Enoteca Zingara

Enoteca Zingara is by the team behind Nigella Lawson-approved Alta Trattoria, just down the road. Enoteca can be translated from Italian to mean “wine library”. But, as romantic as that term is, in Italy it’s used to describe an elevated wine shop and bar with great snacks.

Where Alta heroes Piedmontese food, Zingara’s menu includes dishes from across Italy. One part of the menu is a celebration of Italian breads. It features sardenaira, a cheese-less pizza-like bread from Liguria topped here with tomato, olives, capers and anchovies. There’s also a crostini selection where ciabatta is toasted and topped with the likes of whipped salted cod, braised chicken livers or raw spiced veal sausage with preserved broccoli tops.

There are bigger bites too, including braised rabbit with tonnato (a creamy Italian condiment typically made with tuna, anchovies, lemon juice, olive oil and mayonnaise) and pork-rib meatballs. For something sweet, there’s orange and bay leaf sorbet and burnt ricotta pie with Amarena cherries.

The wines are mostly Italian, but with a pick of French, Spanish, Austrian and Australian drops. You can come in for a glass or two or choose a bottle to have there or take home.

The bright, light-filled space has industrial holophane lights that hang above the long marble-top bar; wine shelves and fridges; and two Lewis Miller paintings, one of an oyster and the other of a plate of sardines. Most of the enoteca’s 34 seats are at the bar, but you can take your place at tables to the side and back of the dining room, at the window overlooking Brunswick Street, or on the footpath.