Is Cottesloe the new Little Italy of Perth? If has anything to do with it, the Napoleon Street precinct will be your one-stop shop for all your Italian cravings, opening not one but two new venues in the Western Suburbs enclave.
Nino La Verghetta is on a mission to revolutionize Perth’s Italian food scene, and there are not many people who could match his credentials or passion to do so. Founding Pappagallo’s in Leederville around a decade ago, as well as Dolce and Salato in Fremantle and Alimentari Imports, he’s proven his credentials at ensuring top-quality traditional dishes—and ingredients —are found in his hometown. Now, he’s turning his attention to perhaps an unlikely spot —Cottesloe.
Image credit: Jade Barker
Pointing out that the popular Sal’s Pasta is already established on Napoleon Street, down the road from where La Verghetta has opened Cocodrillo Negroni Bar, he says he hopes people will make an excursion of it.
“I have a lot of respect for [Sal], his product is just amazing. And we work with the community together, we help each other like that”, La Verghetta says, adding he will be using Sal’s gluten-free pasta at the Coccodrillo Pizza e Vino venue, around the corner on Station Street.
But why open two venues within a few minutes of one another? La Verguetta says when his friend first mentioned the space that would become the pizzeria, he was interested right away, but it only had capacity for 40 people inside. Realising from his Pappagallo days that there was a big demand for private functions, he felt it was a no-brainer when another space became available around the corner.
“We want people to double-dip, so to speak. You can have an aperitivo first, then come for dinner, then go back for a nice cocktail. People will make a trip to come see us in Cottesloe, and they stay from lunch to dinner, and into the night [to listen to] a DJ.”
La Verghetta has a right to feel confident the people will come. Anyone familiar with the pizzas at Pappagallo will know that these aren’t run-of-the-mill. The flour is imported from Italy, using a special mix of flour certified by A.P.I (Associazione Pizzerie Italiana) to create a thin and crispy Roman-style slice. At Cocodrillo’s they also cook the pizza for a bit longer, at a higher temperature, and ferment the dough for between 48 and 72 hours. All of this La Verghetta says, makes it lighter, and easier to digest.
Image credit: Jade Barker
“When the pizza is ready to go, the pizza becomes like a croissant, light, crunchy but at the same time melts in your mouth. It’s a very big process. You might think, ‘oh making pizzas [is easy]’. But if you want to do it properly you actually need to make a Michelin product, so that’s what we try to do.”
The menu features a handful of standard pizza toppings, both with a tomato and white sauce base. But he also brought over the former Pappagallo’s pizza head chef Romolo Gargarella, who has levelled up his skills, doing a pizza course at the iconic School of Italian Culinary Arts, Alma. “He’s already a pizza chef but obviously he’s come back with more ideas for different toppings.” These include things like carrot, beetroot and chickpea puree bases, with toppings like home-made soy ricotta and black sesame seeds. These gourmet pizzas are named tongue-in-cheek, such as ‘Golden Triangle’ and ‘Peppy Grove’, showing that while the cooking and produce is taken seriously, the venue is still about fun, casual dining.
For anyone not in the mood for pizza, there is also a selection of hand-made pasta dishes, such as a pappardelle ragu and gnocchi alla spoletina (napoletana sauce and parmesan). Main courses include a traditional mixed seafood stew, catch of the day, chilli mussels and scotch fillet. Once again, all the produce is sourced from hand-picked providers both locally—such as cold-cuts from Princi butchers in Bicton, and meats from the award-winning The Corner Butcher in Morely—as well as imported from Italy via La Verghetta’s family store Alimentari Imports.
The wine list, once the liquor license comes through, will include a selection of carefully chosen wines from Italy, mainly small, organic producers, as well as a smattering of well-known local West Australian wines.
If you follow La Verghetta’s itinerary and chase your meal with a drink around the corner at the Negroni bar, the carefully selected produce and attention to detail continue. Here, La Verghetta is breaking tradition by swapping Campari for a unique import. “The twist is that all our bitters are imported from Italy. We use Bitter Fusetti, an invention of Flavio Angiolillo, one of the biggest mixologists in Italy.” Angiolillo’s establishments include several Milan bars featured on the World’s 50 best bar list, and a distillery, Tripstillery, where he created the bitters Cocodrillo features.
Image credit: Jade Barker
Le Verguetta has become a self-appointed brand ambassador for the Italian liqueur, as the sole Australian importer. “It is artisan produced, with all these botanic herbs from the mountains, you can tell straight away when you drink it, it’s like when you taste a home-made limoncello, there’s less of a chemical taste, less sugar.” Every year Angiolillo releases a new flavour, including chocolate, banana and coconut and this is what helped form the basis of Cocodrillo’s cocktail list.
The cheekily named Seven Sins drinks menu features drinks such as Lust, Gluttony, Greed, Sloth, Wrath, Envy and Pride, and there will be a rotating Negroni of the week.
While the food menu at the Negroni bar was more extensive, now that the pizzeria is open, La Verghetta says they will pair it back to feature light bites. He wants the focus to be on the drinks, with DJ’s playing on Friday and Saturday nights.
La Verghetta wants to “redefine the bar experience in Cottesloe”, but it seems he’ll be redefining the dining experience too and perhaps the whole neighbourhood in the process.
Find more of the best pizza in Perth here.
