A crack hospitality team has given the Mornington Peninsula a bounty of venues, including Mornington fried-chicken joint Wowee Zowee and diner Loosie’s, Frankston dive bar Humdinger, and Mount Eliza pizza joint Slim’s Hot Pizza. Now they’ve added an Italian-ish restaurant right above Slim’s.

Bringing a previously disused space to life, Slim’s Upstairs is a complete vibe shift from Slim’s Hot Pizza, the boisterous NYC-style pizza bar accessed on street level. It’s more intimate, with 30 seats, a fitout that evokes 1970s trattorias, and a soundtrack of crooners.

“We want the energy to be like an old neighbourhood Italian joint,” says chef Simon Tarlington, whose CV checks off head chef roles at Jackalope’s Doot Doot Doot and Paringa Estate.

But he’s taken some gentle liberties with classic Italian dishes, making the red-sauced meatballs with venison, and topping a gloriously green broccolini-and-parsley risotto with house-made duck sausage.

He’s also mocha-fied his tiramisu, adding layers of chocolate mousse between the obligatory mascarpone and coffee-soaked ladyfingers.

The vino program is more bottle-focused than downstairs, drawing heavily on drops from business partner Cam Marshall, who owns wine labels Range Life and Garagiste. And there are fun cocktails like limoncello-spiked margaritas and barrel-aged negronis.

Open Fri-Sat 5pm-late; Thursday nights to come.

Upstairs, 19 Ranelagh Drive, Mount Eliza, slimshotpizza.com.au