All hail Zi-Za

CARAVAGGIO, a bit of a mouthful just off Darlington town centre, has been re-invented, bite size, as Zi-Za.

Zi-za was the owner's mum. The aim, they say, is to appeal to all generations which principally means the younger one. Last week's customers included Tony Hadley, who's something with Spandau Ballet but probably not principal dancer.

The decor is minimalist, and probably cubist, a bit like sitting in a pastel coloured dry dock. They turned up the music as the evening wore on; none of it was Peter, Paul and Mary.

Periodically there was also a "Bing-bong" of the sort which on railway stations precedes an announcement that the train is three and a half hours late and GNER regrets any inconvenience (but not half as much as the Poor Bloody Inconvenienced do).

Darlington station, it might be added, has an announcer who so wantonly railroads one word into the next that he makes Stanley Unwin appear a gold star elocutionist by comparison.

Caravaggio opened four years ago opposite Riley's Snooker Club, in Bondgate. "No offence to Mr Riley, nor even his Old Mother, but the sight of the snooker club and the passing number one bus to Tow Law does little to replicate the taste of Italy," we wrote at the time.

Though the menu appears familiar, leaning heavily on the three Ps of pizza, pasta and pollo, the atmosphere is now wholly cosmopolitan and the waitress attractively English.

Caravaggio is still the name on the bill head, though, and on the predictable pudding list. If they're planning a new one, they might change "Desert menu" to "Dessert menu", thus avoiding any more arid jokes.

In 1999 The Boss had thought the Caesar salad the best ever. This time she was surprised - singularly surprised, it might be said - to find not anchovies but an anchovy. It was otherwise fine, however and so, she thought, was the seafood linguini. Most pizzas and pasta dishes are £5.50, £1 less in happy hour.

A group of young ladies on the next table were talking about ugly sisters. The column has none, ugly or otherwise, but remains the good looking one of male twins.

We began with a perfectly agreeable potato and chive salad (£3.95), followed for £8 by chicken sassi, served with potato, onion, bacon and mushrooms and a sage and lemon sauce which seemed redolent of Christmas past.

"Sassy" is a word beloved of spiky-haired and wet-eared columnists in the red top tabloids, usually by way of self-description. Broadly it means saucy, provocative even. Uncle Remus once described Brer Rabbit as "as sassy as a jaybird", which probably explains everything.

The chicken was only tolerably tender, like a third time bride, the sauce sound if not necessarily sassy, the accompanying garlic potatoes both sorry and soggy.

After a bit of a wait we finished with some pleasantly moist Italian cake and a couple of cappuccinos. Though it was 9.30pm, they were still expecting a party of 30 from Copacabana, which might also have been an Italian coffee but is Darlington Op Soc's latest musical at the Civic (until May 10)

"Barry Manilow's coming," said the waiter.

"No, he's the bloke who wrote the music," we replied.

"It says here he's coming," said the waiter, defiantly.

The bill, with a glass of wine and a bottle of water - see how abstemious we're becoming - was £36. Zi-za so good, anyway.

KEITH and Jackie Kyte, who wondrously restored the fortunes of the Red Lion at North Bitchburn - between Bishop and Crook - leave after a party this weekend.

They arrived in 1989, he a Spurs-supporting Londoner, she a Newcastle lass. The Lion had become pretty mangy. Subsequently they won several awards, not least for the range and excellence of the beer and for the warmth of the welcome, rather disconcertingly prompting the insertion of the word "Famous" on the inn sign. The well maned lion bore a marked resemblance to the landlord, too.

We'd discovered it in 1992. "If this is the recession, I hope there's another next year," Keith said at the time.

They're moving across the Wear to born again Witton Park. Keith Young, formerly manager of the Victoria in Witton-le-Wear, takes over next week. He is, we're assured, a real ale man.

HIS e-mail wringing with alarm bells, Paul Dobson reports on the temporary closure of the Shakespeare in Durham, one of just three North-East entries in CAMRA's Classic Town Pubs collection.

"A traditional English pub unchanged since the 1950s," it says on a slate outside, though Paul sniffs the air anxiously.

"There's a distinct smell of sawdust about the place. It can only mean refurbishment," he writes.

Having looked in the other day, however, we can probably ease his mind. "It's only the floor," said one of the workmen, eyed by a very large teddy bear as he did so.

The Shakespeare is expected to reopen this week - a traditional English pub hardly changed since the 1950s.

Published: 06/05/2003