Alessio Maisano started working full-time in his father's Italian restaurants on the Central Coast of NSW at the age of 15.
Fast forward two decades and he now has two restaurants of his own: Hungry Wolf's at Adamstown and The Tipsy Italian at Islington which opened in early August. And these days, the tables have turned: it's Dominic, Alessio's father, who is helping his son in the kitchen.
"He's retired now and always looking for things to do so he comes in here and helps us out," Alessio told Food & Wine.
"He's had restaurants for 40 years, all over Sydney and the Central Coast. He's the pizza master."
Restaurants are a family affair for the Maisanos. Alessio's sister, Maria, opened Hungry Wolf's at Belmont in 2020, which has since moved to Jewells. He opened his own Hungry Wolf's at Adamstown one month later.
And Alessio and his partner Carina Baillache's children are now helping out at their two restaurants.
Alessio's menus are inspired by recipes that have been handed down through the Maisano family for generations. Both his father and his mother Pina are originally from Calabria, in southern Italy.
At The Tipsy Italian, though, recipes from Carina's Sicilian heritage also influence the food offering.
"You might notice on the menu that everything is very tomato or oil based, that's what southern Italy is known for, whereas up north they use creams and white pastas a lot more," he said.
While the menus at The Tipsy Italian and Hungry Wolf's both feature pizza and pasta, that's where the similarities end.
"What we do here at The Tipsy Italian is more elevated, I would say," Carina explained.
"We offer woodfired pizzas at The Tipsy Italian while at Hungry Wolf's it's more your traditional pizzas where you have more toppings, your regular meat lovers, that kind of thing."
Her favourite dish at The Tipsy Italian is the pizza with spicy nduja, mozzarella, tomato and hot honey. Alessio's is the spaghetti vongole with clams, garlic, olive oil, chilli and cherry tomato. Both can be found on the "chef's recommendations" menu.
"That hot honey pizza, it's just so good, it has to stay around," Carina said, laughing.
"It's going to be put on our permanent menu, I reckon. I can't get enough of it."
The Tipsy Italian is fully licensed and the drinks offering ranges from classic and Italian-inspired cocktails to beers, spirits and wine. Alessio is a fan of Piggs Peake Winery in the Hunter Valley and their wines are featured.
"I've been buying wines from them for about four years. It's all I drink. Theirs are the only Australian wines we're using, the others are Italian," he said.
A Lisa McGuigan moscato, I notice, also made the cut.
The Tipsy Italian is a labour of love for Carina and Alessio.
"We've always talked about having a bar with woodfired pizza, then we found this spot had opened up and it was just perfect. It had the right feel," Carina said of the Maitland Road shopfront which previously housed Pino's Italian restaurant.
Carina and Alessio didn't make many changes to the interior apart from installing the woodfired pizza oven, adding a drinks wall and "adding a lick of paint". The next project is to open the courtyard space in time for summer.
"We will be able to fit about 20 people out there and it will be nice in summer, very nice," Alessio said.
"We're not offering delivery just yet - we're just trying to settle in and get our staff trained up and everything running properly and then we'll get to it.
"We do offer takeaway but we haven't been advertising it. We've been very busy since opening."
"Every night it's been amazing," Carina added.
"The response from Newcastle has been overwhelming ... people constantly ringing and messaging for bookings, leaving reviews at the end of the night, it's been fantastic."
