Firstly Macchina is not exactly new — and yet, at the same time, it’s now a permanent fixture. Confused? Well, for eight months head chef Hayley Meredith, who “trained in my nonna’s kitchen,” she says, had been operating a pop-up in Orford Road wine shop and bar Hometipple. Then in August the venue underwent a refurbishment, increasing capacity to 60 covers, reopening in September officially as Macchina.
But why the name? “Although it directly translates into English as car,” she says, “I was once told it can be used to describe someone as being like a machine — which you have to be to survive and thrive in hospitality.”
And if the current moniker feels unfamiliar, you may have tasted Hayley’s cooking as Pasta Slut, which she ran for eight years with residencies across London, Bristol and Margate’s excellent George & Heart boutique hotel and pub.
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On my visit I was early and arrived to find there had been a slight mix-up with the booking. Hovering uncertainly at the entrance, I was able to admire what she calls her “playful 1990s Italian-inspired” interior, the atmospheric space adding much to the experience. If you glimpsed it off the Corso Umberto while holidaying in Taormina, you’d be straight through the door.
You can now either sit at the front, surrounded by shelves of wine bottles, overlooking the gentle passeggiata beyond, or at the rear, whose candlelit canary-yellow walls, framed black-and-white movie stars and overall Sicilian aesthetic is arguably even more seductive. And the enclosed, heated rear terrace was also full until we left.
As we took our seats, the charismatic Hayley — who told us her mother is Sicilian — showed us the huge corkboard wall of family polaroids old and new, pictured above left, which underlines the deeply personal feel to the project.
In the full story on Substack you can find out exactly what we ate (and which plates are best) from its concise menu of four starters, four pastas and a few additional dishes.
What does the word ‘macchina’ itself mean for Hayley? “When I hear it, I think strength and energy — with a touch of chaos,” she says. “I’ve always wanted to create the kind of restaurant where you can come for a long lunch, stay for another bottle, eat really good food and feel properly looked after.”
PHOTOS: STEPHEN EMMS
MACCHINA is at hometipple, 34 Orford Road E17 9NJ, @macchinalondon @hometipple.e17
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