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Everything old is new again at Leonardo's Pizza Palace, Carlton

Roslyn Grundy
Roslyn Grundy

Guy Bentley, Jon Harper, Nick Stanton and Mark Catsburg from Leonardo's Pizza Palace.
Guy Bentley, Jon Harper, Nick Stanton and Mark Catsburg from Leonardo's Pizza Palace.Jana Langhorst

Leonardo's Pizza Palace, which opens in Carlton on December 4, is exactly as retro-Italo as you'd expect. Brick archways. Terrazzo floors. Wrought iron light fittings. Heavy timber beams.

But the team behind Ramblr and Leonard's House of Love haven't had to recreate the look. Most of it has survived from its previous incarnation as Da Salvatore Pizza by the Metre, which opened in 1959.

Plenty of big names were vying for the site, says executive chef Nick Stanton. But it was their commitment to preserving the interior that won it for the team.

Stanton, along with Mark Catsburg, Jon Harper and Guy Bentley, has added sympathetic features, including a new bar in the front room and a brick pizza oven at the back. A three-metre neon sign will hang above the entrance on the corner of Grattan and Drummond streets.

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It will seat 80 downstairs and 40 at umbrella-shaded tables outside. Stage 2 will add a pool room and dining area upstairs, which is already equipped with a second kitchen.

"Italian-American" may have been the menu's initial inspiration, but it's evolved to include Spanish and Chinese influences. Look out for thin, crisp pizzas topped with dandan noodle-style "Chinese bolognese", made-to-order pork and fennel sausages or American-style pepperoni, which Stanton believes should form cups as they cook.

They'll have an ever-changing list of things on toast – bruschetta topped with pickled clams, broad beans or wood-roasted red peppers – and six or seven interesting salads, including one with broccolini, sugar snap peas, toasted almonds, and macadamia and lemon cream.

Open Tue-Thu 5pm-1am; Fri-Sat noon-1am; Sun noon-11.30pm.

29 Grattan Street, Carlton

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Roslyn GrundyRoslyn Grundy is Good Food's deputy editor and the former editor of The Age Good Food Guide.

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