Lucio Pizzeria
Sure, you've got your get-in-and-get-out Pizza e Birras and your tough-love-from-mama La Disfidas but the new pizzaiola on the block does it with all the skill and none of the 'tude, writes Myffy Rigby
Working on the old Pizza Mario site in downtown East Sydney, Naples born-and-bred chef Lucio de Falco is making traditional, wood-fired pizza and combining it with friendly, attentive service. He also did some time with Mario for a few months before they upped digs and moved to the St Margaret's complex up the road.
When they left, they completely gutted the restaurant, including the wood fire oven. "I had to start from scratch," says Lucio, "but I got to put in some extra things that weren't in here before like a deep fryer and burners."
The list is simple and the pizza is good enough to rival any of the big hitters in town. One per person is enough to keep the wolves at bay and if you like a drink it's not hard to work your way through the wine list (we like the Chianti for a quaffer).
Try the bufalina - buffalo mozzarella splodges on a tomato base with a bitey parmesan and little quarters of cherry tomato - or the cheese fest that is fontina (a quite sweet Italian cheese), mozzarella and thin slices of speck. Still gleaming the cheese? There's also the four formaggi - mozzarella, fontina, gorgonzola and swiss cheese - gulp. And if lactose is not your friend, there's the napoletana - a salt-laden (in the good way) mix of tomato, olives, capers and anchovies with a little oregano.
But the crowning glory is the Lucio, the pizzeria's answer to the much loathed but often ordered ‘half ‘n' half'.
You really need to see it to believe it, but it's half a Margherita (tomato, mozzarella, baby basil) and half a calzone (just like a pizza only folded) filled with fluffy ricotta and strips of ham. Oh, mama. If you haven't fallen off your chair in a cheese coma, we recommend you keep on trucking and try the panna cotta - a set vanilla cream drizzled with lemon oil (it wobbles incredibly lewdly as you move the plate) - or the incredibly luxe, squishy centred chocolate torta with vanilla gelato.
It's new, it's quality and so far, it's not that busy. Time Out's tip: hop to it before the rest of Sydney wises up.
Lucio Pizzeria 248 Palmer St, Darlinghurst 2010. (02 9332 3766). Licensed, around $45pp, including wine. Daily 6pm-10pm.