Ciuccio Café And Wine Store

The quaint Ciuccio Café and Wine Store tucked away at the end of Gertrude Street in Fitzroy is adorable and filled with a bubbly buzz. Next to the Ciuccio restaurant, it is a more relaxed vibe on the Mediterranean cuisine.

37-year-old Fabio Candolo fitted us into his busy schedule of working in the café and meeting with his chefs. Having taken over the Café Deli next to his restaurant in September 2015 it reopened as Ciuccio Café in late October 2015. There is still a lot more potential for this large space Fabio told us as he gave us a tour of the café and the restaurant. The tour included the front seating room with all the wines available, the back seating room and courtyard of the café. Then we were shown the restaurant, which included the kitchen where diners can watch their food being made, the main seating room and a few extra rooms upstairs to be renovated for customers in the near future.

Born in Sicily, Italy, Fabio spoke no English when moving to Melbourne 5 years ago. Working all over the world as restaurant managers and front of house staff, he built the dream to build his own. Pulling inspiration from Spain and from London, Fabio shows his knowledge of food and the food industry.

With a whole revamp of the menu of the previous Café Deli, Fabio wanted to offer a wider range of menu options with more fresh produce. Expanding the menu to include more than just salads and sandwiches. Fabio wanted consistency, to have good coffee and food constantly to increase the foot traffic. He also wanted to keep the Mediterranean vibe of his restaurant next door.

With the large café menu, it was hard to choose with breakfast being served from 8am till 3pm and lunch starting at 11:30 till 3pm! I opted from the lunch menu, the Smoked Ocean Trout and Hash. This included asparagus, peas, crème fraîche and a soft-boiled egg. This was fresh and tasty. Perfect for sitting in the sunshine out front of the café. The menu ranges from gourmet sandwiches, pasta, empanadas, all the breakfast favourites and a salad menu ever changing!

Fabio uses 5 main chefs across the restaurant and the café. Including a breakfast chef and suis chefs. This does not include the chef de partie. Currently his pasta/pastry chef is experimenting with gnocchi, which is aimed to be on the menu this week.

With the café/wine store already holding a liquor license, Fabio wanted to include wines people would love and not be able to get on the mainstream market. Organic and biodynamic wines which are full of flavour with no chemicals. Fabio told us how he had just received a case of wine from Italy where only 150 bottles were made. Explaining the old techniques of using the orange peel to ferment the wine, Fabio’s knowledge of wine was evident. This year he plans on doing his 2nd level wine course after completing many previous wine courses. Another reason for opening the wine store was so people could be more educated on wines. Fabio has included a BYO option on Wednesdays and Thursdays for his restaurant so his diners can “be able to drink nice wine, without the price.”

Fabio wants the restaurant and café to be more word of mouth and foot traffic rather than social media. Understanding the competitiveness of the industry, Fabio says they do still have social media accounts to aid this.

For now, Fabio and his life and business partner Carrie plan to focus more on the renovations for the restaurant. Planning on turning it more into a bar than restaurant. Fabio wants people to walk past and say, “Hey that’s a bar!” and be able to “educate more people on wines.”

Ciuccio Café And Wine Store
13/15 Gertrude Street, Fitzroy
casaciuccio.com.au