Peter De Marco has been involved in some of Adelaide’s most popular dining spots over the past two decades, from Pizza e Mozzarella Bar and Borsa to CBD favourite Chicken & Pig. De Marco also part-owns Chicco Palms in Brooklyn Park and Valentino’s in the city.
But on Friday, he opened his first solo venture: Super Americano. It’s a casual brunch spot by day and a restaurant by night, on busy Glen Osmond Road in Frewville.
He’s serving homestyle Italian eats including baccala (a dried salted cod dish that tastes much better than it sounds); Neapolitan-style pizza and – De Marco’s passion project – a four-day proved and woodfired bread.
“The bread is the star,” De Marco tells Broadsheet. “It’s developed longer than a pizza – four days – and I’m using a wholemeal flour which still has the germ intact. We’ll serve that warm, wrapped up in a basket, and I want to be generous with it and give people a little brown bag, so that they can take whatever they don’t eat back home.”
The idea of the bread, De Marco says, is to rip it up, dunk and swipe it through everything from gooey poached eggs at breakfast to Calabrian braised oxtail at dinner. It’ll also be used for a panino stuffed with six-hour baked beef ribs, Russian salad and a salsa-verde-style sauce.
Seasonal dishes (and wines by the glass) are scrawled on chalkboards and might include a selection like garfish crudo; Venetian-spiced pickled octopus with agrodolce salad; and a “poor man’s fritto misto” made with seasonal vegetables. High-quality baccala might come in a tomato-based stew or fried in croquettes. Then there’s De Marco’s signature pizzas, fired in a Stefano Ferrara oven and topped with tinned yellow tomatoes.
Pantry items – think Petra flour, San Marzano tomatoes, anchovies and a curated selection of Italian wines from regions including Calabria, Sicily and Sardinia – are available to purchase. You can also pick up the restaurant’s baccala, either dried or reconstituted, to use at home.
An Axiom-designed fit-out sees earthy warm interiors and an open kitchen.
“I just want to make it easy for people,” he says. “There are no set rules. Maybe grab a pizza, a baccala, a burrata … a few different things to share, whatever you feel like, and just enjoy it.”
Super Americano
209 Glen Osmond Road, Frewville
(08) 7134 1983
Hours:
Tue & Wed 8am–3pm
Thur to Sat 8am–late
Sun closed
