The latest venture by the Trimboli Group (owners of Italian & Sons, Mezzalira and Da Rosario), is new wine bar Bacaro in Braddon. Bacaro is an Italian term for a traditional Venetian wine bar. Located directly behind Italian & Sons on Lonsdale Street, the entry is via a small alleyway about one shop down from Italian & Sons. Down the alleyway and around the corner, I spotted the glass door to Bacaro and the bar lit up inside.
The wine list is written up in chalk on the blackboard to the side of the bar. It’s also provided to the table in a leather bound menu. My friends tell me it’s all Italian wine and beer, and you’re looking at around $11-$15 a glass.
The marble top bar takes up most of the space in this small wine bar. Waiters are dressed elegantly in white dinner jackets, black bow ties and black pants bringing a classic charm back to Canberra.
A gently crackling woodfire is located towards the entrance so it can get a little smokey inside. The fit out is simple and mostly black letting the white marble bar shine as the main feature. Good Food states that the idea of Bacaro is to act as a waiting area for those wanting to dine at the Italian & Sons restaurant, hence you can also see straight through to the restaurant from the Bacaro bar.
I liked the below lighting fixture that cast a soft warm glow into a dark corner of the wine bar. Candles and fresh flowers on each table provides a soft intimacy and I think is an attractive way to dress up the table. People also generally look more flattering via candlelight so that’s a win.
Italian beers and several bottles of red were ordered. Happy to report that there are no complaints with my mojito mocktail which some places can’t seem to get right.
We noticed the meat slicer sitting on the bar with a thick chunk of prosciutto ready to be sliced.
The menu is mainly made up of various sharing plates with a selection of cured meats, sides, one pizza and one pasta dish. It may look like a short menu at first, but there’s actually a lot of variety and there were so many dishes I wanted to try. 
A serve of San Daniele prosciutto was ordered ($8) which came out on a wooden plank with broadbean pesto and gnocco fritto. The generous portion of prosciutto is delicious and oh so moreish. Gnocco fritto are like pillows of fluffy fried dough puffs – light and airy. The broadbean pesto mixed with avocado is fresh and a zesty contrast to the prosciutto. For only $8, I was really impressed with the value I received.
Sharing the wood fired oven with Italian & Sons, the wood baked focaccia ($8) with rosemary and sea salt served with rosemary-infused olive oil is a must-try. The chunky focaccia is homely comfort food at its finest. So simple and it beats your regular garlic bread any day. You’re allowed to lick your fingers after this!
Cheese lovers will be happy to find that there is a separate menu entirely for Bacaro’s cheese selection. Cheeses are split into four categories – blue, white washed rind, semi hard and hard. Descriptions of each type of cheese are listed to help cheese noobs, like me, understand the flavours and notes that can be expected. Being more of a visual creature, I thought the pictures of which animal’s milk was used was handy. Prices for cheese are $17 for one, $28 for two and $37 for three. 
My friends ordered the one cheese to try out (I forgot which one but it was one of the soft white washed rind cheeses). This came served with crackers, walnuts, pistachios, dried currants and a wedge of a sweet fruity paste (don’t think it was quince) mixed with nuts. We found it was quite expensive for a small wedge of cheese.
The Clarence River gamberetti with lemon and citrus salt ($10) are small prawns served in their shell and fried until crispy. Seasoned with citrus salt, I squeezed a bit of lemon juice over the top. Nice and crunchy. I couldn’t help but leave the prawn heads on my plate. I just couldn’t eat the little bug eyes.
I simply had to order a pizza, baked in the wood fired oven, since I didn’t get to try it during a previous visit to Italian & Sons. There seemed to only be one pizza on the menu – the diavolo with salami and chilli, but the margherita con bufala ($24) was brought out instead. I later noticed that this was written up on the blackboard perhaps as a special. The margherita with buffalo cheese still looked mouth watering and came in four large quarter slices. I sliced each quarter into half so everyone at the table could have a taste. A very thin pizza base with a puffed crust, this was pure bliss. With only tomato and buffalo cheese on this pizza, Bacaro/Italian & Sons have effortlessly created a perfect balance of flavours. One of the best margheritas I’ve had outside of Italy. Due to the thin pizza base, it’s not as carb heavy as other pizzas and sits nicely in the stomach. It may not be for everyone, I know my partner would prefer something meaty on his pizza, but it’s simple and classic done well.
Everyone at the table liked the pizza so much, that we ordered two more for the second round of food! Initially two more margheritas and another serve of prosciutto, when one of the waiters suggested we add the prosciutto to the margherita. Why not? There seemed to be some confusion with the order as we needed to remind staff that we had another pizza coming. Although I did enjoy this, there didn’t seem to be as much prosciutto as when we ordered it separately. I’m not sure how much this cost as these were two separate items put together. I am looking forward to having more prosciutto on its own with the gnocco fritto and broadbean pesto.
We asked our waiter whether there was a dish that we should be ordering. With no hesitation, he immediately stated that the tomato, eggplant and basil parmigiana ($18) is a must try. So that’s what we ordered. Served still sizzling in a small iron pan, this was utterly magnificent. The thinly sliced eggplant had been layered with plenty of melted stringy cheese and tomato mixed throughout. Another example of a simple dish done extremely well. I can see why this is a must try dish now. The texture is soft and melts in your mouth with surprisingly no bitter notes of eggplant. Some of my friends that do not like eggplant, and normally wouldn’t order an eggplant dish, thought it was a great dish too. Highly recommended!
We were asked whether we wanted the dolci (dessert) or cheese menus to finish off the night. The others were keen to try more cheeses and ordered a platter of four cheeses (not sure how much this was) which were accompanied by apple sauce, more dried nuts and fruit and thin wafer-like crackers on a separate plate.
The dolci (dessert) menu has four of the Italian & Sons favourites. As I missed out on the tiramisu ($16) last time, I ordered that. I’m sounding like a broken record, but again this was superb! A very well balanced combination of perfectly soaked and moist lady fingers with thick creamy mascarpone. Since I don’t drink alcohol, I loved the fact that there wasn’t an overwhelming amount of liquor in it. It was almost indistinguishable. Almost. There’s a lot more sugar in this than I usually put in when I make tiramisu, but it was still dangerously delectable.
Bacaro can do no wrong with its menu, bringing across the popular small sharing plates from Italian & Sons. I like the fact that there are really only two main course options (pizza and pasta), with the rest being smaller sharing plates. It means you can try more things on the menu! The food is noticeably fresh and high quality ingredients are used which really makes a difference. Simple and authentic Italian fare at its best. Bacaro is first, and foremost, a wine bar but I cannot comment on that. My friends did drink 5 bottles of Pinot Noir when I left them to have an early night before attending the Anzac Day Dawn Service the next morning, so that should give you an indication that the wine is good.
Service is professional and polite at all times. As more friends joined our small table on the night, additional plates, cutlery and linen napkins were brought out without us having to request it. However, we had to seek attention for water refills a few times. All waiters seem to be Italian and there’s something about the Italian accent that makes you feel like you’re in Italy enjoying fabulous food with friends.
As mentioned above, the wine bar is small and cosy. As our group got bigger, there were literally no chairs left that could be provided for everyone to sit on, so half of the group stood at the bar, while the other half stayed at the table. Consequently, I wouldn’t recommend large groups try Bacaro. It’s best for groups of up to four. No bookings are accepted so you just need to walk in and try your luck.
The Italian & Sons Bacaro is open Monday to Saturday nights from about 5.30pm (they’re still unsure of the opening time) for dinner, vino or late night snacks. The perfect place to hide away in, just in time for winter.
Foodgasm 9/10
Value for money 8/10
Service 8/10
FPJ score 25/30
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