For 150 years, the multi-level corner shop now known as King and Godfree has fed Carlton.

What started life as a grocer is now a sophisticated hospitality cocktail: deli, espresso bar, wine shop, gelateria, rollicking rooftop and street-level Agostino, a terrazzo-floored wine bar and a labour of love for its third-generation owners.

Savvy staff have you promptly perched at the central bar or sunk into a soft leather banquette for crisp-crusted calamari, zesty black tagliolini speckled with Moreton Bay bug, and plump burrata on sweet, slow-cooked peppers.

The menu is compact, and while steak and fish – perhaps blue-eye with mussels – are valid options, the heroes all sit firmly in the pasta camp. Finish with caramelised figs and ice-cream, or visit Pidapipo next door for a scoop of gelato.

Keen to kick on? Try rooftop bar Johnny’s Green Room for a post-prandial amaro.