Canteen Pizza

Canteen Pizza is the perfect place to settle in for the day if you find yourself in Cottesloe Beach. An inviting haven of white walls and furniture; blond timber; and polished concrete, the pizzeria from the Il Lido crew was built for maximum fun in the sun.

While much of the interest in Canteen Pizza has revolved around this connection, picky eaters could make a strong argument for the co-star showing-up the headliner. The $25 market fish might just be the biggest bargain on the western seaboard. Then there’s the porchetta (wood-roasted pork) dished out in portions for one, two or four and – during lunch hours – as a porchetta “panini” with pieces of pig tucked into a pita pocket-like bun made with the same dough as the pizza.

So about those pies. Fashioned out of long-fermented dough, these malleable Naples-style specimens are an important addition to the Perth pizza scene. The kitchen has stocked its pizza bench with care: the buffalo mozzarella is a DOP cheese imported from Campania; Sydney cheesemakers par excellence Vannella make the fior di latte, the cow’s-milk equivalent of the mozzarella. Talented pizzaiolo Vincenzo Basco is overseeing things.

Tying everything together is a thrilling wine list assembled by venue manager Mark Rutter. Like he writes on the back of the single-sided A4 page: “This list is dedicated to little people doing big things.” So, expect plenty of low-intervention (read: “natural”) wines from Australia and Italy, served by the bottle, half-litre, glass (150 millilitres) and smaller, designated-driver-appropriate 100-millilitre pour.