New St Peters cafe serving up the panini goods
Your new destination for a true Italian panini.
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A panini just isn’t a panini without fresh basil, says new cafe owner Nathaniel Praino.
The Italian-blooded coffee enthusiast uses French-style baguettes from Adelaide’s Dough bakery and the freshest fillings – from crisp lettuce to juicy tomatoes, Nino’s smallgoods, quality olive oil and, of course, aromatic basil – to create his go-to lunch at Nathaniel’s Coffee & Panini.
“It’s not your typical ham, cheese and tomato,” says Nathaniel, who is operating the St Peters corner shop with his fiancee, Lidia Mazzone. What defines a panini from, say, a lunch box sandwich, is the “quality of the ingredients”, he says.
“And the quality of the bread,” he adds. “The French baguette from Dough is crunchy, chewy and has a nice flavour.”
He should know.
Nathaniel has worked in hospitality for nearly 15 years, most recently at respected Italian megastore Mercato. Though opening the doors to his own business during COVID-19 restrictions wasn’t part of his plan.
“I’d been talking about it (the cafe) for eight years, planning it for 18 months and spent the first three months of this year renovating,” he says. “When everything started to happen, most of the fit-out had already been done, so I thought, ‘What’s the point of stopping now?’.”
The cafe is open daily for takeaway and, as well as the panini and D’Angelo coffee, is serving up sweet treats made by Nathaniel’s sister Eloise, a former MasterChef finalist.
Mon-Fri 7am-3pm; Sat-Sun 7am-1pm, 199 Payneham Rd, St Peters