UMBERTO Finanzio grew up on Harold Street, Thornbury, after his family immigrated from Calabria in 1956. When son Marco was a little boy, he'd take him and brother Luca to a local espresso bar on Saturday mornings.

''One of those old men's smoky holes where they'd play cards and all the wives would ring up and say, 'Have you seen such and such?' and they'd say, 'No, we haven't seen him,' because he'd be halfway through a game of cards,'' says Marco, laughing as he remembers getting hyper on Fanta while his dad played red aces and 21. After that, they'd visit ''Mario the tailor'' and ''Pippo the barber'', then drop by the deli for cold cuts and panini.

Twenty-five years on and now Umberto's cronies drop by Marco's espresso bar to talk about old times and drink Genovese coffee, the gutsy Super Brazil blend. Umberto has worked in the coffee industry for 30 years and backs Genovese, one of Melbourne's original roasters, while Marco reckons the current ''coffee as wine'' mentality is overstated.

With Umberto Espresso Bar (where Umberto works part-time), they've tried to capture the nostalgia and style of an old-school espresso bar but with a modern bent. It's worked; card players, latte-drinking mums and Thornbury burghers seem equally at home here.

Open for six months, the wood-panelled space is small and skinny, with tiny tables jutting out from the wall. A few more tables are down the back, next to the hanging chillies and garlic, and the drinks fridge is stocked with Italian beer. At 34 seats, it can be squeezy (and noisy); by day, it's more low-key and the courtyard will open soon, which will seat another 20.

The food is tried and true, a lot of recipes from family and friends that cherry-pick from all regions of Italy.

Marco makes the salami every winter, storing it in pig's fat to keep it extra moist; it turns up on the salumi plate with local sausage and home-made fig jam.

Other starters include the Venetian bar snack of fried tuna and potato balls, or ricotta and zucchini cakes.

Beautiful pastas run nightly and Friday to Sunday during lunch. The carbonara is rich, with salty pancetta and egg, and there's a bounty of seafood in the spaghetti marinara with a tasty garlic, parsley and white wine sauce.

On busy nights, the kitchen can struggle - not much but enough to notice entrees took a while and for there to be a wait on dessert. But the wait was so worth it.

The chocolate-lined ricotta cannoli is brilliant and I'm still thinking about that tiramisu: not too sweet, not overpowered with booze but light, airy and creamy, with a great balance of coffee, marsala and chocolate.

Umberto is cute, all the more so for the close relationship between Marco and his dad. I reckon it will be around for a long time.

nrousseau@theage.com.au