A me piacciono gli anfratti bui delle osterie dormienti, dove la gente culmina nell’eccesso del canto. A me piacciono le cose bestemmiate e leggere, e i calici di vino profondi.

“I like dark crannies of sleeping osterie, where people culminate in the excess of singing. I like cursed and light things, and deep glasses of wine."

Our Story

“It was something like ten or eleven years ago. I was lost and lonely, working as a cook, living in an old motel (The Carillon) in Mount Cook in Wellington, and trying to be a writer. I didn’t have time or will for washing my clothes at the motel, so every Monday on my day off I would walk to Newtown, leave my stuff at a laundry nearby and go to have a coffee at Baobab café. There was an eatery called Manon at the back of an alleyway in front of the cafe. I would spy the restaurant from the little window thinking how cute it was. Manon eventually closed down and the place seemed to be abandoned for years. The place looked as old as it could be in Europe, and decadent and bohemian as all the things I loved.

Few years went by and life took over. I married a beautiful Chilean girl who used to cook with me and call me “dictator!”, I learned to speak Spanish like a Chilean, I stopped writing bull… and I got into running some Italian kitchen in town at Mariluca first and then Ombra. Then my friend Luis who runs Viva Mexico next door, passed me the contact of the landlord of that old place in Newtown. The landlord was an old man in an old house in Oriental Bay. He loved that restaurant more than anything he had and he always dreamt to bring it back to life, before it was too late.

My wife Patricia, my former business partner and I opened the place with $16.000 dollars, with a name that nobody could pronounce, going against any common sense business rules and with no much hope to survive. We started serving two lonely house made sausages on an empty plate, pouring only Italian wines, and writing menus in Italian. People thought we were nice guys, but won’t make it.

And here we are, five years later, celebrating every day the same love for good people, honest food and true wines.”

(Giulio Ricatti – chef patron)

A CULINARY JOURNEY TO THE HEART OF ITALY...

By being an “osteria” we mean that at Cicio Cacio we cook humble Italian food in a family environment. We are passionate about Italian regional cuisine and we pretend to travel the whole peninsula, researching Italian lost recipes. We change the menu every month, following a different city of Italy. If we can do something by hand we will do it, as our famous bread, pasta and sausages.

Our goal is to be as authentic as it would be the food you eat at home in Italy. We try to look closer at ingredients, places, people and memories. Our language is the language of simplicity, treated with care and respect. All our dishes, wines and menus are in Italian because Italy is what our “osteria” is about. We invite you to enjoy the trip.  

Buon Appetito!!

the art of wine

As for our food, our wine list reflects our travels through Italy and our passion for mysterious and exotic grapes. As home of something like 500 different varieties, Italy is probably the most interesting wine producer in the world.  

We love our wines and we love our people, and we try to match the two things. Are you a student? Are you an artist? Are you an intellectual, a housewife or a businessman? Are you young or old? Man or female? Poor or rich? We try to have wines for everyone. We like wines that express Italy at its best, keeping the subject easy and democratic. As every other art (or craft) it is a simple thing, really. It is not a headache. It is a pleasure.

Cicio Cacio is not only a restaurant, it is our home. We will light candles and fire, pour wine and play music. As Baudelaire would have said: “We will boil and serve our own heart”.