Swaggering spirit at Fontana in Redfern

"What's your favourite restaurant in Sydney?" is a question that I'm asked more often than you hear "Cracked pepper?" in a Cronulla cafe. Gun to my head, it's probably a tiny Vietnamese shop, New Star, up the road with a few wobbly tables and not-bad pho. The staff are lovely, the spring rolls are hot, and it's pretty much the perfect way to begin or end a week.

Except a "not-bad pho place" isn't what anyone wants to hear, so I'll usually say Ester or Palace Chinese, but the truth is I haven't had an outright favourite restaurant since Don Peppino's closed its doors in 2019. I'm a bit excited, then, that it's back.

Well, back in swaggering spirit at least. Fontana opened last month in a first-floor Redfern site. Former Don Peppino's chefs Daniel Johnston and Harry Levy are at the helm, with co-owner Ivey Wawn commanding the floor. It's the hottest Italian joint to open since Surry Hills' Pellegrino 2000 started making ravioli with wonton wrappers in February.

Don Peppino's was a semi-permanent pop-up at the Grand Pacific Blue Room in Paddington, operating while developers worked out the most profitable way to redevelop the joint, as developers do. It felt like being at a university house party, complete with Tupac Shakur posters in the bathroom, but with much better wine and a smart, steadying menu of Italian classics seasoned with postmodern panache.

The here-for-a-cracking-time-not-a-long-time approach meant that the Peppino's team probably spent the same amount dolling up the former nightclub as Merivale's Justin Hemmes spends on vintage fruit bowls at Totti's. Fontana offers a similar party vibe, but with a decorating budget that might be closer to the cost of one of Totti's tiled ovens. The new joint is here to stay and it's already buzzing with big groups of 30-somethings.

A banquette best described as "dentist waiting-room beige" runs beneath street-facing windows. Walls are mostly Colgate white, punctuated with a lone succulent at one end of the room and an abstract oil-and-pastel by Chanel Tobler at the other. The space looks significantly more vibrant in daylight than at dinner, so Saturday lunch is the ticket – but when is it not?

Obviously, you're going to order the mozzarella in carrozza ($6 each) to kick things off: outrageously crunchy, fried pillows of cheese and 'nduja that come to the table demanding to be eaten with a negroni ($22) in the other hand. You're probably going to want the artichoke alla guida ($14), too, that deep-fried dish of Rome's Jewish community. It resembles a rust-coloured rose and you can have a terrific time plucking each golden artichoke leaf like a post-revolution French dandy: "She loves me, she loves me not – oh, to hell with it, who cares? This thing's delicious. Antoine, more lemon!"

The sleeper hit you might bypass, however, is the ricotta ($15). "I can get ricotta anywhere," you might say. "Yawn. Next. Where are more of those mozzarella things?" But this is ricotta made fresh each morning and it never hits the fridge. A lone slab dressed with olive oil is spangled with salt crystals and served on a warm plate that allows the milky whey cheese to be enjoyed at its silkiest. Magic.

The coolest thing I ever saw at Don Peppino's was Hugo Weaving in a three-piece suit; Fontana's carpaccio frutti di mare ($27) might be cooler. Bonito, tuna and long-flavoured raw prawns are splashed with a tomato and anchovy dressing fermented for a week to get it nice and punchy. It's a slick dish radiating confidence; pudgy sardine meatballs ($18) seem like the awkward Swedish exchange student at school by comparison.

Slappy tubes of paccheri pasta are partnered with kangaroo tail ragu ($28) braised in red wine and stock with a little cocoa for five hours, and inspired by soul-warming Roman oxtail stew coda alla vaccinara. Wawn, who is a wonderful host, pours a juicy 2019 Carlo Noro Cesanese ($17/$93) to ride alongside it.

Of two substantial mains, oven-roasted lamb ($48) is relegated to the next-time list. I'm too much of a sucker for baccala alla Vicentina ($40), a creamy dried-cod specialty of north-eastern Italy. Johnston's version is more gentle but still just as rich, featuring lightly brined and salted hapuka poached in milk and bay leaves. Do it.

Does Fontana achieve "favourite restaurant" status? It's certainly on its way and, when spring kicks into gear, I suspect a table by the window is going to be in even higher demand. Moderate prices, exciting wine and sharply focused food – now that's what people want to hear.

Vibe: Roman holiday house party

Go-to dish: Carpaccio frutti di mare

Drinks: Boozy classic cocktails and left-field wines from Australia, the old Boot and beyond

Cost: About $130 for two, excluding drinks

This review was originally published in Good Weekend magazine