Newly opened Coppa Spuntino builds on the success of its highly rated sibling establishments, Public and Red Hook, to bring a modern Italian cuisine in a casual yet elegant venue in the inner city.
Located on Creek Street, Coppa is designed in the form of a long, narrow space with the bar down one side and seating down the other side. There is also seating along the bar and outside. On a passing glance it may appear as just a bar with its sleek black and white fitout and tiled floor, although one might notice the quaint, mosaic-tiled pizza oven on the rear wall, but Coppa is hiding a full food menu.
The food menu caters to any occasion and consists of a range of small Italian share plates – spuntino, charcuterie, pizzas, cheeses, main dishes and desserts. Dishes of note include the burrata, octopus, truffled gnocchi and porchetta.
On this visit I ordered the octopus, served with chorizo and potato in the form of a salad. The flavours of tender, well-cooked octopus combined well with the subtle spice and acidity of the chorizo and balanced out by the potato and leaves. A great starting dish and perfect for sharing with the octopus cut up into mouthful sized pieces.
This was followed by the veal cotoletta with parmesan and rocket and a side of green beans with spinach and goats cheese. The herb crumbing of the cotoletta was perfect with the just the right amount of crunch and evenly wrapped around the tender veal cutlet. The parmesan-topped rocket salad was a nice touch on the side. The green beans were an excellent side dish with the slowly melting goats cheese adding some welcomed rich flavours.
Dessert was an interesting dish, rosemary panna cotta with raspberries and sweet crumbs. Rosemary is a welcomed changed over the usual vanilla bean with its refreshing, light floral flavours.
Service was great and was what was to be expected of a bar-style venue.
Coppa Spuntino brings some good value, fine dining-quality dishes in a relaxing, casual, but still classy atmosphere to the inner city, mirroring what can be found at its sister restaurants.