Sydney's a'Mare Expands With Pizza'Mare, a New Casual Italian Destination

The mezzanine level above Barangaroo's a'Mare has sat in Alessandro and Anna Pavoni's plans long enough. On April 22, it becomes Pizza'Mare, a pizza-and-pasta restaurant and aperitivo bar that extends the two-hatted dining room's Italian ambitions upward, literally and conceptually.

The Pavonis and their Maestro Hospitality team are stacking three distinct experiences under one Barangaroo roof: the refined a'Mare Dining Room at ground level, the new Pizza'Mare in the middle, and Vista'Mare, an aperitivo bar with Sydney Harbour views, at the top. The architecture of the concept is deliberate. Each tier offers a different entry point to the same Italian hospitality DNA without diluting the flagship's prestige or its hat count.

For pasta people, the menu language matters. Pizza'Mare describes its pasta as "done properly," which is not a throwaway phrase when it comes from a kitchen holding two hats. The Rigatoni Cacio e Pepe anchors the pasta list, and anyone who has wrestled with cacio e pepe understands why it functions as a credibility marker: the sauce is a fat emulsion of pecorino romano and black pepper, stabilized by starchy pasta water, that collapses into a greasy mess the moment temperature or timing slips. Rigatoni's ridged exterior and hollow tube make it a forgiving but honest test; the sauce has to cling with intent. The Pennette Arrabbiata is the spicier proof of concept alongside it, a sharp, tomato-forward sauce where the aggression of the dried chili has to balance against acidity without losing its heat signature. Neither dish is experimental. Both are Italian-regional warhorses that expose exactly how a kitchen handles fundamentals under speed and volume, the two variables a mezzanine casual concept introduces that a sixty-cover fine dining room below does not.

The pizza program is equally considered. Pizzaiolo Paolo Lacarpia, who grew up in Bari in Puglia, will lead that side of the menu under Executive Chef Giuseppe Fuzio. The dough is a pre-fermented biga, a method that builds flavor over an extended fermentation period and produces a lighter, more open crumb than any same-day mix can achieve. It will be baked in a MAM oven imported from Modena. Lacarpia's Puglian background combined with the Neapolitan-style approach signals a southern Italian orthodoxy that resists the gimmicky topping combinations and sourdough cross-pollination crowding Sydney's current pizza landscape.

Antipasti round out the floor plan with Octopus alla Luciana and premium culaccia prosciutto, a specialty rump cut that delivers more concentrated, nuttier flavor than standard prosciutto and signals the kitchen is sourcing with the same precision as the dining room below.

Alessandro Pavoni framed the expansion directly: "From the beginning, a'Mare was created to celebrate the warmth, generosity and joy of Italian hospitality. With Pizza'Mare and Vista'Mare, we are expanding that vision to create more ways for people to enjoy it, whether that is a quick pasta or pizza with friends, an aperitivo by the water, or the full dining experience downstairs."

The practical effect of that vision is a venue flexible enough to absorb a lunchtime rigatoni order and a Friday-night full booking within the same service window. For a two-hatted restaurant navigating the economics of high-end hospitality, adding a casual mezzanine that can move pasta and pizza at speed without requiring a tasting-menu commitment is not just brand extension; it is sound business architecture. April 22 is when the theory hits the plate.