CAPRI

As kids we weren’t taken to the inevitable Chinese restaurant that could be found in every suburb but to Italian and Yugoslav restaurants in Northbridge (then called North Perth) and Fremantle (then and now called Freo). One of the meals that Susan and I both remember having was chicken and spaghetti bolognese. One of those restaurants still exists – the Capri in Fremantle. We’ve been trying to visit for months but they only take a limited number of bookings and otherwise you have to either eat at 5pm to guarantee a table or hang around outside in the wind or the sun or the rain waiting for some replete punter to leave. Finally, we braved an early dinner.

I suspect the menu hasn’t changed since we used to go their 50 odd years ago although I’m sure in the old days, you only got a quarter of a chicken, not the half they serve up these days. You also get free bread and soup with every main course. They still serve veal alla marsala and that was one of the courses I would serve up in the 1970s on the rare nights I was brave enough to hold a dinner party.

There was an exhibition about the Italian women who migrated to Perth in the 1950s at the Maritime Museum recently and one of the panels was about Maria Pizzale. She arrived in 1957 after marrying her childhood sweetheart whose father had taken over the Capri in the 1950s. The restaurant has remained in the family’s hands providing meals and comfort to visitors over the decades.