SA Weekend restaurant review – Fugazzi on Leigh Street

A legendary city dining spot is reborn with an Italian menu and New York glamour that makes it hard to leave, writes Simon Wilkinson.

Cancel all meetings. Turn Out of Office on and the mobile off. Pop the cork on something special. The long lunch is back.

It’s Friday mid-afternoon, well past the time for city workers to return to their posts, and the buoyant groups filling the tables around us don’t look like moving anytime soon. There is no checking of watches, no taking urgent calls. Dessert and another bottle? Why not.

This realigning of priorities might be one of the silver linings to the disruption of the past year. Then again, it could just be that, in Fugazzi, the CBD has a restaurant with the pizzazz and sense of occasion to encourage wanton misbehaviour.

How fitting it is that this newcomer should have taken over the site where Italian eatery Rigoni’s was, in its heyday, ­renowned for the length and telling influence of lunches attended by the state’s business and political heavyweights who could be seen at the prime window-side ­tables as you walked by.

The newcomer is more discreet, using sheer curtains to screen the view inside at eye level and moving the entrance to the other side, via an inviting bar.

It all adds to the impact of walking into a dining room of such old-school sophistication and visceral energy that it is hard to know where to look first.

Supplied Editorial Taglierni with blue swimmer crab at Fugazzi, Adelaide.

From the curved joinery of the doorways and booths, to the rows of Fornasetti wall plates, to the hand-painted toilets, triple-decker pendant light fittings and fire-­engine red wine cabinet, the design from Simon Kardachi and his regular collaborators at studio-gram is all drop-dead gorgeous. Throw in black-aproned waiters possessing enough chutzpah and a soundtrack with plenty of big-band brass and this is not Rome or Milan, but New York in full movie-set glamour mode. Is that ­George Clooney sipping martinis in the corner? Could be.

Laura Sharrad with husband Max, in front of the old Rigoni's on Leigh Street. The couple has transformed the venue into an eatery with an Italian menu and New York glamour. Photo: Tricia Watkinson

Chef Max Sharrad, who along with wife Laura is a partner in the business, take this American/Italian theme as a starting point and brings it up to contemporary speed. That means a menu where snacks outnumber larger courses, a wood grill and vegetables figure prominently, and wakame oil doesn’t feel entirely out of place.

Mostly, however, this is cooking ­designed to be eaten, not analysed. If you simply feel like a pizza (potato, leek and prosciutto perhaps) and vino rosso, that will be fine, bud. Then again, if you want to go all out with caviar and wagyu bistecca or become acquainted with the ravishing Barolos of 2016, that will be even better.

Either way, I’d be sure to start with “Roman Vegemite”, a crisp-fried toast soldier drenched in butter and topped with slithers of lemon and Sicilian anchovies that offers a more rounded interpretation of the salty/savoury punch of our favourite yeast spread.

Supplied Editorial Roman Vegemite at Fugazzi, Adelaide. Picture Julian Cebo

Other snacks are more substantial. Ox tongue is poached, crumbed and fried to make a cotoletta that looks like a plump little schnitzel, topped with a flurry of grated parmesan instead of melted cheese. The thicker end, where the meat still has a hint of pinkness, is juicier and more voluptuous than the rest. A squeeze of lemon and dab of tarragon gribiche makes it sing.

Golden strands of egg taglierni are tossed with hand-picked blue swimmer crab, salmon roe pearls, fermented chilli and a crustacean butter for a pasta dish that has plenty of heat, salt and tang but still allows the pearly clumps of sweet crab meat to shine. This is luxury with a backing of heavy metal rather than a string quartet. Also maxing out the flavour volume is flat iron steak that is given an extra boost by grilling over a wood fire and resting in the smoke, before serving with fries, a large scoop of anchovy butter and a splash of jus. No wonder butchers love the next-level beefiness of this rarely seen cut.

Supplied Editorial Dining room at Fugazzi, Adelaide.

Capsicum is roasted, marinated and roasted again until it becomes an intense vegetable toffee offset by a green pool of thyme oil. Totally addictive, it is the best side dish I’ve come across this year.

To finish, a sheep milk yoghurt ­gelato also plays the sweet/savoury game, with a lid of milk skin, honey drizzle and native flavours in a davidson plum dust and melaleuca (tea tree) oil.

It’s a timely reminder this isn’t really New York, before you head out the door.

The opening of Fugazzi feels important, a permanent landmark in the city’s dining history. Handsome, well-grounded and a lot of fun, it’s the kind of restaurant with which you’ll want to develop a long-term relationship. Book a first date now.