Just Open: Capriccio Osteria and Bar

Norton Street lives!

From the chicken katsu baguette at Lucky Pickle, to banh mi at Marrickville Pork Roll, to the blood-sausage sanger at Ester, Sydney loves a sandwich. Now Leichhardt is the latest hotspot for a fix of bread and fillings.

Matteo Galletto and Michele Rispoli have been working together for the past five years at Paddington's two-hatted Italian institution, Lucio's. Galletto is Lucio's son, and Rispoli, who hails from the Amalfi coast, also comes from a family of restaurateurs.

The pair have opened a bar and restaurant on Norton serving simple, tapas-style dishes at dinner and, at lunchtime, wood-fired panini on house-made flatbread from head chef Bryan Gerlini (ex A Tavola).

Panini are $12 and fillings include porchetta with fennel and radicchio, bresaola with pecorino and tomato, and mixed mushrooms with truffled mozzarella and baby cos lettuce. Or you could just grab 60 grams of culatello on your sandwich and bypass the greens altogether.

Lunch snacks such as cotechino sliders ($8) and mortadella cannoli ($6) find their way onto a dinner menu that also lists roasted asparagus with anchovies, butter and cured egg-yolk ($12), calamari with a squid-ink crisp ($15) and spaghetti aglio olio e peperoncino ($12).

Lucio's has long had an excellent wine list and Galletto is keen to offer some lesser-known Italian grapes at Capriccio.

"We want to do a smaller, Italian-only list, and really focus on all the random varietals coming out of there right now," he says. "The rule I've tried to give myself is no pinot grigio and no chianti."

Galletto says the osteria is only in its first phase.

"[Head chef] Bryan is heading back to Italy for two months at the end of May," he says. "Once he's back the paninoteca will remain the same but dinners will extend to five nights with a more substantial menu. We'll also open for a classic Italian long lunch on the Sunday."

Capriccio Osteria and Bar, 159 Norton Street Leichhardt, (02) 9572 7607, Tues-Wed 11:30-4pm; Thu-Sat 11:30-late.