There is a restaurant in Fremantle called Capri. It turns 70 this year and doesn’t look like it’ll be closing any time soon. Capri is properly iconic and is as famous for its longevity as it is its crowd-pleasing Italian cooking. (Pasta! Fried seafood! Free soup and bread with mains!) Freo is lucky to have it.
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Threecoins & Sons, while barely six months old, is cut from a similar old-school gingham tablecloth as Capri. Its windows are dressed in lace. Its awning is red and white. Enthusiastic waitstaff uphold the exuberant traditions of Italianate hospitality. Their service style is a joyous throwback to the Aus-talian restaurants of yesteryear, as is a menu where gnocchi, arrancini, grilled half-chicken and other favourites rule. In an era where eaters crave trends and the newfangled, cooking well-known dishes can be a dicey prospect. How do you, after all, improve on the classics? In the case of Threecoins’ head chef duo of Frank Trequattrini and Chris Caravella (fun fact: Caravella’s family owns Capri) you don’t. Instead, you use modern-day kitchen skills to make these classics the finest versions of themselves. It’s an approach that’s paying real dividends.
Fritto misto is superbly crunchy, the fried seafood – baby sardines, whitebait, squid – cloaked in a blend of fine semola and freshly milled flour from Northbridge bakery, Miller & Baker. The kitchen’s shiny new Moretti Forni deck oven yields splendid topped pinsa, Rome’s famous oval-shaped flatbread. (The descriptor flatbread, in this case, feels wrong: Threecoins’ pinsa stretches upwards like a topographer’s study aid.)
The acqua pazza at Threecoins & Sons.
Meaty goldband snapper in acqua pazza is a joy to eat, not least because the acqua pazza combines fish stock with individually juiced tomato, celery, carrot, ginger and lemongrass to winning effect. True, ginger and lemongrass don’t usually feature in crazy water (the English translation of acqua pazza), but the finished dish is unquestionably crazy delicious. Golden cricket balls of rice, sugo and eggplant – a nod to Sicily’s legendary pasta alla Norma – make a compelling argument that the once-passé arancini is mounting a comeback. Saucy house-made pastas including tagliatelle in a sweetly spiced wagyu ragù are pure comfort.
Admittedly, Threecoins & Sons isn’t exactly new. For almost a decade, it operated as Threecoins, a BYO-friendly trattoria that faithfully served its community before its October makeover. Restaurants like the old Threecoins might be a dying breed, but by rebadging and embracing those neighbourhood restaurant ideals – big portions, wine lists with wallet-friendly mark-ups – Threecoins & Sons is doing its part in keeping the dream alive. Mount Lawley (and Perth) is lucky to have it.
