Latest news with #LiquoreStrega-soaked
The Age
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- The Age
Newtown's new grown-up candlelit Italian restaurant just scored a hat
Ramp up the acid and it'd be a match for the hand-rolled pappardelle turned through buttery chicken-liver ragu, a gorgeous spin on a Marcella Hazan recipe made even better with some pepper from the metre-long grinder. But it's the gnudi that best shows off Allende's handiwork: house ricotta and semolina is kneaded into dumplings that are full of bounce, each topped with fried sage and lemon zest and slick with brown butter. MUST. Pastry chef Lauren Eldridge's cassata is in all caps, too. Spoon into the decorative Sicilian cake and a shell of pistachio marzipan and candied fruits gives way to herbal, Liquore Strega-soaked sponge and chocolate-flecked ricotta, all finished with fondant lacework worthy of North Carolina's annual National Gingerbread House Competition. One for the ages. Meanwhile, the room is a pleasure to be in. The quarters are close, candles flicker. Behind the bar, staff can stir down a Martinez as well as section waiters can speak to a wine list that goes all-in on Italy, with a reserve section dedicated to terroir-driven makers including Arianna Occhipinti and Elisabetta Foradori. It's slim pickings under $90 but you can't accuse the list of lacking a point of view. And that's what makes this strip so compelling. Each venue is its own thing, uncompromising and fully realised. Coupled with boutique rooms upstairs, the Continental hub is primed to capitalise on Newtown's transformation from student haunt to a suburb where hatted restaurants are as common as the crystal shops and Thai takeaways. Somewhere, you might just take your mum for pig's-head charcuterie.
Sydney Morning Herald
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Sydney Morning Herald
Newtown's new grown-up candlelit Italian restaurant just scored a hat
Ramp up the acid and it'd be a match for the hand-rolled pappardelle turned through buttery chicken-liver ragu, a gorgeous spin on a Marcella Hazan recipe made even better with some pepper from the metre-long grinder. But it's the gnudi that best shows off Allende's handiwork: house ricotta and semolina is kneaded into dumplings that are full of bounce, each topped with fried sage and lemon zest and slick with brown butter. MUST. Pastry chef Lauren Eldridge's cassata is in all caps, too. Spoon into the decorative Sicilian cake and a shell of pistachio marzipan and candied fruits gives way to herbal, Liquore Strega-soaked sponge and chocolate-flecked ricotta, all finished with fondant lacework worthy of North Carolina's annual National Gingerbread House Competition. One for the ages. Meanwhile, the room is a pleasure to be in. The quarters are close, candles flicker. Behind the bar, staff can stir down a Martinez as well as section waiters can speak to a wine list that goes all-in on Italy, with a reserve section dedicated to terroir-driven makers including Arianna Occhipinti and Elisabetta Foradori. It's slim pickings under $90 but you can't accuse the list of lacking a point of view. And that's what makes this strip so compelling. Each venue is its own thing, uncompromising and fully realised. Coupled with boutique rooms upstairs, the Continental hub is primed to capitalise on Newtown's transformation from student haunt to a suburb where hatted restaurants are as common as the crystal shops and Thai takeaways. Somewhere, you might just take your mum for pig's-head charcuterie.
