After two years of business not-as-normal, we’re all craving comfort over challenge. Rosella Dining Room & Bar has got the memo, bringing classic Euro hospitality to its new home on Gertrude St.

Rosella is the next stage for Project 49, an Italian deli and diner showcasing Beechworth produce from husband-and-wife team Rocco Esposito and Lisa Pidutti, who own a vineyard and farm in northeast Victoria. Vacating a roomy industrial space in Collingwood, Rosella claimed the more intimate spot held by Gertrude Street Enoteca for 17 years.

Despite only reopening in March, the new venue already has a worn-in feel, with supplies and wine displayed in wooden shelves on dark stucco walls and by-the-glass wines scrawled on butcher’s paper. The cosy first impression is deceptive, however, with an upstairs dining room bringing capacity to 100.

On a Saturday evening, it’s a full house downstairs, and our cheerful waiter leads us to the courtyard – a generous space with open-air grills, tea towels strung up like bunting and beer taps that beckon for a return visit on a sunny afternoon. The autumn night is balmy enough, but heaters will be necessary by winter.

A wine list featuring tongue-in-cheek categories like “Everything happens for a riesling” groups bottles by both region and occasion. (After something “Handcrafted for perfect moments”? Try an Oregon pinot noir).

The selection is not over-long but creatively curated, as befitting Esposito’s past life as Vue de Monde’s wine director. Beechworth and Italy get some love of course, as do some interesting Australian aperitifs.

For non-Italian speakers, the food menu requires translation via Google and waiter, but is essentially a progression of nostalgic dishes from Esposito’s homeland Puglia, flavoured by the ocean and a field-to-fork mentality. It opens with affettati (cured meats such as capocollo and mortadella, from a cabinet beside the entry), then smaller “cold” plates and larger “hot”. From the cold, a carpaccio offers a generous

serving of beef draped with silken slices of zucchini scapece and reggiano curls, the meat tender but light on seasoning. Less generous is the octopus, which is nicely plated but reveals slightly bland octopus on a slick of herby salmoriglio. We pick at the frisella, sardines and olive tapenade, the sardines substantial but overwhelmed by pickled capsicum and the bagel-like twice-baked frisella.

We’ve eschewed the market fish with lemon butter that’s landing on tables all around us, wrapped in baking paper, in favour of carb-heavier mains.

The swordfish carbonara – a southern Italian interpretation – gets marks for novelty, with smoked fish swimming in orecchiette dusted with diced chives and two types of roe, but lacks depth. Riso, patate e cozze features plump mussels and an understated paella-style rice studded with kipfler potato.

The one-pan all’assassina or “killer” spaghetti is piquant and comforting but more filler than killer, lacking the umami punch and caramelisation that define the iconic dish from Puglia’s capital Bari. A baby cos salad slightly drowns in a salty anchovy dressing.

For dessert, gelato al tartufo references a retro Calabrian ice cream. Presentation is playful – think chocolate snowball – but the dense chocolate gelato is not much enlivened by the lick of rosella jam inside.

Rosella isn’t about to herald a return of edgier dining along Gertrude St. But then, from the animated chatter of the diners around us, maybe it doesn’t need to. Come for a spritz Veneziano and salumi in the sun out back or a bottle of Barolo and pasta, and get comfortable.

Related review: Elchi brings posh spice to Melbourne’s former Press Club site