It was Melbourne’s most offbeat setting for a sandwich shop. Then it had to move

When Hamish Vaccari opened a sandwich shop in the back garage of his late nonna’s house in Fitzroy North, the setting became as much of a drawcard as the meatball subs.

He called it Nonna’s House and Melbourne’s sandwich set got around it, entering the Nicholson Street property through a side gate and lining up for sangers in the family’s backyard.

“The most surprising thing was how quickly word spread,” Vaccari says of the 2022 opening. “We had people get off the plane from Singapore and come straight [to us].”

But like all good things, it came to an end. In late 2024, after two years of trade, Nonna’s House quietly closed as Vaccari’s family sold the longstanding brown brick home. “It was sad,” he says, “but we had the property for 65-odd years, which is a decent innings.”

While Nonna’s House has left its spiritual home, it’s not the end of the road for the Italian sub shop. Vaccari has moved the business less than a kilometre up Nicholson Street, a few doors down from the Railway Hotel, where he’s keeping the old-school vibe alive.

The need for an unforeseen kitchen upgrade significantly delayed the opening but, 16 months after signing the lease, Vaccari is finally rolling his popular meatballs again.

“We had people get off the plane from Singapore and come straight [to us].”

Nonna’s House founder Hamish Vaccari

The much larger new site – an old Malaysian restaurant – has on-theme exposed brick walls and a terrazzo that the team uncovered when stripping back the painted floor. There’s room for more than 100 punters across street-side seating, a terracotta-tiled bar, a dining room and a beer garden out back.

Vaccari’s excited to get into dine-in service in a space that “doubles if not triples” capacity.

“We were relatively restricted with what we could do, only having takeaway at the original,” he says.

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All the menu mainstays have been transplanted, including the saucy signature sub with meatballs made to a family recipe, and loaded fries (choose from carbonara or bolognese). Rotating sub specials could be anything from chicken cacciatore to chicken marsala.

There are some vegan additions to the menu, too, including an eggplant parma sub and fries alla sorrentina inspired by the classic baked gnocchi dish. Both are made with plant-based cheese.

Like most sandwich shops, it’s currently daytime-only, operating for dine-in and takeaway trade. But when Vaccari launches bar service in the next month or so, Italian vino and classic cocktails will hit the menu. There’ll also be extra snacks to choose from, such as the stuffed and fried olives all’ascolana, and chilli-garlic prawns.

“You’ll be able to sit at the bar and drink cocktails and eat subs till late,” says Vaccari.

As well as the typical Campari-based americanos and negronis, expect two spicy cocktails: a martini levelled up with peperoncini, and a Bloody Mary with vodka that’s fat-washed with the spicy pork paste ’nduja. The drinks program will also include local beers on tap, alongside spritzes and seltzers.

Nonna’s House is now open for food only; evenings (with drinks and bar snacks) will begin in a month or so.

Open lunch Wed-Sun

796 Nicholson Street, Fitzroy North, instagram.com/nonnashouse3068