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Mozzarella Bar

Matt Holden

Inside Seddon's Mozzarella Bar.
Inside Seddon's Mozzarella Bar.Robert Prezioso

Italian$$

"Mozzarella? I love mozzarella!" I emailed when the existence of Seddon's new Mozzarella Bar was brought to my wandering attention. (In Case You Didn't Get It, I was riffing on Cameron Diaz's ditzy "Tickets? I love tickets" from the first Charlie's Angels movie.)

"It's a pizza place primarily …" came the emailed reply.

So it is, of the real napoletana variety, though without the "certification". So the pizzas get a 90-second blast in a wood-fired oven at 450 degrees or so and come out with a nicely blistered and puffy crust surrounding, say, creamy buffalo mozzarella running into the delicious, sweet and tangy tomato sauce under a scatter of fresh basil leaves.

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The calzone special served with napoli sauce.
The calzone special served with napoli sauce.Robert Prezioso

The classics are all here – the frutti di mare (which still sometimes incorrectly goes by the name "marinara" in this country) with mussels, prawns, scallops and calamari and a handful of fresh rocket; the above-mentioned margherita; a napoli with anchovies, olives and fresh chilli – as well as an Aussie suburban classic or two in Italian drag: the reggio, with mushrooms, Virginia ham and olives, sounds like a capricciosa to me, and there's nothing wrong with that.

But there's also a solid list of the kinds of inventive pizza combinations you'd expect in any self-respecting wood-fired place: in bianco with buffalo mozzarella, cherry tomatoes and basil (the vera – "real"–  pizza), or maybe with pancetta, peas, slices of potato and rocket, while a calzone special was a rather massive and nicely cooked fold of various cheeses – fior di latte, buffalo mozzarella, parmigiano – floating on a big puddle of napoli sauce that was dotted with blobs of pesto. Plenty of cornacione (Italian for "puffy blistered crust") to chew on there.

If cheese bar is an inadequate description of this place, so is pizzeria: the menu is also an Italian trattoria thing, a list of entrees, pastas, mains and side dishes, plus some pretty tempting desserts, (zeppole, anyone?).

Mozzarella Bar's bright blue wood-fired oven.
Mozzarella Bar's bright blue wood-fired oven.Robert Prezioso
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Entrees (rendered as "assaggi", or tastes) include a bruschetta of cherry tomatoes and (yet more) mozzarella, and nonna's meatballs cooked in sugo with bread. Sicilian arancini were crisp, golden balls, the rice maybe a little overdone inside (the grains had started to dissolve) and featuring more melty mozzarella but a bit shy on the advertised bolognese: good, but not quite the arancini of Inspector Montalbano's New Year's Eve daydreams.

Pappardelle salsicce needed something to lift the sauce – some fennel in the pork, maybe?  But a veal cotoletta was generous to a fault: a daunting, plate-sized piece of tender, thin veal, nicely golden-crusted and resting on a good serve of roasted potatoes. Sitting atop was a fist of fior di latte scattered with rocket, and all up it was more than one person should eat at a sitting and still expect healthy heart ticks. So something to share, maybe.

The fitout is nice – rough polished concrete, raw bricks, dark-green walls and a bright red scooter high above the bar, which is well-stocked with affordable and very drinkable Italian and Australian wine – mostly Italian varietals – and beer. Service (featuring real Italians) is what it should be in this kind of place, neither too pushy nor too laid-back.

All in all, it's a smart suburban Italian, without being intimidating. Though there is plenty of cheese.

Do … buy wine by the bottle.  It's very affordable.
Don't … overdo the mains. You'll want room for dessert.
Dish … calzone special with napoli sauce
Vibe … contemporary local trattoria

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