Moor's Head brings its 'inauthentic pizza' to Carlton

Thornbury favourite the Moor's Head is bringing its brand of "inauthentic pizzas" to Melbourne's home of red-sauce Italian restaurants, Carlton.

The hybrid Italian-Middle Eastern pizzas might raise eyebrows with the Associazione Verace Pizza Napoletana (the Italian pizza police) but they've established their own following.

Italian-style dough is stretched into round and boat-shaped bases, then piled with ballsy Middle Eastern toppings such as marinated prawns, tomato, black chilli and coriander, or spiced roasted pumpkin, tahini yoghurt and hazelnut dukkah.

Moor's Head Carlton is due to open this week in the former Markov Place bar site.

Coincidentally, says owner Joseph Abboud, it's near premises he looked at before establishing the first Moor's Head as a more casual spin-off from his Brunswick East restaurant Rumi in 2011.

The Drummond Street kitchen is better equipped than the original Moor's Head, so they'll also be turning out things like haloumi "fries" with red pepper and pomegranate dipping sauce.

For dessert, there's an inauthentic tiramisu Abboud has dubbed the "turkamisu", made with Lebanese cardamom coffee and pistachio and boozed up with green walnut liqueur.

The drinks list will include five craft beers on tap, a clutch of pizza-friendly wines and arak, the anise-flavored Levantine digestive spirit.

Open daily 5.30pm-late.

Rear, 350-352 Drummond Street, Carlton, 03 99775893, themoorshead.com