Crust Opening, as told by Tatler
Crust Italian Opens In The Historic Woo Cheong Pawn Shop Building
Review by Gavin Yeung via Tatler
Taking over the former premises of Turin-style Italian restaurant La Piola, newly opened Crust Italian moves the cuisine 800km down the Italian coastline to Naples, where coffee culture, pastries and seafood reign supreme. An all-day dining destination that takes full advantage of a street-facing venue in the historic Woo Cheong Pawn Shop building, Crust Italian takes inspiration from 161-year-old Neapolitan cafe Gran Caffè Gambrinus during the day, offering hallmarks of southern Italian pasticcerias (coffee and pastry shop) like caffe sospeso (coffee drank standing at a bar), and pastries like sfoligatelle and pastiera.
Office workers looking for lunch on the go will appreciate the restaurant's takeout counter, offering Neapolitan street food like fried pizza and frittatine di pasta, essentially a nugget of pasta fried with béchamel sauce and other accoutrements. Moving into the evening hours, the dinner menu is anchored by mains like seafood scialatielli pasta, 14-hour ragu, and cod baked in a clay crust, with the decadent rhum au baba bringing up the rear. "At a time when travel has been almost impossible, we're looking forward to diners travelling to Naples via the elegant surrounds of the legendary Pawn building—and coming back time and again," says head chef Sergio Landi.
