Anna Pavoni

Anna Pavoni is a co-owner of four successful venues in Sydney, starting this dream with her husband and business partner Alessandro when they opened Ormeggio at The Spit in 2009.

She is currently involved with Ormeggio at The Spit and Chiosco By Ormeggio (both at the Spit), and Il Caffe and a’Mare (both at Crown Sydney). She has her own consulting business and enjoys the opportunities of working with others that this provides. In 2014 Anna was a finalist in the Electrolux Young Restaurateur of the Year. She is mother to toddlers Jada and Luca. She was also a founding board member of WoHo, a not for profit association which supports the career development of Women in Hospitality, as well as founding and maintaining an industry initiative she calls her “Council of W.A.R (Women and Restaurants)” – A network for female restaurateurs. Her passion lies with developing successful businesses run by happy and competent people who can learn and be challenged by those around them. She is absolutely dedicated to spreading the message that hospitality is a career path, and not just limited to the traditional back and front of house positions of chef/waiter/manager.

After working in hospitality to support herself through university, where she studied a Bachelor of Business combined with a Bachelor of Arts in International Studies, she found herself drawn to the industry as a career path.

Working with the Bavarian Bier Cafes during their rapid and initial expansion was fundamental in Anna’s career development. Moving from operational management into opening new sites into training and development, combined with studying human resources, prompted a passion for developing people within the industry. Having her own businesses has allowed this opportunity to ‘change people’s lives’ whether it be through supporting apprentices, working with foreigners and giving them the opportunity to work in Australia, or working as an hospitality and management trainer in colleges in the vocational education sector.

Ormeggio at the Spit, a contemporary Italian fine-dining restaurant, was a most welcome addition to the North Shore dining scene and was quickly recognised as one of Sydney’s premier waterside dining destinations. It was awarded a coveted Chef Hat in the Sydney Morning Herald Good Food Guide after only 9 months, had two Glasses awarded by Gourmet Traveller to its unique wine list, and is also listed in Gourmet Traveller’s Top 100 and The Australian’s Top 50 Australian restaurants. It maintains these accolades today with the addition of a second Chef Hat, which was awarded in 2012.

In 2013 she and Alessandro joined forces with Bill Drakopoulos, the respected Sydney restaurateur of the Sydney Restaurant Group. Together they made a conscious decision to develop young talent in their business operations. In 2014, together with the Ormeggio Head Chef Victor Moya and Pastry Chef Laura Ballester, they opened ‘Ormeggio Bakery’ in Mosman. They followed this with ‘Chiosco by Ormeggio’, a casual seaside Italian trattoriain Mosman. They also joined  forces with then Ormeggio Sous-Chef, Alex Keene, to open ‘Via Alta’, an Italian trattoria in Willoughby. In 2017 they opened Sotto Sopra in Newport with another young chef, Mattia Rossi, from within their group. This development and nurturing of young talent and enthusiasm, together with offering opportunity to the ‘next generation’ is something that they believe very strongly in.

Anna & Alessandro opened their next ventures, a’Mare and Il Caffé, in December 2020 in Crown Sydney. a’Mare is a fine-dining elegant traditional Italian restaurant and bar, and opened to great media acclaim. It is a huge venue which highlights and focuses around
the service element particularly, offering tableside service elements to many of the dishes and bringing back the nostalgic glamour of dining out. As well as a passion for customer service, the hospitality industry and the ‘business of business’, Anna is passionate about safeguarding Italian culinary culture and is the
Treasurer of CIRA, the Council of Italian Restaurants in Australia – a group of Sydney Italian restaurateurs proud of their heritage and committed to this cause (www.cira.com.au ). In 2014 Anna was a finalist in the Electrolux Young Restaurateur of the Year . Attending the award night with her 4 week old daughter in arms was a highlight of her career. She was proud to represent ‘working mums’.

Anna cares deeply about helping and educating others and sees this as a central part of her role as Restaurateur.

She is an Ambassador for Heart Research Australia. She was a founding board member of the not for profit association, WoHo, which supports the career development of Women in Hospitality (www.womeninhospitality.org ). She founded and maintains an industry initiative she calls her “Council of W.A.R (Women and Restaurants)”, which is a niche network for female restaurateurs from all over the country, ands find this extremely rewarding and motivating.

Anna lives on the northern beaches with her Italian husband (and business partner), Alessandro, and her daughter, Jada and son Luca.