The grandson serving up subs from his Nonna's kitchen in North Fitzroy

After growing up with a dad who owned restaurants and a grandfather who ran a catering company, Hamish Vaccari says that making good food for people is “in the blood”.  

But it wasn’t until October 2022 that Vaccari began his own food venture. After losing his job as a swimming pool technician during the pandemic, he started selling a niche menu of Italian-inspired sub sandwiches from his home in Melbourne’s inner north.

Loaded with fillings like “Nonno’s meatballs”, eggplant parma, and pesto Genovese chicken, the subs are inspired by his family’s recipes and have been a hit with locals, often selling out during his opening hours on weekends. 

The magic happens in a small kitchen off the garage that Vaccari renovated two years ago, and it’s the same space where his beloved nonno once ran his catering business. Vaccari’s late grandparents, Pat and Josie, who migrated from Italy as children with their respective families, got to know each other through Melbourne’s Italian community. When they married, they moved to Nicholson Street, North Fitzroy, owning the house Vaccari now lives in, and the house next door. 

Although Vaccari’s nonno died many years ago, his nonna only passed away last year, aged 98, the week before he launched the business. Charmingly, he has named it Nonna’s House in tribute. 

The interiors of the three bedroom home continue to reflect the days when his grandparents made it their home. 

“Inside is still the exact same,” Vaccari says. “So, we’ve got some beautiful green carpet. Every room has different chandeliers, and there’s these floral curtains. So, yeah, it’s fairly Italian in the way it’s set up,” he says with a laugh.

Customers who come to buy subs don’t see this, as council regulations limit Nonna’s House to takeaway only. Instead, they enter through the side gate and order from Vaccari through a window into the garage kitchen. They do get an eyeful of the home’s old brown brick facade while waiting for their order. 

The backyard was “a bit all over the place” when Vaccari moved in (he shares the place with his two-year-old bloodhound, Chef) and underwent some light landscaping to replace the “old bricks and roof tiles and random bits of wooden stuff” that edged the garden beds. 

Vaccari’s dad and uncle (who Vaccari jokes “came out of the womb with a frying pan in his hand”) help run the business during busy periods. The original weekend opening hours are soon to be bumped to five days a week.  

The success means Vaccari is now responsible for making sure his eatery doesn’t adversely affect fellow residents around his home on the corner of Nicholson Street and Brookes Crescent.  

“We’ve got to make sure customers aren’t making too much noise, that they’re not queuing up on the street … We’re always checking the neighbour’s bins to make sure people aren’t dropping stuff in there and aren’t leaving rubbish in the park. We’re doing as much as we can to make sure our neighbours are happy.”

The popularity is somewhat bittersweet; his nonna’s death means that his tenancy in the house is likely to end soon. “With that, unfortunately, it means that the properties are going to get sold. So, I’m not sure how much longer I have here.” 

His house and the neighbouring property (both owned by his grandparents) are double lots on a busy corner, an opportunity Vaccari acknowledges is “a bit of a developer’s dream” and out of his price range. 

He’s planning to get into another venue by July, and he’ll run the two places while he can. 

“I’d like to eventually get my own venue and have a bar and sell the food and stuff like that.”

In the meantime, the joy and the honour of running a business so completely enveloped in his Italian heritage isn’t lost on him, or his customers. 

“It’s just a real unique experience. To be able to come to someone’s house and get this delicious food … there’s not too many places that are doing something like this.”