Il Pergolato’s Bruschetta - a starter that is worthy of main-course-status
Located in the heart of the Inner West, the suburb of Leichhardt has long been associated with fine Italian cuisine. Trying to narrow down the best Italian restaurant along the famous Norton Street strip would be a nightmare (but the best sort of nightmare), as there are that many high quality places to indulge in pizza, pasta, fresh seafood, gelato, coffee, Italian sweets, etc. Instead, we’ve chosen to profile a restaurant which does an amazing starter – the delightfully simple Bruschetta.
One of the greatest things about Bruschetta is that it has always been open to interpretation – there are many different versions of this fairly simple starter. The foundations of toasted bread, garlic, olive oil, onion, fresh tomatoes and basil remain; however chefs can regularly switch it up by adding fetta, mozzarella, procured meats, and other herbs.
Il Pergolato, a quiet restaurant in Leichhardt which is tucked away from the bustling Norton Street, serves some of the best Bruschetta that I’ve ever come across. I had the Bruschetta strongly recommended to me time after time – and after one serve, it became readily apparent that the hype was deserved.
The first thing that strikes you about Il Pergolato is that it’s quiet. Eerily quiet, in fact. The restaurant premises really are tucked away on a street which is mostly all residential housing, and it’s quite clear that the lack of passing pedestrian traffic must hurt the business.
Still, Maria Crupi, the restaurant’s co-owner and licensee, says that it simply means that “you have to know about the food we serve, you have to find us”. Maria is a delightful woman in her 60s who has been running the restaurant since 1988, while her husband Alfio mans the kitchen.
When I ask her how much the restaurant landscape of Leichardt has changed in that time, she draws a breath and replies: “It’s changed a lot, so much. When we began there were not that many Italian restaurants, only a few. They all started to pop up later, in the late 90s and around [the year] 2000.”
We wait for our food in the strangely quiet restaurant; I’m taken by the restaurant’s interior decoration: one wall is covered with a large al fresco painting of an Italian-looking river, framed photos of the old country, red, white and green lettering, etc. It borders on tacky but it really just seems like it hasn’t had much of a makeover since Il Pergolato began; it feels like we’re dining in Aussie Bob Trimbole’s restaurant from Underbelly 2.
We are still waiting, which is odd seeing as there are only two other tables, who don’t seem to have ordered yet. Then, Maria brings out a large platter of Bruschetta, which is all we’re eating tonight – I’ve tried the other food here and it was nice, but the Bruschetta is its strength.
It’s most definitely worth the wait – the balance of flavour in the mix of tomatoes, basil, herbs and olive oil is perfected, there isn’t too much salt, or too much oil – everything just works. A generous serving of this perfected mix sits atop a large piece of toasted garlic bread, which is crusty but still soft enough on the inside.
Everything just tastes so fresh – and it is, which is why we had to wait a little bit longer. See while other restaurants have a pre-made refrigerated Bruschetta mix which they serve when ordered, Il Pergolato make everything fresh.
Maria is reluctant to give away any secrets, but says the secret to their Bruschetta is the freshness of their ingredients.
“The basil, chilli, oregano, all of our herbs, are grown in our herb garden out the back. The tomatoes are freshly prepared, this is why it takes a bit longer,” says Maria.
It is well worth the wait.
Restaurant name: Il Pergolato
Address:71 Renwick St, Leichhardt.
Menu recommendation: Bruschetta. Pizza is good too, as is seafood risotto – but the Bruschetta is the best.
All You Can Eat Tip: they make their own chilli oil with fresh produce from their garden, it adds a nice bit of kick to the Bruschetta – but beware, it’s very strong.
Pictured: homemade chilli oil
