Ace Pizza

448 Beaufort St, Highgate, Perth, modern casual.

restaurant

NEXT to us, a table of what can only be termed "dudes".

Three big blokes in their 30s, they have the unruly beards, the baggy shorts, the tattoos, the holes in the ears you could run the NBN through. They drink a sparkling, dark beverage from tumblers. Enthusiastically.

At the bar, pretty maids all in a row: several groups of women in their 20s, perched at high-back stools with glasses of sem/sav juice o' the west - and perfect lipstick, sharing pizza.

Elsewhere, beneath ornate white plaster domes that speak of a previous tenant's design sense and faded dreams (it used to be Barolo) is the standard smattering of couples, mostly young-ish. You need young eyes to read the menu here.

And us, a table of 40-somethings, mostly - and by the standards of the evening, a fairly beige lot.

But Ace Pizza is a broad church, and all are welcome. On the food strip that is Beaufort Street, this is your quintessential modern food joint: very casual (although not inept) staff, eating bar, low lighting, plenty of noise, tiny-but-sexy wine list. It's a fairly interesting hybrid: not quite Dude Heaven, not quite La Dolce Vita pizzeria, either. But it works.

On the menu, the section "Things From The Kitchen" is stuff like "Fried mac n cheese", "Pork n pistachio slab" and "Pig's head with witlof". Detect a certain porcine bent? "Dad's lasagna, beef tail", however, is a nice take on the standard: an individual lasagne in a superb iron dish, with lots of very good bechamel, and meat pulled from the bone rather than minced. That'd be a tick.

The section "Wood Grilled Things" teases our modern sensibilities still more. The obligatory "Short rib" and "Skirt steak" are there, alongside "Flat iron quail n potato cake", a moist, jointed bird served with mayo, a cheek of grilled orange for juicing - and outrageously good deep-fried logs of wafered potato "cake", like fingers of crisp-skinned Pommes Anna. Man.

A salad of beetroot - raw and pickled - with parsley, rocket, candied walnuts and many dollops of creamy, whipped "salted ricotta" (I expected ricotta salata - wrong) works well with its sweet-and-sour dressing. Octopus with potato, parsley, red onion, green olives and a cheek of grilled lemon - a Spanish moment, with paprika - will be great when the octopus itself is not rubbish and the potato is cooked consistently. Octopus shouldn't be rubbish in Perth.

And then, there is pizza. About 11 options. As someone smart said the other day, "There's nothing worse than bad pizza." I agree, and the converse is equally true. Ace sails close to excellence: the dough is tasty and has the right texture, the cooking (in a wood oven) is done well with some nice char and heat-puff. Variations are interesting and the ingredients are of a high standard. If only they were a little smaller, they might have stayed firmer at the centre.

Both pizzas we ate got ticks: one with tomato, mozzarella, black olive, heaps of hairy fish (anchovy) and particularly hot salami; and the other with tomato, mozzarella, prawn, capers, a drizzle of basil sauce and lots of lemon juice. I want one now. And all the wines are available by glass, half or full bottle. Good.

Dessert is about as Italian as your average Muscovite. It's the "Tiramisu doughnut", "Nemesis choc cake" or fun concept-cum-gimmick of the year: a paper cup of soft-serve ice cream served with smaller cups of crumbled biscotti, (bad) homemade honeycomb and DIY squeezy bottles of chocolate and caramel sauce. Genius.

Ace is, well, pretty ace. There's food integrity beneath the veneer of Gen Y/Gen X insouciance. And it's pretty cool with Boomers, too.

Ace Pizza, 448 Beaufort St, Highgate, Perth, Phone: [phone]
Hours: Dinner, daily
Typical prices: Starters $16; mains $32; pizza $21; desserts $7
Summary: Yo, margherita, dude
Like this? Try... Press Food & Wine, Adelaide; Alfred & Constance, Brisbane
Rating: 3.5 out of 5