Bianca Is Ellerslie’s New Pasta Shop & Soon-To-Be Wine Bar From Chef Hayden Phiskie

Ellerslie has a new pasta shop and restaurant which chef/owner Hayden Phiskie hopes will be a one-stop-shop for pasta lovers.

You’ll be familiar with the work of chef Hayden Phiskie, possibly without knowing it, if you’ve been lucky enough to eat Cotto’s handmade dumplings in sage-infused burnt butter, Ada’s pizza fritta, or al dente pappardelle in ragu from Daphnes’ Sunday lunch menu.

Pasta is Hayden’s specialty, having worked as a chef for 23 years, co-founding Cotto in 2017 and Ada in 2021, and going on to helm the kitchen at Daphnes earlier this year. Diners have followed him to each restaurant, where his skill with classic Italian flavours is evident on every plate of deceptively simple food.

Now, he’s hoping they’ll journey to Ellerslie, where he’s opening Bianca, a retail shop specialising in pasta and other deli goodies to take home or enjoy in-house.

The plan, once a liquor licence comes through, is to open for lunch (Tuesday to Saturday) and dinner (Thursday to Saturday) serving a short menu of handmade pasta, small plates and desserts, but for now, Hayden is particularly excited about the retail element, with a cabinet stocked with focaccia sandwiches, tarts and cannoli, and fridges filled with pre-made pouches of handmade fresh pasta and ragus so you can recreate the Bianca experience at home.

“I’m excited because it’s quite a diversified offering,” says Hayden. “I think where restaurants are finding it tough right now is having to rely on customers sitting down and dining to make revenue, so I’m really excited about the concept of the retail shop.”

Bianca’s food offering celebrates everything Hayden likes to eat. “I’ve been cooking for a long time now and I think if you’re really passionate about what you’re making, and if you enjoy eating it as well, you’re going to put your best effort into making it the best you can.”

The idea for Bianca grew from Hayden’s plan to start a wholesale pasta business, after frequent requests from restaurants to purchase his fresh pasta. It was while looking for a commercial site in Ellerslie that he found a location with room for a kitchen, shop and a small dining area.

Are neighbourhood restaurants the future?

There’s “a real sense of community” in Ellerslie, says Hayden. “It has an energy to it and a good feel to it. It’s also really busy.” Just down the road is deli and coffee shop Pastrami & Rye, there’s new Korean/Spanish restaurant Bonita, the Union Post pub, Lowbrow, Mexico and a concentration of offices nearby in Greenlane, many of which empty out for lunch and after work drinks. The train station is a minute’s walk from Bianca, and Hayden is hopeful it’ll appeal to those who like to jump on a train for dinner.

It’s the daytime trade that will be an important focus for Bianca, especially during the early stages of opening. Anything from the cabinet, from foccacia to flatbread to tiramisu, can be enjoyed in the 26-seat restaurant, plus there’s a short menu of pasta and small plates, which diners can eat while watching the chefs rolling pasta at a long kitchen bench.

Bianca’s 500g vacuum-packed bags of housemade pasta and sauce come with simple instructions for making at home; the sauces will change week to week, with options like lamb ragu, cacio e pepe and broccoli.

The restaurant and wine bar, with its open kitchen, long bench seat and nine tables, will soon welcome diners three nights a week and serve a short menu that will change regularly. Hayden says diners can expect to find four or five pasta dishes, celebrating whatever produce is at its peak, as well as interesting small plates like beef tartare or a tomato salad, and a fresh fish or protein option (so it’s not just pasta), flatbreads and desserts. “It is very simple but it’s just using high quality and in-season products and respecting them and doing your best with them,” he says of the menu.

Also on the to-do list is perfecting gluten-free and vegan pastas with the recent purchase of an extruder pasta machine.

The wine list has been designed in conjunction with Dan Gillet of Wine Diamonds, who specialises in organic and low-intervention styles. There’ll be wine on tap, and plans are in motion to have Bianca-branded swing-top glass bottles that can be taken home and reused. That will eventually extend to all the bottles and jars at Bianca, with a refund offered when you return a glass jar in the hopes of creating a more low-waste model.

“We want to be quite inclusive to everyone as well,” says Hayden, who has costed the take-home pasta and menu so “everyone can come. We want to create a space where people can come for lunch or dinner. They can sit down and have a meal or they can take away. We’re excited about people being able to cook our pasta at home; it’s a nice way for people to get a sense they’re cooking it themselves, and eating it at the right moment.”

Bianca opens Thursday, December 14, and will be open for lunch Tuesday to Saturday, 11am until 5pm. From January 3, 2024, it will open for dinner Thursday to Saturday. Unit 4, 2 Robert Street, Ellerslie. Follow @Bianca.akl for updates.

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