft. Although Tine grew up in Australia, he holds his Sicilian roots close and the menu reads like a melding of his culinary heritage.

The chef says he has spent months scribbling descriptions of dishes, devouring family recipes and poring over cookbooks while coming up with the menu concept. “I’m happier than I have ever been in my 22 years of cooking. It’s liberating to be given creative freedom in the kitchen,” Tine says.

“My mentor Guy Grossi told me everything has to have a story. My story is I’m a proud Australian who lives in Melbourne and has Italian heritage. I’m a Melbournari,” he says. Hospitality heavyweight James Klapanis (St Cloud Eating House, Young’s Wine Rooms) invited Tine to join his Eastern Grace Group as executive chef and creative director.

The historic 19th century building that houses Orlo has been thoughtfully reimagined by Kate McCluskey Kyle, director of McCluskey Studio who says she built it around the joy and conviviality of Mediterranean cuisine. “Mediterranean cuisine is grounded in family and sharing and we wanted this to come through in the design,” she says.

McCluskey Kyle has married the original features of the building with refined finishes like marble, brass, and amber glass. Reclaimed and vintage furniture pieces, sourced by Klapanis, were also incorporated. Inside the iconic red-brick facade is a ground floor dining room and courtyard with olive trees and trussed vines, a private mezzanine area and subterranean bar named The Cordial Club.

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In another nod to the building’s history, many of the signature cocktails include custom cordials. There’s the Little Star (orange and saffron cordial with sparkling wine) and the Gimlet (apple, gin, Champagne cordial). Although the original 1888-built factory produced flavoured syrups designed to lure Melburnians away from alcohol, the cocktail list conceived of by Joe Jones (Romeo Lane, Purple Pit) tilts away from temperance.

The wine list curated by Carlo Grossi, of the Grossi Group, has been designed with Tine’s Mediterranean menu in mind.

Despite the fact Tine has a tattoo of Nonna’s Passata on his right forearm, the chef says he’s shaking things up and wants Orlo to stand out for its inventiveness.

As for what to order, Tine suggests melanzane with sugo, oregano and Reggiano, sunchoke risotto, with hazelnut and marjoram, the southern rock lobster scotch egg with caviar, and black Angus dry-aged rib eye, cooked over the Italian brick pit.

If Tine had to name one dish that defined Orlo, he says it would be the char-sui-style chicken with fennel and a vincotto glaze. “This is not Nonna’s cooking. This is cooking that is relevant to modern-day Australia. What would Nonna think? I’m the eldest of 38 cousins so I can do no wrong. I’m the golden child.”

Orlo is located at 44 Oxford St, Collingwood. For more details head to the website.

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