The Team Behind Alma Have Opened Eletta, A Neighbourhood Restaurant On Ponsonby Road

Eletta is not an Italian restaurant. Yes, there might be a pasta section, and a duo of spritzes and a great range of Italian wines on the menu, but owner Natasha Ellis is quick to tell me that the only label they’re trying to give Eletta is this: neighbourhood restaurant. 

It might not be Italian in the traditional sense of the word, but Eletta certainly feels like a full circle moment for Ellis and her business partner Jo Pearson. The pair were part of the opening team at Amano a decade ago, alongside chef Andrew Hansen who has, fittingly, rejoined the pack for this foray back into what Ellis describes as “Italian-ish” cuisine. 

They have taken over the former Daphnes building on Ponsonby Road. It was, Ellis tells me, a dream space. “There aren’t many buildings like that in Auckland, that are standalone and don’t have an apartment upstairs,” she explains. “So I’d had my eye on it and I’d been planting the seeds with Jo for a few years. I love the interior, the patina and the exposed brick, it’s rustic and raw.” They worked with Jack McKinney on the refurbishments—the same architect who designed both Alma and Amano, which is evident in the warmth and the firm sense of place. 

Image Credit: Eletta | Supplied

You probably know Ellis and Pearson best in recent years from Alma, their formative Britomart restaurant that gave us arguably two of Auckland’s most famous tomato-based items: the anchovy and tomato tostada, and the tomato cocktail. Fans of the former will be glad to know there is a version of it on the menu at Eletta; sourdough served with the umami, slightly sweet, smoked tomato butter that makes Alma’s tostada so indulgent. 

“We want it to have some synchronicity with Alma,” Ellis explains. That synchronicity sits in the presence of the tomato butter, yes, but also in the way the menu is structured, travelling from snacks all the way through to small plates, the robust cocktail list, and the wine list which mirrors Alma’s approach in profiling Spanish wines and sherries, here with an Italian focus and a selection of Amaro collected by both Ellis and Pearson on trips to Italy over the years. 

Image Credit: Eletta | Supplied

A meal at Eletta might start with a beef tongue and gremolata piadina, a venison and aioli hashbrown, or a provolone and pickled shallot cream puff. Then you might move onto asparagus rice with brown butter and tarragon, parmesan cappelletti with guanciale, or prawn chitarra with courgette and chilli, before finishing with beef spiedini with salsa verde, chicken milanese, or fish and caponata. “We’ve got a little bit of nostalgia in there with Kiwi dishes too,” Ellis tells me. “Andrew is putting together a biscuit trio with things that his grandmother used to serve, and he grew up hunting a lot with his parents so we’ve got a venison dish in there as a nod to that.” 

On the beverage front, Dewi Barbieri is joining as bar manager off the back of a year at Truth or Dare, bringing the bar’s boundary-pushing approach to cocktails with him. The menu is full of fermentations and carbonation with a focus on Italian spirits and ingredients; Campari, Italicus, Chinotto, Antica and more. The spritz selection is kept concise; Cappelletti instead of Aperol, and the zesty, bergamot liqueur Italicus. Wines kick off at $15 by the glass–for an incredibly well priced Prosecco—with a strong selection of both local and Italian bottles (and a champagne section, of course). 

Image Credit: Eletta | Supplied

“I’ve done a trip down memory lane of all of my favourite New Zealand producers,” Ellis tells me. “And I’m importing some Italian wines directly so there will be varietals that you don’t see everywhere.” The idea, she tells me, is to get people outside in the sun with a drink without them having to spend a fortune. Although, if a fortune is what you’re hoping to spend, Ellis has selected a few bottles from her personal cellar to put on the menu, including a 1990 Sassicaia.

Ultimately, though, Eletta is designed to be the kind of place you want to return to time and time again. Ellis and Pearson both live in Ponsonby and, as such, have designed their dream vision of a neighbourhood restaurant. “We don’t want people to use it as a special occasion place,” Ellis tells me. “We want it to be somewhere you can pop into every couple of weeks. You can come and have a drink and a snack, or you can come and have pasta and one of the proteins and do the full experience. It’s a little bit of everything.”