In November last year, Hamish Vaccari started selling family recipe Italian subs out the backof an unassuming house on Nicholson Street. It went viral. Nonna's House was the obvious choice of name for the venture, given it is, in fact, his Nonna's house. Having lost his job at the start of Covid, Hamish was thinking about his next move and when his Nonna passed away at the impressive age of 98 late last year, it came to him. He'd make and sell the food he grew up with; the food he discovered at his Nonno and Nonna's house. And Melbourne can't get enough of it. Anyone who has had one of these subs, describes it by closing their eyes and kinda sighing, as though they have already forgotten they were telling you about it and are already planning their next visit. But get onto it, it's first in, best dressed and these babies go quickly. Hamish, his dad and his uncle sell out every weekend. I went around during the week and I have to say, it was one of the most hilarious chats I have ever had. When I arrived, I could hear the stereo up pretty loud and Hamish didn't hear the doorbell. I overthought it, went down the side of the house, saw him through the window in the kitchen, felt awkward, went back to the front door and sent a message to say I was there. When he opened the door, I was looking out at the street and got the biggest and very audible fright. I went in, met Hamish's beautiful two-year-old Bassett hound, Chef and Hamish and I sat down to chat. Chef was pretty keen on attention, so Hamish put him outside. The chat was then punctuated by the thump of Chef throwing himself at the door to get our attention. He came back in and joined in the conversation before going into the kitchen and wreaking some sort of havoc in there. But you know, I really liked all that because it's Nonna's House after all and you get what's going. (If you want to hear all that, check out the podcast!)
Hi Hamish. Nonna's House seems like something that we didn't know wanted and then it has just gone gangbusters, hasn't it?
It's gone crazy. In 24 hours after the first Broadsheet article, I got 6,000 followers and now I'm up to a bit over 8,000 in nine weeks.
That's crazy. Why do you think that is?
I think it's a lot to do with the story, and people from Melbourne love niche kind of things. Some of the comments I've read through the Broadsheet posts, people were saying, oh my Melbourne meter has been broken and stuff like that.
As you say, you're in your nonna's house and you've got that great tie into Italian background and food and it's in North side, so that's always a great thing. But can I start off with your name? You have a Scottish first name, an Italian surname. Where does all that come from?
I think my mom and dad just liked the name.
And they are Italian?
My dad is, and both of his parents were born in Italy. Dad was born in Australia and then my mum's Australian.
So in terms of food memories, I read about your grandparents having a catering business, and doing that from the garage. Is that your earliest memory of food coming around here and seeing them cook? Or how did it all work? I feel as though Italian families always have lots of food memories.
My dad had a restaurant when I was growing up until I was about six years old. So I'd always go and watch him in the kitchen when I was a really young kid. And then when I came to Melbourne, we'd always stay at this house. My nonno would always be out the back making pasta or his sausages and he taught me how to make pasta and all that kind of stuff. I just grew up with it.
But you didn't think you'd get into the food industry?
I always wanted to, but I didn't want to do an apprenticeship. Giving up your weekend nights and all that kind of stuff and all the labour that goes into becoming a chef is a lot. And I wasn't all that interested in that aspect. I just kind of wanted to do what I wanted to do.
What was the turning point then?
I lost my job at the very start of Covid. I didnt want to go back into that career anymore. It was just something I was good at it, it wasn't a passion. Then with us being able to take the 10 grand super out, I spoke to my dad and I said, look, I've got this opportunity to take the super out and I've got some savings. Is it ok if I start the kitchen back up?
And did you always know you wanted to do subs?
Not particularly. At the start of lockdown Rocco's kind of blew up and we tasted that and I was looking around and there were a lot of sandwich places that were opening and there's so many just normal sandwich places in the sense of, you know, a sandwich. I thought, and even to this day, there aren't too many places doing subs. I think I'm one of the only ones that is purely dedicated. I found that to be a gap in the market. The food that I do or the food that I ate growing up translates to going into a sandwich.
Do you do everything from scratch?
We make all our sauce, pestos, so everything.
And are they your grandparents or grandmother's recipe? Are they family recipes?
They are. None of them have ever been written down. It's all done by taste.
Oh wow. Okay. Does that take a lot of experience?
Dad learned it the same way I did. My nonno would have either my dad or myself out on the kitchen bench and he'd be making the meatballs and putting all the ingredients in, and he would get us to taste it. So, we'd taste it and he'd say, does it need a bit more of this or bit more of that? He knew the recipe from taste, and he trained our taste buds.
How many days a week are you open now?
Just Saturdays and Sundays for now. When I first opened I was open for two weeks just from word of mouth and in the first week I thought people would just walk past this place and it's a house. People don't know that food is being sold here, so unless you know about it, people wont come. I didn't really want to spend time just waiting in the kitchen for people to come, so I decided to do the Saturday and Sunday to get the gauge of the kitchen, how much space I have to be able to produce what I need for the particular days. I've figured out that I need more fridge space and once I sort that out it'll be open five days a week.
Was it already set up out the back, in terms of kitchen and layout? Could you just go in there and start cooking because it a catering space already?
It was a kitchen. But it was only the gas and water that was left. When my nonno passed away, my nonna gutted the kitchen so I had to get it up to standard for council and all that kind of stuff.
Sure. There are quite a few hoops to go through, aren't there?
It's not too bad. The longest thing was time really because the council have to go through their processes and they've got so many people wanting to do so many projects and stuff, so they're just under the pump. It did take a while, but the process in itself wasn't that difficult. It's definitely not something that everybody can do. It depends on location and a bunch of different things like the size of your property. It is intricate and the council have designed it to not let it happen everywhere because they are big on not affecting the amenity of the neighbourhood; making sure that your neighbours can live in peace within the business that you want to do. We're pretty heavy on that to make sure that we make sure that our neighbours are happy.
When you say "we", you work with your dad and your uncle, is that how it goes?
Yeah, my dad comes in and does the prep. And then he talks to people in the backyard and tells them the story about our family and the cooking and all that kind of stuff. Then it's me in the kitchen with my uncle.
Dad learned it the same way I did. My nonno would have either my dad or myself out on the kitchen bench and he’d be making the meatballs and putting all the ingredients in, and he would get us to taste it. So, we’d taste it and he’d say, does it need a bit more of this or bit more of that? He knew the recipe from taste, and he trained our taste buds. ~ Hamish Vaccari
Are you happy with your decision? Is it good branching out into this your own food business?
I am. Theres a lot involved in it and I'm doing a lot of running around. I do at least 80% of the work. Its good to see such a reward as early as I have because I know a lot of people don't have that. Coming into a new year and getting a better process down and just getting focused on the business rather than doing the days of work at the pub and all that; I am loving it and I've got big plans for the future.
I know that my neighbour Nadia came and got a sub on Sunday and she said that she was in heaven eating it because it was so delicious and I understand that's the reaction from most people. That must be pretty great to be making something that people are responding so enthusiastically to.
Yeah. When I started the business I knew our food was successful because it had been sold before. We used to own the Rochester Castle Hotel. That was in the early seventies to the eighties. We had some of the best pub food in Melbourne at the time. So I knew our food was successful, but it is great to see and be able to bring our food back into Fitzroy and Melbourne to have people experience what I have and what a lot of people have in the past.
Is it a mixed group? Is it mainly people that read Broadsheet or are you getting a variety of people coming now?
I think it was the second weekend after being post stood on Broadsheet, we had a lady come down from somewhere around Red Hill, Mornington area and had been sold out and then she came back the next weekend at 11.00 AM to make sure she could get a sub. So I think it is quite broad as well. I got put on Seven Sunrise.
Okay. Ah, wow.
It has hit a very broad spectrum of people.
And then word of mouth, I mean, when your product's good people talk about it, don't they?
Yeah.
And the next step is opening five days a week. And you have some things to put in place for that. Do you have any other plans for the business?
Yes. My nonna would've been 99 in January, she passed away in October and unfortunately that means maybe between the next six months to two or three years, the place is going to get sold. The goal is to maybe get into a pub that isn't using the kitchen or something like that and then build. I wanted to try and have that by July anyway. And then I want to open my own venue, similar to Catfish, with live music, food and a bar.
Nice. I see you've got lots of vinyl. Is this yours or is it Nonna's?
No, it's all mine.
So this has really ignited something in you then; family background and then circumstance and it's all working.
I did expect it to be successful. I didn't expect to get 6,000 followers in 24 hours from Broadsheet. Like if I got 1200 to 2000 I would've been over the moon about it. But just the reception I've had. I go catch up with friends and they like introduce me to their friends and say, oh this is Hamish from Nonna's house. And they know who I am and everyone that I speak to is like says that people are talking about it, which blows my mind.
It's so great. There's the story and people love a good story and a reason behind doing something. But also the food is obviously really good, and so I think you have both those things and then, personality. Congratulations. So great.
Thanks. I appreciate it.
550 Nicholson Street, Fitzroy North