Short Bites: Dan Stock with Melbourne’s latest food news
Ray Capaldi’s Wonder Pies got many Melburnians through lockdown 2.0 — now he’s whipped up a new bakery business. Here’s the latest food news with Dan Stock.
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When Melbourne went into lockdown last March, Raymond Capaldi lost more than 90 per cent of his thriving wholesale pie business overnight.
Cue quick pivot to retail with Wonder Pies pop-ups opening across Melbourne, from Prahran to Essendon and Macleod and beyond.
Thankfully, comfort food was on most Melburnians’ minds last year, and Capaldi’s pies made thousands of bellies happy.
But the high-end chef turned pastie prince says Wonder Pies was always more than just pies, and so Baketico was born.
The new home of all things good from the oven opened its first store in Heidelberg Heights last week, with more planned for Essendon and Northcote in coming weeks.
Along with the range of famed pies that includes the famous lasagne pie, there’s freshly baked breads, salads and toasties for lunch and meringues, coffees and larder goodies to go.
The team has also taken over the old Pure Pie shop in Port Melbourne, which will become a Baketico by the end of the month.
Baketico is at 3/1 Orr St, Heidelberg Heights. Outlets in Essendon, Northcote and Port Melbourne are coming soon.
THREE LEVELS OF FUN AT HOTEL FITZROY
One of Fitzroy’s oldest pubs is going back to its roots.
Six years ago, Vince Sofo and Paul Adamo turned The Old Colonial Inn on Brunswick St into a Japanese izakaya bar, with Ichi Ni Nana joining their popular Ichi Ni in St Kilda.
Now the three-level building will return in spirit to the 1854 pub it was, when Hotel Fitzroy opens this month.
“When we opened six years ago, we always wanted a drinking side to the venue, but the popularity of the dining meant it got pushed to the side,” Vince says.
“So now we’re adding a modern public bar to make it more of a pub.”
To that end, the building has been opened to Brunswick St with streetside drinking and dining now offered. And while the bustling Japanese Ichi Ni Nana remains on the ground floor along with the new public bar, the second floor space that was the Village People hawker restaurant will become Cappo Sociale, a 150-seat modern Italian restaurant.
In the kitchen is one of Melbourne’s most experienced Italian chefs, Maurice Esposito — Cecconi’s, Esposito at Toofeys, and Il Bacaro among the many names on his CV — who has devised a menu that covers pizza, pasta and secondi piatti with a modern Melbourne twist.
“It’s classics done well,” the chef says, pointing to handmade pasta and 72-hour proof pizzas from pizzaiolo Ivan Rizzo as highlights on the extensive menu.
General manager Jake Sofo is overseeing the venue, which also includes a rooftop terrace, private dining and bottle shop.
“We think the venue gives a freshness to the street, it beautifies (Brunswick St),” Vince says. “We’re really excited about opening up again.”
Cappo Sociale at Hotel Fitzroy is scheduled to open on Feb 24 at 127 Brunswick St, Fitzroy and serve dinner nightly.
NANCY OPENS IN PAKENHAM
Josh O’Brien and Omar Viramontes, who brought a touch of inner-city cafe cool to Ferntree Gully with Lorna and up the road in Upwey with Maria, have opened their third cafe, this time a little further afield.
Named after Josh’s grandmother, Nancy is found in the Robert Gordon pottery showroom in Pakenham. The all-day menu features bircher muesli and beef burgers, with “loaded potato nachos” — that teams sweet potato with corn chips and nachos toppings — a none-too-serious nod to Viramontes’ Mexican heritage.
“My grandmother had an affinity with home cooking and also a love of making pottery, so opening within the Robert Gordon warehouse was a match made in heaven,” O’Brien says.
Nancy is open daily from 9am (8am weekends) at 114 Mulcahy Rd, Pakenham.
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