Mensa is The Parade's new home for multi-regional Italian food

 Acclaimed chef Eugenio Maiale knows that every great meal starts with the finest ingredients. It's why he chose the name Flour Eggs Water for one of his Sydney pasta bars. When he returned to Adelaide after the pandemic, he wanted to continue that legacy of serving top quality Italian food in a casual setting, so he assembled a hospitality supergroup and launched Mensa on November 22.

The name is a nod to the A tavola group that Maiale founded in Sydney (“tavola” is Italian for table, and “mensa” is the Latin word), and the other two directors are Cibo co-founder Claudio Ferraro and hospo lifer Zoran Pavlovic, who has “about 20 years of experience in front-of-house and bar roles.” Pavlovic describes the new venue as “a local joint that's accessible enough for regulars to come in one or two times a week, but still offers premium food and beverage.” And while the cuisine is “firmly Italian, it isn't about carbonara or those expected dishes. There's a multi-regional influence in dishes like the pappardelle with rabbit and green olive sugo, which is typical of Abruzzo where Eugenio's family comes from.”

A lot of attention has been bestowed on Mensa's neighbour in the former Alchemy Ironworks site at 44 The Parade West, and Ferraro and Maiale are both childhood friends with Messina founder Nick Palumbo. While Pavlovic stresses that they are very separate entities, you will find some crossover in the dreamy ice cream tones that fill Mensa's interior. “The building was a very empty shell when we first saw it,” says Pavlovic. “So the brief was to create a bright, naturally lit space that was reminiscent of a lounge room.” The result is a far cry from the workshop that once occupied the premises, with plenty of blond wood and handsome mint green banquettes arrayed beneath banks of windows that flood the space with natural light

Foodwise, the ziti with blue swimmer crab and vodka sauce has emerged as an early crowd favourite, along with several smaller plates. Pavlovic singles out the vitello tonnato as “an absolute weapon” and the olive all'ascolana (a de-seeded queen green olive that's stuffed with chicken, pork and veal before being crumbed and deep fried) is a highlight of the bar snacks menu.

“We have  a full house for dinner most nights from Tuesday to Saturday,” says Pavlovic, “but we're also open for drinks and snacks from 3 pm. And we're even finding that a lot of people stop on their way out and book for the following week, which is an excellent sign that we're doing something right.”

Visit: Mensa Kitchen