TasWeekend Indulge: Bellissimo brekky at Cibo e Vino in Battery Point

Breakfast pizza doesn’t necessarily have to emerge from a soggy box at the bottom of the fridge. It can be a light and fresh delight, as LIBBY SUTHERLAND discovers at Battery Point’s newest cafe.

Cibo E Vino’s breakfast pizza. Picture: RICHARD JUPE

MOST people celebrate their silver anniversary with a swanky dinner or an exotic holiday. Not so for the team behind Ristorante Da Angelo in Battery Point. They have marked their 25-year milestone as purveyors of pizza and pasta by opening another Italian-inspired eatery right across the road.

The simply named Cibo e Vino (food and wine) opened in mid-March after the previous tenants — the short-lived South on Hampden cafe and, before that, an up-market fish and chippery that quickly went south — pulled up stumps.

Rather than search for another tenant, the Da Angelo crew, which already owned the Hampden Rd property, decided to take it on themselves as an all-day breakfast and lunch venue.

Cibo e Vino, Hampden Rd, Battery Point. Picture: RICHARD JUPE

It adds to a suite of good Italian eateries in Hobart offering daytime service including Cultura in the CBD, Capital in North Hobart, and the Italian Pantry in Murray St. The Pantry’s pork belly, served with a rocket and citrus salad, is pretty close to porcine perfection.

On my first visit to Cibo e Vino for a Sunday breakfast, it’s clear the joint venture between Angelo Fraraccio, brothers Marco and Roberto Caporelli, and Sam Holmes is going gangbusters. Every seat is occupied and waiting staff barely have time to clear tables before they are occupied again.

Cibo e Vino, Battery Point. Picture: RICHARD JUPE

The menu includes Italian-accented breakfast staples such as ricotta hot cakes with zabaglione and porridge with rhubarb compote and amaretti crumble. A long-term fan of Da Angelo’s pizzas (and their magnificent cotoletta bolognese), I order the breakfast pizza. It’s a simple affair, the base topped with tomato and mozzarella and finished with caramelised onion, two fried eggs, shaved prosciutto and fresh basil.

My friend’s eggs in sugo — poached eggs in napoletana sauce with roasted capsicum, chunks of Italian sausage, chilli and salsa verde — spark a familiar flush of food envy. She smugly assures me they are as good as they look.

While breakfast is enjoyable, a return visit for lunch is even better. We arrive on an unseasonably warm Wednesday just before Easter and take a seat in the sunny courtyard.

Two of our party of three order pasta but I decide to try the salmon bruschetta. The single slice of grilled bread is laden with salty flakes of hot smoked salmon obscured by a mound of shaved fennel and zucchini salad. The dish is given an extra burst of freshness with basil, mint and Italian parsley leaves and more of that salsa verde.

Cibo e Vino’s smoked salmon bruschetta. Picture: RICHARD JUPE

My partner, who has a predilection for pasta, lets me dip my fork into his house-made casarecce (short pasta twists) with Italian sausage, cherry tomatoes and a nice bite of chilli. I could happily have eaten the entire bowl. The salmon and dill ravioli in a creamy white wine sauce with red onion and mushrooms sits atop my list for next time.

Casarecce with Italian sausage. Picture: RICHARD JUPE

Purely for research purposes, we punctuate lunch with cannoli — a cigar-shaped shell of crisp pastry piped with a creamy, but not overly sweet filling. Yum.

I later ask Angelo — who can usually been found working the room with charismatic style in the evening at Da Angelo — if his workload has increased with the new enterprise.

ON THE MENU Breakfast pizza $20; eggs in sugo $22; smoked salmon bruschetta $20; casarecce $25; salmon and dill ravioli $27; cannoli $4.50.

“We wander in and out … but it really looks after itself,” says Angelo, who cut his culinary teeth at Mondo’s, in South Hobart, and the late great Concetta’s.

“We had to revamp the kitchen a little and rearrange the prep area at the back.”

New tiles were also added and a long bench across the wall to create a more European/Italian feel to the interior.

And, it seems, word of Battery Point’s newest brekky venue is spreading, with Cibo e Vino’s Facebook page featuring a picture of celebrity patrons Ray Martin and Tetsuya Wakuda — cutely captioned #ourbreakfastbringsalltheboystotheyard.

And who can blame them for seeking out a bit of la dolce vita in Hobart?

“The response,” says Angelo, “has been absolutely fantastic.”

CIBO E VINO

45 Hampden Rd, Battery Point

6224 0192

Open Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday 7.30am to 3.30pm, Saturday and Sunday 8am to 3.30pm.