SA restaurant icon Sharon Romeo announces ‘retirement’
Fino’s Sharon Romeo set the bar for personable service in South Australian restaurants. Now, after decades working in the industry, the award-winning personality is retiring from the floor.
She may be small in stature, but Sharon Romeo’s impact on South Australia’s hospitality scene has been huge.
Now, after nearly 40 years in the industry – from Pizza Hut “dishie” to multi-award-winning restaurant manager – Romeo has served her last table.
The 53-year-old, who co-owns acclaimed restaurants Fino Vino in the city and Fino Seppeltsfield in the Barossa with chef David Swain, is officially retiring from front of house.
Injury has, quite literally, forced her hand: decades of carrying plates and other weight-bearing tasks leading to two joint replacements in her left index finger, and there’s more surgery on the way.
But Fino fans needn’t fear – Romeo is not stepping away entirely; she will now be working “on” the business, rather than “in” it.
“I was grieving coming off the floor,” says Romeo, adding that her job has shaped much of her identity.
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I’m not ready to come off the floor.
“But I’m really excited that I have an opportunity to mentor the next generation of hospitality professionals. That’s really important.”
Romeo – who, with Swain, opened the original lauded Fino restaurant in Willunga in 2006 – has passed on the Fino Vino restaurant manager baton to budding star, Zuzu Garcia.
Garcia has big shoes to fill (figuratively, of course). So triumphant has Romeo been at her job, she has been awarded multiple times, most recently as Australian Gourmet Traveller Restaurant Personality of the Year in 2022. Other gongs include Best Service by Restaurant and Catering in 2016, and Best Service in the Advertiser Food Awards in 2011.
Such recognition, particularly in the earlier years, heralded a new era for South Australian hospitality – one with a much greater focus on personable service. That’s something Romeo has fought hard for.
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“When we first opened Fino in 2006, I had to speak louder to be noticed,” she says. “It would always be about ‘the food, the food, the food’, and I had to say, ‘actually, it’s about the service as well’.
“Dining in a restaurant is not just about food, or else you’d get takeaway. It’s part of the experience. It’s part of the fabric that makes this industry beautiful’.”
But a career in service was never the plan. In fact, after her first job as a 15-year-old scrubbing dishes at the old Pizza Hut in Hindmarsh, Romeo wanted to become a chef. Told at age 17 that she was too old to take on an apprenticeship (“I had a pretty negative experience in the kitchen I was put in,” she says), she began working front-of-house at restaurants such as Roberto Cardone’s Scoozi in Rundle St, the nearby Lemongrass Thai Bistro and Botanic Café. She found her calling.
“I felt at home on the floor; it felt very natural, like I belonged,” Romeo says.
“I think my love for hospitality was created by my family; the generosity of spirit that southern Italians do really well, and we do it innately; it’s part of my DNA.
“I love it, it brings me lots of joy.”
Romeo is now passing on her knowledge and passion for an industry she helped shape across Fino Seppeltsfield and Fino Vino, the latter of which you can read more about in the restaurant review in the July issue of SALIFE, out on Thursday, July 3.
She won’t be too far.
“I’ll do the door and I’ll pour the wine, and that makes me really happy,” Romeo says. “And I’m a great disruptor. And I’m OK with that.”
