Andrea Contin and Valentina Vigni opened La Lupa Pizza Bar to celebrate their Italian heritage, but also to move forward, to redefine where necessary. Situated in Brisbane’s West End at the base of the Light + Co. apartment building, which was built on the site that provided the gas for Brisbane’s gas street lighting back in the day, La Lupa shatters much of the zealous dogma about pizza. Vigni’s inspiration is Rome, not Campania, and much like Contin’s approach to the naturally themed wine list, she shuns additions, preferring long, natural ferments for her dough.
Eschewing the belief that all pizza must use Tipo ‘00’ flour, Vigni prefers organic, stone-milled Tipo ‘1’ flour, which is less refined and maintains more nutrients from the germ. She also naturally ferments the dough for 60 hours, making the pizza bases more digestible and the nutrients move readily absorbed. All fresh produce is locally sourced, but she still defers to Italy for tomatoes and some cheeses. Accompanying the pizza, the menu drifts into some classic territory (cacio e pepe, vitello tonnato, cotechino), with perhaps the crowning glory a majestic rendition of that great Tuscan T-bone, bistecca Fiorentina.
The menu is based on meticulously sourced ingredients, favouring sustainable, organic farms, with the couple even supplying their own eggs. And the wine follows a very similar path, with Contin favouring producers with a focus on sustainable viticulture and minimal-intervention practices. The duo also regularly import shipments of wine from Italy and elsewhere in Europe, with their own selections supported by like-minded local producers and importers. The list runs to around 120 wines, with 15 by the glass and another 29 premium pours offered courtesy of Coravin. Beyond wine, there is a significant collection of artisan amaro, vermouth and grappa on offer, as well their signature La Lupa ‘vintage’ Negroni.
Providing a definitive note on inner urban cool, The End captures a funky loungeroom vibe, complete with a collection of vintage films and an oddball collection of dangling light bulbs and potted plants. Taking over a former video store on Vulture St in 2011, The End was among the early wave of Brisbane small bars to emerge and has maintained a solid following due to its lack of pretentions.
Nestled in Brisbane’s affluent suburb of Tennerife, causal hole-in-the-wall bar and eatery Zero Fox is far from bourgeois. Designed by owners Lea Angeles and Shaun Fugill as a relaxed every-day watering hole with affordable options for locals, seating is spread along the long deck shaded by the adjacent London Woolstore. When they opened in 2016, they had very little experience in in bars, having previously worked at the café next door, but they knew what they liked. “Our goal was to create a casual venue for the locals – and it quickly became a well-oiled machine of non-stop smash hits,” says Lea.
Cru Bar & Cellar is woven into the fabric of Brisbane, with the pioneering venue never seeming to show its age, even after over a decade and a half. Wrapped around a central onyx bar, tables skirt the perimeter of the building, with patrons even seated on the sills of the retractable windows, almost spilling…
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