“The trouble with eating Italian food," said the film director George Miller, "is that five or six days later you’re hungry again.”
This quote came to mind about an hour into our lunch at Damò, a new Italian cafe and restaurant that's opened this summer in the Ashley Road space once occupied by Scalini and Angkor Soul.
Both those restaurants found this Altrincham end of Ashley Road a challenge, but the more reasons for diners to depart the Market Quarter and descend on this part of the town centre, the better.
That said, with its bold focus on breakfast, brunch and lunch, Damò had to be good.
And dammit, it really was.
Opened by three young brothers - chef Farid Faisal, 28, Amro, 25, and Adam, 19 - it pledges something different from anything else currently on offer in the town, with a menu heavily influenced by the food of their home city of Ancona on Italy's Adriatic coast.
Breakfast centres on a range of savoury croissants filled with fried, scrambled or poached egg, plus anything from smoked salmon to smoked Provola cheese. You can opt for something closer to an English breakfast, such as crushed avocado on sourdough, granola or protein cacao porridge, and the coffee is excellent.
From 12 noon Damò switches into brunch mode, which is what we sampled. These fall into two main categories - homemade pasta and Pinsa Romana, a traditional Italian flatbread that's lighter and crispier than pizza.
We tried the lamb pappardelle, a deep, meaty dish which owed its taste and texture not just to the homemade pasta, but to the mixture of lamb shoulder and leg which Amro told me was first marinated for a day before being slow-cooked for four hours. Eye-wateringly delicious.
Our pinsa was topped with a liberal amount of smoked salmon, burrata (Italian cheese made from mozzarella and cream), pickled red onions and some mixed leaves. Quite different from pizza, it's in some ways more satisfying and those looking for a light lunch could probably be quite happy to share one between two.
Accompanying those main dishes was a Carpaccio Di Manzo, one of three small plate alternatives, with an almost miraculously tender beef fillet.
Finishing off our brunch/lunch - and this is probably when the Miller quote sprang to mind - was a Tortino Al Cioccolato (chocolate fondant) and a Millefoglie, with lashings of fresh fruit and Chantilly cream on a caramelised puff pastry bed.
Hold the dough balls - this is real Italian food, flawlessly executed.
The word ‘Damò’ is Roman slang for something you've been waiting a long time to happen.
Well the Faisal brothers seem to have used the time learning how to open a wonderful neighbourhood restaurant. Lucky old Altrincham.
Damò, 20 Ashley Rd, Altrincham WA14 2DW. Bookings: Call 0161 943 0894 or visit damofood.co.uk
