Day trips around the lake

Counter Lunch at Fredeli Delicatessen, Warners Bay.  .  http://www.hunterhunter.com.au/newcastle/fredeli
Across the road from the waterfront at Warners Bay.  (Our favorite little deli), 2/472 The Esplanade, Warners Bay  
Phone: (02) 4023 5496

     Lakeside lovers of Italian food and fare, rejoice.

Feast your eyes and your stomach on Fredeli Friday’s, right on the Warners Bay Esplanade. By day, Fredeli, is stocked, almost to the rafters, with an assortment of traditional and imported Italian products, including meat, cheese, and sauces, local smallgoods, such as olive oil and honey, plus dried pasta, muesli, coffee and much more. By night, on Fridays, Fredeli hosts a small crowd of in-the-know Novocastrians who’ve come to experience a three-course set menu based on authentic Italian recipes. 

Watch from the window as people pass by, boats moor just off the shoreline, and the smell of fair-dinkum Italian food wafts from behind the deli counter. It’s enough to inspire real or imagined memories of warm Italian evenings sipping wine.

The space is small (it is the shop front of a deli, after all), so bookings are essential, but if you time it right, especially over the summer months, you’ll catch one of our region’s most beautiful sunsets blazing orange, purple and gold behind Mount Vincent as you dine. A few high tables and stools are brought in and assembled in front of a glass deli counter stocked with many fabulous meats and cheese next to a series of shelves stacked full of delicious looking treats to please the palates of most gastronomes from Lake Mac and beyond.

Growing up on the family farm in Italy, much of his life revolved around quality, hand-made food that was full of flavour, whether it be baking breads, curing meats or growing vegetables. 
Each Friday evening Frederico is opening the doors to his deli to a lucky few who book in for Fredeli Friday’s. Cost is between $45 -$55 depending what’s on the menu but always expect traditional Italian dishes plus antipasto, cheese, charcuterie boards, bread and of course it’s BYO.