Elio’s Place is an all-day city venue that’s a cafe by day and restaurant by night

Eaten kaiserschmarrn recently? If not, it’s either because you haven’t skied the Tyrolean Alps, where this scrambled pancake is popular, or because you’ve missed breakfast at Elio’s Place, a new Flinders Lane restaurant open every day from morning to late. It’s a long hike to the slopes of southern Austria and snow is months away, so I suggest Elio’s for your fix.

To make kaiserschmarrn, a sturdy pancake batter is partly cooked, broken into pieces, fried to golden and – in this version – dolloped with blueberry compote ($20). Eating it feels like both a naughty treat and sensible breakfast.

For a food city, Melbourne could do better at all-day dining. There are a few good places: Carlton’s Heartattack and Vine trips easily from coffee to meatballs. Brunetti Oro, a few doors from Elio’s, does granola at 8am and spag bol at 8pm. You can slurp pho anytime in Springvale and Sunshine. But overall, it’s slim pickings and Elio’s is a welcome addition, a flexible place for business coffee or a shopping break, after-work spritz or pre-theatre oysters, and definitely a slap-up dinner with friends.

Elisa Mariani and her brother, Adam, started their business life together at Richmond’s Mayday cafe; they own casual CBD venues Greta and Maverick. This is their grown-up restaurant, set on a laneway corner in a handsome Victorian building.

Previously home to a sushi train, this split-level spot could feel like a rabbit warren with dead-end burrows, but clever design has made it warm and flowing. Timber, cork, frosted glass and eclectic art create a homely but stylish hangout with a window bench at the front, a dining room with half-curtained windows, happy little nooks, and a sunken parlour that works for functions. There’s even bespoke crockery with jaunty illustrations. Elio’s Place feels as if it’s been here for decades; I hope I’ll be able to say that in 20 years and it will actually be true.

Elio’s is a flexible place for business coffee, after-work spritz, pre-theatre oysters or a slap-up dinner with friends.

The Mariani siblings honour their late father, Elio, in the restaurant’s name and also in its sense of easy hospitality. An immigrant from Abruzzo in southern Italy, Elio was a public servant and then a video-shop owner, and he was famous for loving a chat and welcoming all comers to the family table of eight. His picture is near the entrance, as is a painting of his home town of Tocco da Casauria, and the friendly, well-informed staff seem embedded in a similar, generous embrace of humanity’s rich tapestry.

Chef Matilde Razzoli is on the pans in her first head chef job. From Tuscany, she came up through Italian fine dining and in Melbourne, she’s cooked at Bar Liberty (wine snacks) and Capitano (pizza) and run her own cooking classes and pop-ups as Mata Cooks. She has a lovely touch.

Her dishes are interesting but approachable and executed with diner enjoyment in mind. The food looks pretty, but it’s clear the first principle is “Make it delicious”.

Focaccia comes with soft-boiled egg and smoked trout ($22) in the morning and with miso butter ($4) at lunch or dinner. That trout you had for breakfast also turns up in the mousse that’s piped over bite-sized potato rosti ($7.50) later in the day.

Ox-tongue skewers ($9) are a hard-to-hate introduction to offal. Sliced very thin, the meat is charred so there are crispy bits, and it’s slathered with piquant mustard dressing. Everyone’s doing burrata, but Razzoli is surely the only one serving it with artichoke cream and chips, plus a drizzle of house-made chilli crisp ($25).

Pasta is made here: I lucked onto cone-shaped campanelle with pumpkin-miso sauce jazzed up with chives ($32), just one example of a happily extravagant use of herbs.

Flank steak ($36) is served tagliata-style, sliced and almost hidden under cime di rapa. The flavours are amplified with a dressing that includes colatura di alici, Italy’s answer to fish sauce.

It’s not easy to craft a drinks list that works from morning coffee to late-night amaro, but Elio’s offering is pleasingly concise while still adventurous. I found my drink for the summer, an Americano Perfecto cocktail with amaro, sweet vermouth and lager ($16).

Just as the kaiserschmarrn is a new breakfast obsession, the frittelle di riso ($15) will spark a dessert frenzy. Razzoli fondly remembers these creamed rice doughnuts as a stand-up snack she ate with her grandparents during Carnevale. They’re served here with a kumquat custard and are one excellent reason among many to cheer the arrival of Elio’s Place.

This review was originally published in Good Weekend magazine