MARIO’S

303 Brunswick Street
Fitzroy, Victoria
03 9417 3343

Before I talk about Mario’s I have to talk about a cook named Graham Kerr. A circuitous route but it will become apparent.

Kerr was a Pom who washed up in the New Zealand Air Force as a cook. He became the original TV chef.

From memory his first TV cooking show was called Cooking with Kerr. Ostentatiously, he pronounced his name as in “care”.

I mention Graham Kerr while heading into a review of Mario’s because Mr. Kerr introduced heaps of us to exotic dishes and, in New Zealand to a thing called chicken livers.

Kerr was a friend of a friend of mine and he came to Bell Block, near hometown New Plymouth, New Zealand, and was shocked to see that this producer of plump chickens for roasting was throwing away internal offal like chicken livers. The offal was actually being fed to a neighbouring farmer’s pigs.

Kerr snared those livers and started selling chicken liver pate for the first time in that country.

That memory has hit me several times recently. My manager ordered chicken livers at the stylish Ciccia Bomba recently. And raved about them.

I was impressed because her dinner date was a bloke who owns an Adelaide restaurant called George’s. And it is an award winner. He tasted the livers and thought they were fantastic.

So I went there and can also vouch for them. But I was then told about Mario’s – a place that has not had an empty seat in seventeen years.

To be honest, I have walked past Mario’s several times and have not gone in because it has been so busy.

Managed to crack the bench by the window on Sunday and ordered a late brunch of chicken livers on a thick slice of barbecued sourdough bread. The bread alone would have been satisfying.

At Mario’s the livers are cooked in red wine with a touch of sage and served with roasted red onion and garlic spinach.

They were plump and melt-in-the mouth tender. But rich and filling. Only order an entree at $13.50.

It’s an extraordinary place in Brunswick Street. The owner, Mario Macaroni – yep, that’s his real name -- has managed to maintain the original goal of “bottom end but better than café dishes” and keep the prices reasonable with good cheap coffee.

There is no dish touching twenty dollars. Even a huge risotto with prawns, lemongrass, lime, coriander, fresh tomato and snow peas is only $19.50.

You can sit there and watch the eclectic passing parade that reminds you that you are in Fitzroy.

Another reminder that this is foodie and night owl territory big time is the sign on a sandwich board next door:

“Breakfast ‘ til 6p.m.”

August 29, 2003