Doughcraft is cooking Roman- design pinsa (like pizza, but not), house-made pasta and keys, include by blended drinks and Italian glass of wines, in a beautiful dining-room.
When did all of the Italian eating institutions filter out of the CBD?
Coppa Spuntino utilized to be a post-work go-to onCreek Street But that location went the tactic of the pandemic, and, no matter a particularly efficient, group-reviving in depth pop-up within the earlier digs of Il Centro (moreover a COVID casualty), proprietors Tom Sanceau and Bonnie Shearston presently have the concept on ice whereas they focus on varied different duties.
There was Otto at 480 Queen, but it as nicely modified out of town all through the pandemic to its current waterside digs at South Bank.
Which leaves … little or no. There’s Guy Grossi’s Settimo at The Westin on Mary Street, but it’s an upmarket space matched for occasion consuming. Simone Presta wished to supply one thing much more laid-back and pleasant.
“I absolutely noticed that lack of Italian restaurants in the city,” Presta claims. “We have Scugnizzi, of course [a hole-in-the-wall on Adelaide Street opened in 2023 by Presta and chef Carmine Guarino] and now Doughcraft, but there’s not too much else.”
City slickers may perceive Doughcraft as a French-Italian pastry store that elevated from its preliminary Albion dwelling in February proper into the earlier Mary Street digs of Leonard’s Bar & &Bistro But at present Presta and co-owners Steven Chevalier and Salvatore Compagnone are opening up the situation through the evening as a laid-back, busy Italian eating institution with a meals choice that’s freely secured in Rome but takes concepts from across the peninsula and previous.
“You look at this place and it gives you that dining vibe,” Presta claims. “It’s meant to be utilised from dawn to sundown.
“I’m Italian, and one of my business partners [Chevalier] is French. He’s doing his thing with the bakery with imported butter from France and a team of French bakers … and I want to do my thing: Italian dining – pasta and pinsa.”
Don’ t perceive pinsa? It’s a Roman flatbread akin to pizza but with a base made out of soy, rice and wholegrain flours that (at Doughcraft) is fermented for 2 days. Presta thinks it’s lighter to eat, easier to soak up and it features a crunchier base than, declare, a Napoli pizza, no matter being ready at a decreased temperature stage in Doughcraft’s bread range.
“Here, it’s almost like a gourmet pizza, because we apply the condiments to each slice rather than put it all over the top,” Presta claims.
There are 8 pinsas on Doughtcraft’s meals choice consisting of a margherita (tomato, buffalo mozzarella and crystallised basil), a tartufo (mushrooms, Italian sausage, provola and black truffle), a mortazza (mortadella with sun-dried cherry tomatoes, pistachio and stracciatella) and the Sfizio (healed salmon with rocket, whipped buffalo mozzarella, beetroot and lemon ardour).
Away from pinsa, Rome- birthed head prepare dinner Edoardo Bianchini is cooking house-made pasta corresponding to a crab meat pastas with a white-wine lower, chilli, breadcrumbs, garlic and lemon ardour; gnocchi in pumpkin sauce with feta cheese, fried kale and toasted almonds; and a beef brisket fettuccine ragu with porcini mushrooms, a merlot lower, tomato sauce and parmesan.
A quick possibility of main plates consists of barbequed free-range spatchcock with rosemary potatoes and barbequed lemon, barbequed tiger shellfishes with lardo, a cannelini bean lotion, great paprika and lemon ardour, and a 300-gram baked sirloin with rocket, cherry tomatoes, parmesan and vincotto.
It’s all as pleasant as assured, with not one of the pastas valued over $34 and the keys $48.
“There are so many Italian restaurants in Brisbane, so we wanted to create something different with a little twist,” Presta claims.
For drinks, the blended drink itemizing has really been elevated from Doughcraft’s previously restricted aperitivo hour possibility and consists of plenty of spins on the requirements, and the situation at present provides a 40-bottle pink wine itemizing that concentrates totally on Italian and French decreases.
“We have the Kangaroo Point Bridge being built right here and the casino just up the road. So this little corner is going to be the James Street of the city.”
Simone Presta
The properties themselves proceed to be primarily unmodified from their days as Leonard’s, with its carry revealed block wall surfaces, mosaic tiled floorings, and drapes and lumber of the dining-room.
But Presta, Chevalier and Compagnone have really included brand-new desk lights. Along with the brand-new (since February) artwork on the wall surfaces, it supplies the eating institution a livelier feeling, and it’s difficult to recommend with Presta’s assumed that it’s an space recommended to be seen through the evening.
He moreover considers Doughcraft as part of a brand-new CBD meals district, with Settimo located merely up Mary Street, Naldham House resuming all through Felix Street and the outdated Buffalo Bar at present being reconditioned.
“We have the Kangaroo Point Bridge being built right here and the casino just up the road,” Presta claims. “So this little corner is going to be the James Street of the city.”
Open Mon 7am-2pm; Tue-Fri 7am-2pm, 5pm-10pm; Sat 5pm-10pm
Restaurant examines, info and the very best openings supplied to your inbox.
Sign up
Matt Shea is Food and Culture Editor atBrisbane Times He is a earlier editor and editor-at-large at Broadsheet Brisbane, and has really composed for Escape, Qantas Magazine, the Guardian, Jetstar Magazine and SilverKris, amongst a number of others.