Aptly named, Capital is NoHo’s new centerpiece, Hobart’s latest eating asset and it's jolly good!
The former Marti Zucco’s has had a long awaited face lift. Actually it’s more like reconstructive surgery.
It’s the same owners, the same location, it’s still Italian and still popular, but it’s totally different.
A new design has optimised its best feature. The pizza takeaway that took up the prime real estate has been replaced. Now a large, open bar and restaurant seating, including some outside tables, takes pride of place on the street frontage.
The style is eclectic: white surfaces, exposed brick, filament lights, and a little bit of steam punk with the toilet’s cistern wall mounted above head height and its intestine copper pipe.
The new menu is voluminous (find it below). Most of the first page is dedicated to getting started and they offer antipasto by individual serve for $7.50 or $8.50 or in multiples, specially priced: any five is $36, eight is $56 or ten is $68. We chose:
Eggplant fritti with blue cheese and honey dressing
Baked Italian meatballs with Napoletana sauce
Arancini, three cheeses with mushroom
Pickled baby calamari and
Saganaki
The antipasto is off the scale popular. Wooden boards whizz around the restaurant topped with various selections of small plates of generous portions. Our choice of five plates between the two of us would have been sufficient for our meal. Except that we wanted to try as much as possible and we chose pizza as well. And dessert.
Antipasto encourages you to share your meal and communion is largely the reason why we eat out. And there’s plenty of popular choices to select from. Our favourite was the Italian meatballs, delectable, moist, melt-in-your-mouth pork in a rich sauce. The calamari was light and fresh and a good alternative to the heavier meatball option.
This Girl decided to make Capital the first time I would try a blue cheese sauce. Not being a blue cheese eater I found it strong and sour which probably makes it great for blue cheese lovers but something I won’t rush back to.
Saganaki is grilled cheese. It’s delicious, just make sure you eat it first while it’s still hot from the oven. The Other Girl loves arancini and rated Capital’s version.
There is a substantial selections of pizzas, mains, sides and desserts.
We chose the butternut pumpkin pizza with goat curd, baby pine nuts, rocket and caramelised onion, $22.50. It’s what This Girl likes to call, a ‘guilt-free’ pizza; a base that is neither dry nor dripping, scant use of cheese, lots of flavour and artfully presented.
We took most of the pizza home packed in two separate boxes thanks to Laura, our hostess with the mostess, because we really wanted dessert. Like, REALLY.
The Other Girl chose the Nutella pizza, $15.50. The sweet pizza has its fair share of critics but the combination of chocolate, Nutella, meringue, berries and mascarpone needed to be sampled. We found it a glorious gooey, rich chocolaty-ness. Definitely for the chocolate-lover and a big call for just one person. It came home with us in the pizza boxes too.
This Girl ordered the dessert special. The chocolate and orange pavlova with raspberry curd, pistachio praline, passionfruit mascarpone and wild blackberries, $14 was more than the sum of its parts. Laura had me with ‘chocolate and orange’. It sounds ‘busy’ but the component parts worked well together and made for the perfect sweet for a major sweet-tooth. The Two Girls declare that at Capital, they are not afraid of desserts.
It was This Girl’s second time to Capital. For lunch some weeks back I chose the fettuccini aglio olio, $24. Home made pasta is the best and the simplicity of garlic, herbs, chilli and breadcrumbs makes for a rustic meal both wholesome and light. My companion chose the lasagne and I didn't get a look in with a taste test. It was gone too quickly. But it looked awesome.
Back to our table attendant. We have to commend the awesome job done by Laura. Hobart has plenty of great wait staff but we particularly enjoyed Laura’s company. She was professional, humorous, personable, attentive and knowledgeable. She made a damn decent meal out an even more enjoyable experience.
We recommend Capital for a relaxed meal, equally good for families, couples or groups. Don’t go too crazy with the menu though, portions are big, and you can always go back.
It’s a bit confusing because Marti Zucco’s still has an internet presence but it’s not Capital. Find them on Facebook here instead.
You can find Capital –Antipasto+Pizze+Veno at 364 Elizabeth Street, North Hobart. Make a reservation on 6231 1101. Other Italian we like, in no particular order: Moto Vecchia Amici Restaurant Osteria The Italian Club
