Hamish Goonetilleke ’00 opens his new business, Torino Apertivo

For six years, Hamish Goonetilleke has dreamt of opening an aperitivo bar in the heart of Melbourne. So when the space next to his blues bar, Beneath Driver Lane, became available earlier this year, he pounced.

Before long, he’d darted across Italy on a three-week research trip, stopping in Bologna, Reggio Calabria, Milan, Ferrara, and of course, Turin – the birthplace of aperitivo in the 1700s – gathering ideas for Torino Aperitivo, which taps into the Italian ritual of eating small bites with a drink in the early evening.

What an achievement for Hamish!