Scoozi Ristorante

By EWAN McDONALD for viva

The domestic goddess didn't feel like cooking. Nor did I (the DG will point out that it would be unusual if I did). You know how it is after a long day in a high-stress job, then battling the city traffic to get home (well, that's the DG. I walk to work and don't even try to kid myself that reviewing restaurants is nerve-racking employment).

In short, it was one of those nights where we just couldn't be bothered going anywhere flash: just a pasta and a glass of wine. A curry and a beer. Fish and chips. No fuss. A neighbourhood cafe, five chairs, no waiting.

Just about every suburb in Auckland has one, or more, now. Except the fish and chips. Why is it, in a city that has two harbours, trawlers and what-have-you parked at every wharf, and fish markets up the wazoo, you can't get decent fish and chips, not too greasy, proper thick, straight-cut chips and moist, fresh fish in crisp batter at a price that you don't have to take out a second mortgage for?

By now you should be getting the picture, which was about as placid as a Jackson Pollock landscape, when we lobbed at Scoozi in search of the aforementioned pasta and wine.

Scoozi opened last year in one of those Jervois Rd shops which has been home to a number of attempts to strike the right formula for a cafe in a neighbourhood whose socio-economic strata (and wallet size) runs from the matrons of the northern slopes and their spouses, just in off the yacht, dahling, to the younger, hipper and more self-
regarding, and us, who are probably middle-everything.

To date, it's been conspicuously more successful than anything previously. We got a table by the door at 7pm early in the week; within half an hour the place was packed. Not an uncommon event, that.

The young and enthusiastic owners, Angelo and Stephanie Georgalli, and their head chef, Fraser McDonald, serve three menus each day - breakfast, the traditional offerings from muesli to benedicts and hashes; lunch, slightly more substantial with pastas, pizzas and hot sandwiches; and dinner.

It's a straightforward Italian cafe list that takes all the previously mentioned dishes and piles on full chicken, fish and meat dishes as well as desserts. Because all this is not hard enough work, there is another menu for weekend brunch. And Angelo tells us they're getting into takeouts, too.

We started with bruschetta, with olive oil, tomato, garlic and basil, and a plate of mussels, steamed with tomato and not quite enough garlic. Rigatoni with sundried tomatoes, Italian sausage, goat's feta and pesto was as rustic and gutsy as it sounds; fettuccelle de pollo (a fettuccine-like pasta with smoked chicken, red pepper, mushrooms, pepper and cream) was packed with flavour but some of the pasta strands were glued together in unappetising lumps.

Pity, but it's the kind of thing that you forgive in your neighbourhood restaurant, because it's always there when you don't feel like cooking.

Open: Tuesday to Friday, 8am-10.30pm, weekends 9am-10.30pm

Owners: Angelo and Stephanie Georgalli

Head Chef: Fraser McDonald (No relation)

Food: Italian Cafe

On the Menu: Fegato - panfried chicken livers with bacon, shallots, red wine and wholegrain mustard with toasted ciabatta $15.50; Fettuccelle de pollo - pasta with smoked chicken, red pepper, mushrooms, pesto and cream $18.50; Woodfired chicken breast stuffed with spinach, ricotta and pinenuts on a mushroom risotto $25.50

Vegetarian: Lots of pizza and pasta

Wine: Smallish selection from Italy and NZ; even grappa for the brave (or foolish)

Noise: Conversazione

Bottom line: Tiny, buzzy, Scoozi has captured the hearts and wallets of Herne Bay in just a few months. From morning coffee to weekend brunch or dinner, locals crowd the little shop for straightforward Italian food prepared by an enthusiastic young staff. It beats cooking at home.

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