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Yes, Michael Blamey from St Kilda Today shot John Lethlean face on and possible Matt Preston in the back of the head (while Don Neil from At My Table looks on). I bought to an end of a very bloggy week of two events where food bloggers met. This second event was a media night at St Kilda’s Pizza e Birra.

The interesting thing was that Catherine Donnelley from Brag PR targeted food bloggers. I asked her about this and she said:

“We definitely target bloggers and I’m currently trying to broaden our list and discover who the regular, passionate bloggers are. I think we do take quite a niche approach as we read each blog and try to invite those we think would be interested in the experience or in building a relationship with Mauro. We try to make it as relevant and targeted as possible to suit the content and interests of the blog.

“I know Mauro is very interested in the immediacy of the internet, the rise of online food writing, the direct connection online journalism (esp. bloggers) has with its audience and how this all correlates with the spontaneity of food culture. All of Mauro’s ventures aim to provide exceptional yet very accessible and personable experiences, which is what food bloggers also offer.

We also think more and more people are logging onto food blogs, not just for a “grassroots” opinion, but because the content is passionate and always readily available, no matter what time of day it is.”

So there we have it.

Food fascist

When the hell am I going to grow up and stop making mafia references in blog posts about pizza?

Popularity: 15% [?]

Who knows the fate of Tony Soprano? I know the fate of my old friend, Termini an Italian restaurant at the old St Kilda train station on Fitzroy St. Bumped off, dead, caput.I - my family - was there at the beginning when it was part of the Fitzroy Street tram terminal building site. Then you needed a key to pop around the corner to the loo.It offered well executed and reasonably priced Italian food. The vine leaves stuffed with ricotta and fried in butter with sage leaves was a perennial favourite, as was the fish stew. I also enjoyed the set lunches - two courses and a glass of wine - that seven years ago were $15.Now that’s all gone. Restaurateur Mauro Marcucci bought out his other partners in the joint. He’s reinvented the space as Pizza e Birra, a concept he honed in Sydney’s Surry Hills.He’s decluttered the room, added contemporary graphic twists and opened-up the kitchen which now features a wood fired oven. Essentially the room remains the same with shelves of wine and produce and the same large distressed mirror as features of the room.Does it work? Yes. It’s not a bad reincarnation. Pizza e Birra (60a Fitzroy St, St Kilda, Vic 3182 +61 3 9537 3465) is casual with a short wine list of interesting local and italian wines. Boutique beers include the restaurant’s own Birra made by the Holgate Brewhouse in the Macedon ranges.This place is really about pizza. Pizza made and stretched by hand, the thin crispy bubbly type that hasn’t seen a rolling pin. As Mauro, a Roman, recently told me:“…othersuse a rolling pin which rolls all the air out and we don