It’s hard to miss Alpino restaurant in the heart of Cambridge, New Zealand, housed as it is in an imposing rose-brick building, once the town’s main post office.
One of several restaurants owned by Noel Cimadom, from northeastern Italy and his Kiwi wife, Kim, it serves traditional Italian dishes in a large dining room with an open wood and metal bar in the middle and vintage furnishings such as clerk wall lamps from its days as a post office dating from 1908. In a side room, a mattress with a chandelier hanging on the ceiling are elements of Noel’s childhood in Italy, we were told.
Dining here can be either alfresco along a pavement fronting the building, or in a lively, informal atmosphere inside, at polished wooden tables. We chose the latter and were seated beside a wine cellar created inside a cupboard and the welcome desk of friendly duty manager, Kaitlyn Heaslip.
While the quality of the food and drinks were the major factors in our enjoyment, so was a conversation with our genial server, Gerard Mooney, a former restaurant general manager in Auckland and owner of Jacket Beverage Co. which distributes local and imported beverages. Well informed about the local area, he described the atmosphere in Alpino’s as “relaxed dining” while my companion said it blended “the conviviality of a trattoria with the high-quality food of a ristorante.”
Two stiff cocktails kicked off our evening, limoncello margarita and a martini corretto (grappa, so rano limoncelo and coffee).
Glancing at the menu, it is obvious Chef Branislav Petkovic from Serbia, who has spent all of his seven years in New Zealand at Alpino, has created a diverse selection of dishes from oysters, prawns and calamari to lamb, tenderloin and cured meats, as well as pastas and pizzas of all kinds.
Being lovers of garlic bread, we ordered the pizza version with parmesan to start, which arrived as a small pile of slim cuts on a plate feathered with cheese and parsley. Under the heading ‘cicchetti’ meaning ‘small snack’ we also ordered talatta anchovies with charred ciabatta, the sweet and tender fish arriving glistening with olive oil in a small tin.
Next up was deep-fried calamari covered by a thin crust with a romesco sauce of ground almonds, breadcrumbs and garlic. Our octopus dish was a woven flesh pattern of purple, red and shades of green, its silver buttons decorated with capers and chili, so tasty my companion and I soaked up the flavored olive oil with slices of focaccia in the long-standing Italian tradition of ‘a scarpetta.’
Preferring pasta over pizza, my companion opted for the homemade spaghetti, cooked al dente and dripping with juices of slow-roasted duck, garlic, herbs and ricotta cheese. My seafood ravioli was a generous portion, the almond butter dressing sprinkled with toasted caramel, walnuts and spinach with chilli slices adding a touch of spiciness and color.
Our wine accompaniment was a dry rosé from Tuscany.
Cambridge is an astute location choice by Noel and Kim. A relaxed, charming town in North Island, it is memorable for its leafy streets, heritage buildings and antique shops. It's also the home of thoroughbred horse studs and has an interesting museum and a convenient stopover on the way to the Lord of the Rings Hobbiton movie set, a 30-minute drive away.
