Papa Gino's - old school Italian restaurant, Lygon St, Carlton

On Friday, E and I took Sylvia out for a movie and dinner.  It felt like an old fashioned kind of night.  The movie - Ernest and Celestine - was hand drawn and was wonderfully sweet and innocent compared to the fast-moving, knowing, in-your-face movies that often assault kids' senses.  Dinner was at a pizza and pasta restaurant in Lygon Street called Papa Gino's.  It has been there since long before my student days and still draws in the crowds and delivers great pizza.

There is something comforting for me about going to Papa Gino's.  I always went to Papa Gino's or neighbouring Il Gamberos for cheap pizza but Il Gamberos burnt down a few years back.  (It doesn't seem as cheap now at $11.50 for a small pizza or $9.50 for a margherita.  I guess it is better value to buy a big pizza for $20 if everyone can agree on one.)

I have been to Papa Gino's many times with housemates, with work colleagues, with family.  I don't think the menu has changed in the 2 decades I have been going there, except that they now have gluten free pizza bases.  I love to sit at the front, when ordering a takeaway pizza, and watch the guy making pizza.  I included the blurred photo of the portrait on the wall in the photo collage above because I have stared at it many times. (All the photos are from my phone and not the best quality.)

The interior doesn't seem to change either.  The dark brick walls with lots of curved archways and travel posters on the walls are very old school.  (1970s?)  They pack the tables in closely and most of them are filled.  The place bustled with chatter and laughter on a Friday night.  (The empty table in the above photo did not stay vacant for long.)

I always order the vegetarian pizza - tomato sauce, capsicum mushrooms, cheese and olives.  When I first started coming here it was quite a revelation to have a pizza that wasn't covered in melty cheese.  The cheese has a bit part here rather than being the star of the show.  If it hadn't been so long since I last visited I might have remembered that I like to have pineapple as an extra.  The base was quite thin and crisp without any of the sogginess that sometimes occurs when vegies are piled on a pizza.

I am not sure I have ever had pasta here but there are a few basic vegetarian options - tomato sauce, creamy mushroom sauce, and garlic and olive oil.  The other vegetarian options seem to be a green salad and chips.

I have thought that pizza might be a good option for Sylvia.  The tomato sauce in the magherita was slightly spicy but even so I had thought she might eat it.  But she is getting fussier with her pizza and no longer so happy to have any tomato and cheese topping.  She scraped off her topping and ate one quarter.  She was more interested in drinking apple juice, playing with loom bands and singing Let It Go.  Not that anyone noticed.  It was so noisy that no one would hear you scream in Papa Gino's!

After we had finished our meal, had Sylvia's leftover pizza packaged up to take home and paid the bill, we visited the Original Lolly Shop.  It amused me to see their chocolate pizzas.  This is a lolly shop so their chocolate pizza was a large disk of chocolate covered in 100s and 1000s and lots of lollies.  Cute idea.

As it was the end of the first week of the school holidays, I thought I would share a few photos of some of our activities.  Lots of parks, playdates and puddles as well as doing a swimming intensive for 5 days.  We have been taking it easy this weekend in readiness for another busy week ahead.

Papa Gino's
221 Lygon Street, Carlton
Tel: 03 9347 5758
www.papaginos.com.au