Try pasta in shapes you’ve never seen before. Eat pizza topped with saganaki. And return to a Melbourne dining institution that’s been revived.
What’s red, white and out every night of the week? The checked tablecloths along Lygon Street, where restaurants mostly stick to the roll-call of dishes many Melburnians intrinsically link with Italian food. Not that there’s anything wrong with that: it’s comfort food for many of us. But four new Italian spots – most of them nowhere near Carlton – are taking their pasta and tiramisu to new places.
Decca
Alphington’s huge YarraBend development, on the corner of Heidelberg Road and Chandler Highway, has capacity for around 4500 residents. Now they have a new 80-seat restaurant and wine bar nearby – in fact, they don’t even need to leave the precinct. Called Decca, it’s the latest from ex-Coda, Tonka and Lollo at The W Hotel chef Adam D’Sylva, who lives nearby. “This area really needed something like this,” he says.
The two-tone space is kitted out in warm walnut timber and textured grey walls. D’Sylva describes the menu as “loosely Italian”, though it’s punctuated with
Asian (his signature yellow duck curry from Coda) and French (creme brulee) flourishes.
Fresh pasta still takes precedence, with a $30,000 La Monferrina machine extruding shapes of all sorts: paccheri for white Tuscan ragu of sausage, porcini mushrooms and cavolo nero; rigatoni for spicy vodka sauce; and casarecce for a classic carbonara. A Parrilla charcoal grill touches much of the menu from the 1.2-kilo rib-eye to the king prawns finished with roasted garlic butter.
Tiramisu fans can find it in two untraditional forms. An ice-cream, courtesy of
D’Sylva’s gelato shop Boca, is mascarpone-based and flecked with sponge cake and chocolate shavings; while a dessert cocktail blends Broken Bean coffee liqueur with Flor de Cana rum and Baileys, capped by a savoiardi biscuit.
27 Mills Boulevard, Alphington, instagram.com/decca_restaurant
Caffe Greco Oakleigh
A fixture of 1990s Melbourne has been resurrected, this time in the heart of Oakleigh. Owner Nick Zampelis first opened Caffe Greco on Chapel Street in 1994, inspired by the story behind Rome’s oldest coffee house (with which it shares a name), established 265 years ago by a Greek migrant and visited by writers, artists, revolutionaries and royalty.
Reviving the all-day restaurant in Melbourne’s Greek centre was a no-brainer – and Zampelis has gone all out for the 300-seater. The original’s red-leather booths are joined by marble, classical frescoes and imposing chandeliers at this third iteration (a branch operated at Crown until 2010).
The Greek-meets-Italian menu includes 14-hour lamb shoulder, bruschetta, and rib-eye cotoletta with semi-dried tomatoes, kalamata olives and feta. Classic Italian pizzas are joined by a saganaki one with fig jam. Family-sized pastas, including frutti di mare, feed five people. Sicilian sweets, such as cannoli, are made by the Bruno family who ran Cafe Siciliadolce.
“I’m trying to highlight to everyone the rich history that both these cultures [Italian and Greek] have.”
27-29 Eaton Mall, Oakleigh, caffegrecooakleigh.com
Bar Taralli
Change is afoot in North Melbourne, and chef Salvatore Giorgio is part of that. For his debut restaurant, Bar Taralli, he’s written a menu that’s all about Italy’s south, where his family comes from.
“I’ve always wanted to intertwine the southern regions – Campania, Puglia, Calabria, Sicily – in a restaurant,” he says. Its namesake speaks to that: taralli are circular savoury crackers made slightly differently in each region.
While some familiar dishes dot the menu, regional specialties reign. As in Calabria, house-made ’nduja arrives at the table in a candle-lit terracotta pot so it stays warm, ready to be mopped up with crusty bread. Scialatielli, a short pasta with a noodle-like shape from the Amalfi Coast, is served with the best seafood that day. And Pugliese bombette are “little bombs” of pork scotch stuffed with caciocavallo cheese, wrapped in pancetta and cooked over charcoal – a little like a mini porchetta.
“I want to show people that Italian food isn’t generic,” says Giorgio. “Spaghetti bolognese doesn’t even exist in Italy.”
12 Errol Street, North Melbourne, bartaralli.com.au
Pizzette
Pizza by the slice isn’t just a New York City thing. Rome is famed for its big rectangular slices in a rainbow of seasonal toppings, wrapped in paper and eaten on the run. Now you can get this ultra-convenient pizza on Brunswick Street, where Pizzette offers more than 20 “pizza al taglio” slices. Toppings go onto a focaccia-adjacent base, which co-owner Julie David describes as “fluffy in the centre and soft on top, [with] a bit of crunch on the bottom”.
Her partner Alex Macchi is the pizzaiolo, bringing experience from Di Stasio Carlton and 400 Gradi.
Roasted eggplant parmigiana is an owner-favourite, while customers are flocking to the polpette featuring beef meatballs, and mortadella with burrata on a white base. Focaccia sandwiches are also available.
Slices are pulled from the Moretti Forni electric deck oven, ready in less than a minute if they’re already on display or 10 minutes if Macchi needs to make it from scratch.
The mix-and-match menu and speedy turnaround makes Pizzette perfect for solo ventures, pre- and post-gig bites, and the indecisive. There are also 40-odd seats for groups, and two different gluten-free bases. A liquor licence is on the way, but for now, slurp a lemon granita or Cortese soft drinks imported from Italy.
361 Brunswick Street, Fitzroy, pizzette.au
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Emma Breheny – Emma is Good Food’s Melbourne eating out and restaurant editor.
