Guy Grossi opening a relaxed Italian restaurant in a prominent Melbourne pub

A rapidly growing Sydney hospitality group is taking its first tilt at Melbourne, partnering with local restaurant royalty the Grossi family to overhaul a rundown Kew pub.

The Clifton Hotel, on a prominent corner at Kew Junction, will reopen next month with an Italian restaurant, separate front bar and courtyard for negronis.

It will be the only Grossi group venue outside the CBD, the most casual eatery in the family’s portfolio, and the first Melbourne venue to be both owned and operated by Public Hospitality Group, which holds more than 20 venues.

Public has become a major player in Sydney over the past three years, buying pubs in Paddington, Balmain and other inner-city suburbs, and hiring former Automata chef Clayton Wells this year as creative culinary director.

At the Clifton Hotel, Guy Grossi will oversee food and drink across five distinct areas. His relaxed Italian restaurant, Puttanesca, will stretch across three of the pub’s spaces.

“It’s an osteria, which is the closest thing to a pub in Italy,” Grossi says.

Puttanesca will serve pizza, pasta (including the venue’s namesake dish and a lasagne), and dishes that nod to the setting, such as cotoletta, Italy’s answer to a pub schnitzel.

“We want it to feel accessible, really friendly,” says Grossi. “There are a lot of families around there. They can drop in after school pick-up and have something to eat before they go home.”

A Kew local, Grossi says he was drawn to the project partly for selfish reasons and partly for Public’s no-shortcuts approach to restoring neighbourhood institutions.

“They do it from the ground up,” he says. “There are some places they’ve taken over that have just been derelict.”

Built in 1868, Clifton Hotel has lain empty for at least four years, according to Public’s executive chairman, Jon Adgemis, who bought the pub in June 2020. It last operated as Junktion Hotel and has also been known as Hotel Kew. Several of its publicans have been women.

The new-look Clifton will have a restyled facade, a reinstated corner bar with TVs for watching sport, a separate family-friendly dining area, and capacity for 250 people.

“In the modern world, that probably is what the pub looks like now,” says Adgemis of the blended drinking and dining offer.

Partnering with the Grossi group follows Public’s collaborations in Sydney with outfits such as Fabbrica, currently operating as a pop-up pasta bar in a Balmain pub Adgemis owns, and the Maybe Group, which masterminded El Primo Sanchez in Paddington before the group was bought by Public.

South of the border, Public is also at work on a Collingwood hotel, The Vine, set to open in November with an unnamed partner handling food and drink.

Clifton Hotel will open in late August at 99 High Street, Kew.