Captain Fantastic

With retro style and riffs on classics, Capitano, from the team behind Bar Liberty, isn’t your typical red-sauce joint

- Michael Harden

Just when you thought Melbourne’s Italian restaurant dance card was full, along comes Capitano. The second venture from the team behind Bar Liberty combines a pizza, pasta, parmigiana menu with a Carlton location and a room decked out in retro-styled timber and terrazzo, and manages to make it fresh. It’s an impressive feat.

What does Capitano add to the Melbourne Italian conversation? Chefowner Casey Wall’s American heritage for starters. His menu is modelled on the red-sauce Italian-American food he ate as a kid. That explains the classic American vodka tomato sauce tossed with curly, volcano-shaped vesuvio pasta. The sauce is made from fresh tomatoes, given heat with chilli, and richness with butter and puréed onion. A slug of vodka adds brightness. It’s skilfully executed comfort food, the sort that might have you shovelling it into your mouth as if you haven’t eaten for a week.

There’s clam sauce, too. It’s a New York-Italian staple, though Capitano’s is more homage than replica. Goolwa pipis are steamed in white wine and then tossed through spaghetti alla chitarra with a silky sauce of garlic, chilli, pipi juice, parsley and dashi. Ciao umami! Remember to order an extra serve of focaccia for swiping the bowl – the focaccia is made with the same dough as the pizza, which is arguably the main event here.