Fritto Cicchetti from Ombra in the city. Picture: Nicole Cleary Source: News Limited
MELBURNIANS are falling in love - again - with Italy.
We are going head over heels for pizza and pasta, for salumi and gelato, for prosecco and montepulciano.
And proof of this Italian renaissance is visible everywhere in the growing number of new eateries flying the red, green and white flag.
In the past month alone, we have welcomed Romulus and Remus in Richmond and Fatto at Southgate, Mr Collins at Docklands and Gelato Messina in Collingwood.
Ahead of that wave was Valentino and Ombra, Rosetta and Rosa's Kitchen.
Before that, Za Za's and Cantina Centrale, Bar Paradiso and Zucca Rossa ... the list goes on.
But it's not just the number of new places that impresses.
A Weekend survey of 25 recently opened ristorantes, pizzerias, cafes and bars reveals a shared desire to galvanise Italian food in this city.
Melburnians are saying, "Hold the ravioli and bring me cavatelli, gemeli, tagliolini."
Its an idea whose time has come. Again.
>> Read the full story of Melbourne's Italian culinary revolution in the Weekend lift-out in today's Herald Sun <<
>> Some images not optimised for mobile viewing - save for later viewing on a desktop <<
Thirty Eight Chairs, South Yarra. Picture: Nicole Cleary Source: News Limited
THIRTY EIGHT CHAIRS
4A Bond St, South Yarra. Ph: 9827 5553. Twitter: @38Chairs
ARE there actually 38 chairs? Don't know. Didn't count. But a lot of the seats and stools at Thirty Eight Chairs are taken at breakfast time. And for good reason. Locals love the menu here with its superior piadina's and bruschetta's. Best of all is a baked eggs dish known as Uova San Gennaro.
Proprietor Gino Forlano explains: "It comes from a recipe my grandmother used to make for me on Sunday mornings when I was going to the stadium to see my local soccer team, Napoli. She knew I needed all my energy to cheer them on."
Thirty Eight's version comes in a terracotta dish, slow-cooked duck ragout on the bottom (replacing tomato in the original) with lightly crisped leaves of pancetta melding into eggy yolks seasoned with oregano. Add triangles of charry toast - hot off the grill - and a glass of Sicilian blood orange. Game on! SP
WHAT'S YOUR FAVOURITE ITALIAN EATERY IN MELBOURNE? Tell us in the comments below.
Brunetti Gelateria in Carlton. Source: Supplied
BRUNETTI
380 Lygon St, Carlton. Ph: 9347 2801 Twitter @BrunettiMelb
WHEN Piero Brunetti first opened his café in Lygon St in 1974, little could he imagine what would greet him there today. After relocating around the corner to Faraday St in the mid-1980s, the café, owned by the Angele family since 1991, returned to its original site in April - but in a very modern way.
With seating inside and out for more than 400 people, Brunetti is an always-bustling behemoth serving coffee and cake from dawn until very late. Within the 1400sqm of terrazzo flooring, bisazza tiling and marble mosaics is a pizzeria, a panetteria, a deli and gelataria. But it's as a pasticceria that Brunetti is best known, and the incredible array of biscuits, cakes, pastries and chocolates that fill the extensive display cases here remains a sight to behold. Whether it's for torte di limone, the signature bocconcini di nonno (almond and cherry biscuits), some florentines or just simple biscotti, Brunetti's paean to pastry is an old-meets-new slice of Roma unlike anything else in town. DS
ETTO
261 Clarendon St, Sth Melbourne. Ph: 9696 3886. Twitter @EttoPasta
TAKEAWAY pasta! If that sounds like an oxymoron to you, and we understand if it does, a visit to Etto is sure to allay your fears. This unpretentious eatery in South Melbourne is all about "Italian street food'' and cooks fresh (al dente) pasta to order in minutes. Much of it is house-made and displayed in cabinets - furled tassels of spaghetti here, flour-dusted pillows of ravioli there. But Etto's affordable offer includes sauces as well, from tomato Napoli to "smoky pancetta carbonara" and anchovy and chilli pesto. Some people grab a seat and eat in. But 70 per cent of Etto's customers walk out with a sturdy take-out pack. "There's nothing else like it in Australia ... or Italy,'' reports co-owner David Ansett. And as Etto marks its first year of business, Ansett - an Aussie who wishes he was Italian - is busy plotting a second store in Malvern. SP
Bar Paradiso — Palermo Burger. Picture: Nicole Cleary Source: News Limited
BAR PARADISO
39 Greeves St, Fitzroy. Ph: 9417 7339
HAVING brought their passion and flair for Sicilian fare to life in East Brunswick's Bar Idda, Freddie and Lisa La Spina have a new addition to their brood. Bar Paradiso channels a similar love for Sicily and translates that into a simple espresso bar where the food is as comforting as the coffee is good. Freddie says Bar Paridiso serves "simple food, the stuff I grew up with".
For breakfast (available all day) such stuff includes quirkily named hearty dishes - Morning Smoko is the frittata of the day, Uncle Tony's Scramble is a plate of eggs and sausages - while come lunch it's nigh on impossible to resist the charms of the Palermo burger. Named after the Sicilian capital, Freddie says his version is just like that you'd find on the city's streets. A brioche bun is stacked high with slow-braised meat - at the moment, lamb - topped with warm ricotta and finished with traditional chickpea fritters (little fried slabs of nutty texture and taste). It's perennially popular, with delicious reason. DS
The ‘salmone’ pizza from Kaprica in Carlton. Picture: Nicole Cleary Source: News Limited
KAPRICA
19 Lincoln Square South, Carlton. No phone.
PIETRO Barbagallo helped change the way Melburnians view pizza. The ones he made at I Carusi - his trailblazing "artisan pizzeria" in East Brunswick - were startlingly slender, crisp and lightly loaded. And while Barbagallo is no longer at Carusi, the approach he pioneered there dictates dining at Kaprica - his newish place in a converted Carlton garage.
"I'm cooking better now than I did then,'' he says, slapping dough straight onto stone. We believe him. Kaprica's 'salmone' pizza - pulled from an electric oven - glows with teeny baubles of orange roe while the 'funghi' is an autumn harvest of lovely mushrooms. Don't overlook Barbagallo's broccoli pizza either where green florettes are trapped under a net of melting mozzarella.
"I don't want to sound all nonna-ish about it,'' he says, "but when people come in, I hope its like they're visiting someone's home.'' SP
DOC ALBERT PARK
135 Victoria Ave, Albert Park. Ph: 9690 7960 Twitter @DOC_pizza
HE made a splash in 2007 when he opened his first DOC outlet, and in 2013 things are still going swimmingly for Tony Nicolini.
Since that pizzeria opened on Drummond St in Carlton, the DOC expire has expanded to include DOC espresso and DOC deli - both also in Carlton - an always-busy restaurant in Mornington complete with concept produce store, and now DOC Albert Park, where that winning formula of excellent pizza served with heavily accented Italian brio has caused queues out the door since it opened a few months ago.
Though the pizzas are duly lauded, it's the mozzarella bar that keeps us coming back. DOC was one of the first places where mozzarella di bufala (mozzarella made from buffalo milk) could be found in Melbourne, and the perfect way to enjoy its soft, delicate creaminess is along with a platter of salumi that usually includes some prosciutto di san daniele, bresaola and mortadella. And for the true connoisseur, a tasting plate of three different mozzarellas is offered to compare, contrast and pick-a-winner. To finish, try the parmesan gelato - made exclusively for DOC - that is alluringly salty, creamy and far more delicious than you'd think cheese ice-cream would be. DS
The New Italian- Rosa's Kitchen. Picture: Nicole Cleary Source: News Limited
ROSA'S KITCHEN
22 Punch Lane, city. Ph: 9662 2883. Twitter @Rosakitchenmelb
WHAT will it be today? Spaghetti with squid ink and calamari, perhaps. Or quail marsala with artichokes. Or lamb shank penne. Everything is good at Rosa's Kitchen. But if you are dining at Rosa Mitchell's Sicilian canteen and grilled liver is chalked on the blackboard menu, look no further. The version served here is definitive.
Mitchell - born in Italy, raised in Melbourne - sends out frilled, flattened lobes of liver with fine pink beading. The meat has plenty of give and benefits from the careful use of very simple ingredients: lemon, oregano and "good" olive oil.
"Travelling through Sicily, I had calves liver that literally made me swoon," she recalls. "So this is my attempt to transport that memory to Melbourne."
Mitchell succeeds admirably and seals the deal with a side of spanking fresh chicory, plucked that morning from the family farm at Yandoit.
Ask her ask about it. When time allows, the lady with the bandanna loves a chat. SP
GORKSI AND JONES
304 Smith St, Collingwood. Ph: 9417 7779. Twitter @GORSKIAnd
"ITALY is not really an eggs and bacon kind of place,'' says Meaghan Gorski, of Collingwood's Gorski and Jones. So when you have breakfast as this un-Italian sounding osteria, check out the ricotta pancakes with lemon curd, the crushed avocado with tomato and Persian fetta and - our favourite - the $16.50 'Italian Workers breakfast'.
It's sort of a Latin Ploughman's with pecorino instead of cheddar, proscuitto replacing ham and slabs of Baker D. Chirico sourdough. This rustic-looking brekkie also includes hard-boiled eggs, heirloom tomatoes, and Sicilian olives and while these ingredients probably wouldn't be served together in Rome, anything goes here. When in Melbourne...
SP
Rosetta Ristorante at Crown Complex. Picture: Rebecca Michael Source: News Limited
ROSETTA
Riverside at Crown. Ph: 8648 1999. Twitter @rockpoolgroup
NEIL Perry's glam ode to Italy is all ruched chiffon curtains and velvety banquettes but behind the bling, there's some very down to earth cooking going on here. Just look at Rosetta's daily selection of seafood ('pesce del giorno').
The kitchen is supplied directly by fishermen working Corner Inlet in Gippsland and the catch - sustainable species wherever possible - can be pike one day, Tommy Ruff the next.
"I get a phonecall at midday and its here at midnight,'' executive chef Brendan Sheldrick says. Our favourite is skate - Eagle Ray, to be exact - and Rosetta's kitchen plays this simply on a charcoal grill, adding a splash of good Umbrian olive oil, a wedge of lemon and a slurry of braised zucchini. The skate's pearly white flesh - expertly cooked medium-rare - peels open like the leaves of a book and is best enjoyed at Rosetta's marble bar with a glass of chablis-like carricante from Sicily.
Sheldrick tells us: "We're try to work it like the Italians do. Just catching what we need, when we need it." SP
Ombra- Carlo Grossi with Fritto Cicchetti. Picture: Nicole Cleary Source: News Limited
OMBRA
76 Bourke St, city. Ph: 9639 1927. Twitter @Ombra-Salumibar
OMBRA is a salumi bar and a very good one.
If you want a plate of cured meats with your vermentino - some air-dried capocollo, spicy salami nobile and wagyu bresaola - proprietor Carlo Grossi has his Ferrari-red slicer all ready for action. But Ombra's cicchetti (SUBS:OK) snacks are equally enticing.
Carlo, son of guy who runs Grossi Florentino next door, can have deep-fried anchovies, eggplant, garfish and zucchini flowers flying out of the frypan and onto your plate in no time. Offal (liver, brains, sweetbread) goes 'fritte' here as well if the mood takes him.
No visit to Ombra (the name refers to the shade cast by arches where traders bargained in Venice) is complete without ordering the "crisp 12-hour lamb ribs". Unbelievable. SP
Chef Joseph Vargetto cooks his cavatelli pasta in his kitchen at Mister Bianco. Picture: Andrew Tauber Source: News Limited
MISTER BIANCO
285 High St, Kew. Ph: 9853 6929. Twitter @Mister-Bianco1
"AUSTRALIANS haven't seen a tenth of the pasta's out there," Joseph Vargetto says.
The man behind Kew's Mister Bianco is right. We rarely see menus listing gemelli or gigli or gramigna. In the meantime, Vargetto is having fun with cavatelli (semolina gnocchi). These teeny bun-shaped nodules ignite memories of the pasta he enjoyed as a kid in his native Sicily. And at Mister Bianco, a charming neighbourhood restaurant glowing with candlelight, Vargetto has cavatelli bathing in diced tomato and artichoke leaves.
Fried zucchini flowers are another emblem of Sicilian cooking but Vargetto - a chef with a sense of humour - sends his version out under a cloche. A waiter lifts the lid and - hey presto! - the stalky flowers are revealed in a cloud of fragrant smoke.
Italian food, to be sure, but not as we usually know it. SP
FARM VIGANO
10 Bushmans Way, South Morang: 9407 1212. Twitter @FarmVigano
THERE'S a little bit of Italy in South Morang. If that sounds unlikely, take the road to Farm Vigano on a bend of the river inside the Plenty Gorge Park. This verdant six hectare estate was once home to Italian restaurateur Mario Vigano, father of the late Mietta O'Donnell, and the hospitality she was famous for endures under Farm Vigano's custodians David Petrilli and Bart Crescia.
Leisurely lunches served in the restaurant they run here emphasise sharing plates and the signature antipasto spread - enough for two to four people - combines "natural, organic" produce grown on the farm with imported meats and cheeses. Fruit comes from Vigano's own orchard.
"Some people still come in, asking for spaghetti bolognaise and veal parmigiana which is fine,'' Petrilli says. "There's a market for that. But for us, it's about making best use of other things.'' SP
90 Secondi at the Docklands. Source: News Limited
90 SECONDI
700 Bourke St, Docklands (Etihad Gate 3). Ph: 9600 2841
"I'M one of the luckiest people in the world," says pizzaiolo Johnny di Francesco. "I get up in the morning loving what I do. So I don't think I'll ever get sick of pizza."
For someone who's made pizzas since he was 12 and numbers the amount he's seen come out of an oven "into the millions", that's pretty amazing. But then again, so are his pizzas.
Di Franceso introduced authentic Neapolitan-style pizza to Melbourne, first at 400 Gradi in East Brunswick and now at his new outpost, 90 Secondi under the shadow of Etihad Stadium. He is the first Australian trained in Naples to demanding Associazione Verace Pizza Napoletana rules and he says: "We cook at 400 degrees for only 90 seconds. We only use salt, flour, water and yeast in the dough, which is worked with a special technique. And we slap the dough. We don't turn it or throw it in the air."
You can tell a Neapolitan-style pizza by its crust, which should be full of air and fluffy. It should be pliable too, have a bit of chewiness to it, and just a little bit crisp. At 90 Secondi, try that traditional base topped with fior di latte, anchovies and olives for a true Napoletana. DS
Italian chef Carmine Costantini at Osteria la Passionate in Richmond. Source: News Limited
OSTERIA LA PASSIONE
486 Bridge Rd, Richmond. Ph: 9428 2558. Twitter @osterialapassio
NOSE-to-tail eating ... a lot of chefs talk about it. Carmine Costantini actually does it.
At Osteria La Passione, his charming 'inn' deep in Tigerland, this north Italian expat uses every bit of the grass-fed chianina (SUBS:OK) cattle he rears on a farm at Yea. Fillet from this prize Tuscan breed finds its way into Costantini's peerless carpaccio, neck meat goes into a sublimey soft stew, and the rump is reserved for fabulous bistecca florentina.
"Nothing is wasted,'' he assures us. "But, for me, the very best part of the animal is the offal.''
If you find yourself at one of Passione's occasional 'chianina nights', brace yourself for medium-rare heart - hot out of the pan with garlic, parsley, and olive oil - and jellied nerve ends, sculpted into a vegetable terrine and served on a shin-bone.
Costantini laughs: "Is crazy amount of work, I know, but you've got to have passion in this business.'' SP
QUEEN MARGARET
356 Queens Parade, Fitzroy North. Ph: 9482 5988 Twitter @QueenMargPizza
IT'S no doubt apocryphal but it's still a nice story.
In 1889, the first Queen of a unified Italy, Margherita of Savoy, travelled around her new kingdom and saw, for the first time, food of the peasants - a type of flat bread smeared with tomato and oil. Demanding to try this food, a famous pizzaiolo, Don Rafaelle Esposito, was summoned to cook for the Queen. An determined to please he topped the pizza with the tricolours of Italy: tomato, mozzarella and basil. So pizza margherita was born.
In honour of both the royal and that regal pizza, Queen Margaret in North Fitzroy has three versions of the margherita to try. QM comes with fior di latte (mozzarella made from cow's milk), QM II with fresh buffalo mozzarella, and QM III with mozzarella and parmigiano. Our pick is the super creamy QM II, but QM III comes in close behind, the parmesan adding a gritty saltiness that works especially well on such simple fare. All bow for the new Queen on Queen's Parade. DS
Crab Pasta from Sarti in Melbourne. Picture: Supplied Source: Supplied
SARTI
6 Russell Place, Melbourne. Ph: 9639 7822 Twitter @SartiRestaurant
IT'S one of the city's best lunches, an unsung meal deal that's guaranteed to make you happy. For $40 you'll get three stuzzichini ("little appetiser") dishes along with a plate of pasta, all cooked by Sarti's new head chef Paolo Masciopinto (who took over when Riccardo Momesso left the building to open Valentino). On those little plates you might find a fab fritto misto featuring calamari, soft shell crab and zucchini to dunk into a punchy chilli aioli, a tricked up version of the classic vitello tonnato or a simple hand-cut beef tartare served with quail egg.
Pasta could be the arresting spaghetti alla chitarra - handmade strands of squid ink pasta topped with sweet swimmer crab and cubes of fresh tomato - or the fabulously decadent rotolo d'anatra, filled with duck, mushroom and parmesan. Four dishes of delicious is hard to go past - add in a moodily glamorous room and you have a lunch that hits the high notes, but not your wallet. DS
Way To San Jose in McKinnon. Source: News Limited
THE WAY TO SAN JOSE
135 McKinnon Rd, McKinnon. Ph: 9578 6550.
DINER beware. The Way to San Jose is nowhere near the place it describes - try Melbourne's bleak sandbelt - and Burt Bacharach is more likely to be on the stereo here than 'Il Sol Mio'. Having said that, The Way to San Jose is as Italian as a Missoni jumper ... and just as comforting.
Partners Orio Randi and Emma Clarke know how create a very happy vibe and back it up with a spunky wine list and very well cooked food.
Their wood-fired Napoli-style pizzas are very fine. We love the sous vide duck as well and the light-as-air gnocchi in a gorgonzola sauce. Wheat flour out of the question for you? The Way to San Jose takes care of that with gluten-free pasta and pizza. SP
La Svolta Pizzeria in Prahran. Source: News Limited
LA SVOLTA
3-5 Cecil Place, Prahran. Ph: 9510 3001. Twitter @LaSvoltaPizza
SIXTY seconds at 400 degrees ... that's how long it takes to build a perfect pizza at La Svolta. And when owners Valerio Calabro and Pino Russo say perfect, they mean a pizza that "folds into four, like a wallet''.
La Svolta - accredited to the prestigious Associazione Verace Pizza Napoletana in Naples - is especially proud of its margherita, blistered around edges and oozing pulpy tomato. But its growing roster of tomato-free pizza bianche - built from a white cheese base - is winning new fans. Sink your teeth into a gum-sticking Mascalzone (fior de latte mozzarella, gorgonzola, salame) or the Tartufata where hot Italian sausage goes bunga-bunga with truffle cream and shaved parmigiano. SP
Owner/chef Daniel Spizzica at Rita’s in Abbotsford. Source: News Limited
RITA'S CAFETERIA
239 Johnston St, Abbotsford. Ph: 9419 8233. Twitter @ritasabbotsford
WHILE the pizzas certainly do pump out of the oven and fly out the door at Rita's Cafeteria, an 18-month-old labour of love by a bunch of old school mates, it would be remiss to miss the pasta or risotto on offer.
For the former, the zucchini and ricotta orecchiette makes for a delightful spring fling, the little pasta ears cradling creamy cheese and chunks of green veg, while the latter is a rich and robust prawn-heavy, pea-strewn dish finished with a dollop mascarpone. Lemon, basil and chilli all have supporting roles and add to a very satisfying whole. Rita's is a cool, cosy and casual joint everyone would like to have in their hood. Lucky those that do. DS
Valentino Resturant in Hawksburn. Picture: Chris Scott Source: News Limited
VALENTINO
517 Malvern Rd, Hawksburn. Ph: 9826 8815. Twitter @ValentinoRicc
THERE'S nothing fancy about the food of Calabria. This hardy region on the heel of Italy's boot has a long tradition of hunting, preserving and foraging and - inspired by the example of his parents - Riccardo Momesso is honouring that rustic heritage at Valentino.
Start with some cured meats or calamari fritti. Move onto eggplant caponata and Uncle Rocky's peppers ("Some hot, some not"). Then let Momesso whip you up some pasta di polenta with chicken and cannellini beans or perhaps a pizza lovingly layered with broccoli and sausage.
No visit to this Calabrian kitchen is complete without tasting slow-braised meat. Go the goat, falling off the bone and coddled in a deep dish by flat beans and tomato. SP
Itali Co on Barkly Street, St Kilda. Picture: Andy Drewitt Source: News Limited
ITALI.CO
173-177 Barkly St, St Kilda. Ph: 9537 5300. Twitter @myItaliCo
"PIZZA is sexy''.
That's the word from team Itali.co. But fans of Remo Nicolini's pumping year-old eatery on the ground floor of a St Kilda apartment block know there's a whole lot more happening here than that. Find a patio perch, arm yourself with a Campari and soda and dive into a couple of share dishes.
Some grilled octopus, perhaps, or three plump, pan-fried Canadian scallops on jerusalem artichoke puree ('capesante)'. Then look to the pasta menu where its hard to go past tubular paccheri with eggplant, cherry tomato and buffalo mozzarella or ravioli alla barbabietola.
This Itali.co favourite folds good-sized beetroot into al dente sheets of ravioli with burnt butter, parmesan and poppy seeds. Sexy? Depends who you're with. SP
CANTINA CENTRALE
11 Hamilton St, Mont Albert. Ph: 9890 4836
WHO would have thought "casalinga'' cooking would find a receptive audience in the leafy streets of Mont Albert?
But Patrick Ciccaldo - co-owner of Northcote's Cafe Bedda - knew what he was doing when he opened Cantina Centrale a year ago because the place has been full ever since.
"We make things with love here,'' he says, "and cook them the way they should be.''
For proof, wade into Centrale's 'assaggi" list. There you will find crumbed Sicilian olives stuffed with pork and beef mince; rice balls filled with ragout, peas and mozzarella; and charry salsicce (pork and fennel sausages).
Ciccaldo's brick oven - fired by redgum - sends out impeccable pizza as well. But for a true sense of Centrale's home-and-hearth cooking, you need to try the kitchen's sage-scented veal scallopine, served with tomato sugo and polenta, or house-made ravioli filled with ricotta and topped with grated amaretto. A silken savoury sensation.
"Whatever was convenient used to be the thinking at a lot of Italian places,'' Ciccaldo says. "Not so much now.'' SP
Zucca Rossa in Prahran. Picture: Supplied Source: Supplied
ZUCCA ROSSA
168 Greville St, Prahran. Ph: 1300 982 227 Twitter @Zucca_Rossa
IN what was once the Prahran Post Office, Mario di Nardo, ex-Southbank stalwart Scusa Mi, earlier this year took some old-world style, added a touch of Greville glam and created Zucca Rossa.
Fittingly for the 'hood, it's a good-looking space with walls of wine (mainly Italian) cordoning off the open kitchen where Jonathan Alston is the man in charge. The broad-brushed menu takes in simple salumi served with good bread and better oil, adds little assaggi to snack on with wine, and ticks off primi and secondi options with flourish.
There's a good line in pasta (with gluten-free options) with some that come in traditional big-dish versions for the table to share - the gnocchi with smoked mozzarella and sausage does carb-loading with style. For a meatier meal, look no further than veal - a hefty hunk of a cutlet cooked blushingly pink and served with pancetta and asparagus will sate even the heartiest of hungers.
Finish with biscotti and espresso and you have a meal that's part old-world style, part modern substance. DS
Pizza fritto bread with mozzarella cheese from Za Za’s Cucina in Richmond. Picture: Andrew Tauber Source: News Limited
ZA ZA'S CUCINA
10/53 Coppin St, Richmond. Ph: 9421 6221.
"I CAN cook like a 70-year-old Italian woman,'' chef Dario D'Agostino says, "but I can be very modern as well.''
Keep that in mind next time you dine at Za Za's. It may help to explain why some dishes served at this lively trattoria feel familiar while others seem alien to Anglo tastes. Fried pizza, anyone? Or ribbons of spelt pasta with cured pigs jowl? What about eggplant cake?
They are all worth trying. Pizze fritta (fried pizza) is a Neapolitan specialty and here, slippers of crisp, golden dough come with speck and a snow-dome of burrata (fresh Italian cheese made from mozzarella and cream). Za Za's spelt pasta is a hard elongated variety known as ferretto calabro (SUBS:OK) and chickpeas animate its mottled surface. As for the eggplant dessert ... it's a grappa-infused gem, baked in a claypot with Granny Smith apples and currants, crowned with short-crust pastry and showered with icing sugar.
Might remind you of a mince tart. Then again, maybe not. SP
Bar Di Stasio in Fitzroy Street, St Kilda. Source: News Limited
BAR DI STASIO
31 Fitzroy St, St Kilda. Ph: 9525 3999. Twitter @CafeDiStasio
A NARROW doorway connects Cafe Di Stasio with the bar next door. But Bar Di Stasio, soon to mark its first birthday, is really a world unto itself.
There are no bottles at the bar, for example. None. And the decor - which recently won a design award - is a curious mixture of terrazzo, red scaffolding and exposed masonry behind glass. As for the food ... it invites light bites as well as some serious snacking.
You must try Bar Di Stasio's piccolo fritto misto (fried tastes of the sea served in a rolled cone of paper). Ditto the charry lamb chops with chianti relish which Marco Pierre White favoured when he was in town shooting 'MasterChef Australia'.
But for sheer pleasure, nothing beats the pigeon and spiced cherry baby pie. A glass of Ronnie Di Stasio's own rosato is recommended. SP
No comments:
Post a Comment