318 South Terrace, South Fremantle
Ph: 0422 625 423
www.southfreocontinental.com.au
Keeping it in the Family
A true Italian-styled family business, South Freo Continental has been serving the Fremantle community for over 50 years. In 1971, Nino and Carmela Noto started the business in Hampton Road as Hampton Fruit Market. In 1974, it moved to its current site on South Terrace as a Four Square supermarket, becoming Foodland, then an IGA. In 2016, the IGA was sold and renamed to Calogero’s 6162 which closed in January 2020.
The current owner, still part of the original family initially re-opened as café and gourmet grocer in November 2020 in the midst of COVID. South Freo Continental was born. Despite the difficulties of dealing with social distancing and mask-wearing amid the COVID pandemic, the business continued to grow and as the demand increased, the gourmet grocer part of the business reduced, and the number of tables and chairs grew to its current state.
In October 2023, the owners started serving pizza alfresco and as the name implies, armed with an old-style wood-fired oven, they started cooking pizzas alfresco under cover at the front of the café, something you would normally see in the piazzas of Italy. Chef Antonio from Catania, Sicily is a master and full of personality. The premises had to temporarily close from June 2024 and has since reopened.
Since his return, Antonio is once again making his wonderful pizzas. The space is a café by day and a pizzeria by night, with further additions in the pipeline. They have a liquor license pending and plans to expand, and upgrade the alfresco area which will also see the return of the pizza alfresco.
We sampled a couple of Antonio’s pizzas and thoroughly enjoyed the fresh flavours of the San Daniele: topped with San Daniele prosciutto, buffalo mozzarella, rocket, cherry tomatoes, fresh basil, parmesan and EVOO on a crust that had a perfect texture to complement the toppings. The recipe is a secret.
But the winner was The Bronte, topped with fior de latte, cherry tomatoes, tasty mortadella, cream di pistachio, buffalo mozzarella, pistachios and shaved parmesan. This was a delicious combination of flavours. The inclusion of pistachios was an unusual touch and worked really well with the savoury mortadella, creamy buffalo mozzarella, salty parmesan and tart, sweet cherry tomatoes.
The atmosphere is typically Italian, with plenty of joking and traditional Sicilian banter going on between the various family members, along with Antonio’s fiery attitude with lots of yelling and laughter coming from the kitchen. Pizza is available on Friday to Monday inclusive, with plans to open more nights. The café is open seven days a week for breakfast, lunch, brunch, coffee and cake, gelato and snacks.
By Georgina Goss
