Eight new (and new-ish) Melbourne pizza places serving styles beyond Neapolitan

Anyone who’s watched David Chang’s Ugly Delicious episode on pizza knows how contentious the act of pie-making is, as is the question of who does it best. We’re not picking favourites today; we believe (almost) all pizza styles are made equal.

But after decades of domination by floppy Neapolitan-style pizzas (ubiquitous in Melbourne, and for good reason – they’re delicious!) other regional Italian styles are emerging, including crisp Roman pizzas (plus their oval-shaped cousin, pinsa) and the focaccia-like Sicilian sfincione, not to mention the many riffs on Nap pie using Australian flours, electric ovens and non-traditional toppings. “That’s Melbourne, right?” Da Paolo pizzaiolo Kitisak Iacuzi says of the cross-cultural pollination.

It’s something – let’s call it Italo-Australian – Pizzeria Magma’s Jean-Paul Aziz has seen emerging too. “If we want to talk about Australia’s own pizza identity, it’s that buttery, spongy, slightly dense suburban classic – I think prior to the Neapolitan boom, that’s what all of us grew up thinking pizza was,” he says.

“Neapolitan is still a relatively new phenomenon here, and it’s obviously steeped in tradition and there’s obviously a specific way of doing things, and if we want to be truly Neapolitan I don’t think anyone in Melbourne really is. I think it’s something far more interesting and it’s more about interpretation.”

The past few years have also seen an influx of American-style pies (at Capitano, Leonard’s Pizza Palace, Ollie’s Pizza Parlour and more) including thick Detroit-style squares, Chicago-inspired deep dish, jumbo New York-esque slices and Long Island-accented grandma pizzas topped with clams, pepperoni and pineapple (sorry purists, but from this Italian to you, it’s a perfectly refreshing burst of sweet and sour to balance a salty pie).

Here are eight new (and new-ish) pizza places deviating from the traditional Neapolitan playbook.

Pizzeria Magma

Jean-Paul Aziz’s Fitzroy North pizza place opened last year in the former Supermaxi site, as a progression of his roving pop-up, The Travelling Pizza Pie. His menu sticks to six pizzas (soon to be seven; a braised ox tongue number with confit chilli and garlic is landing soon) made with 24-hour proofed dough and classic toppings like margherita and marinara alongside flavours inspired by his Egyptian heritage that also veer into Sicilian territory. Think mint and pistachio sauce (with stracchino cheese, roasted eggplant, pecorino Romano and red onion) and pine nut cream and currants (alongside pickled and braised fennel, salsa verde and lemon zest).

Signature slice: Marinara with San Marzano tomatoes, garlic, basil, Sicilian oregano and EVOO. You can add Cuca anchovies or parmigiano reggiano but Aziz reckons order it straight up as a bit of a litmus test. “On its own it’s the perfect representation of what I’m trying to do,” he says. “There’s nothing to hide behind.”

305 St Georges Road, Fitzroy North, pizzeriamagma.com

Da Paolo

Kitisak Iacuzi took the name of his pop-up from the pizzeria his dad owned in late ’80s Liguria, in Italy’s north-west. But his pies are breaking from tradition with dough made from local Australian grains, fermented for 48 hours, then blasted in an electric oven to produce a thin, crisp base with puffy edges that sits somewhere between Neapolitan and Roman alla pala. Score a slice at his Bahama Gold residency, where he’s serving up a vegetarian number with zucchini, stracchino, capers, marjoram and mint sauce; and a pizza topped with XO sauce (made with Italian charcuterie and anchovies), fior di latte and pickled pineapple. “My mum is from Thailand, so I like finding that balance of spicy, sweet, salty,” says Iacuzi.

Signature slice: The crowd-favourite so far is the gamberi, a white base with puffy, charry edges topped with local prawn meat, garlic, parsley and dollops of fermented chilli sauce.

Bahama Gold, 135 Lygon Street, Brunswick East, instagram.com/da.paolopizza

Grazia

It’s not strictly a pizza place, but this Italian newcomer in Glen Iris specialises in Roman-style pies alongside plates of tempura-battered zucchini flowers, grilled WA scampi, vitello tonnato, and pappardelle with lobster, king prawns and cherry tomato in a lobster bisque. The pizza dough (a blend of 00-type flour and a whole grain, stone-wheat flour) is slowly fermented for up to 72 hours before it’s fired in an Italian-made Castelli oven. The light and crunchy result is a vehicle for classic Italian toppings such as mortadella, pistachio pesto, fior di latte, and oozy burrata; or king prawns with rocket pesto, green olives and chef Joey Di Cintio’s chilli crisp (another Italianate spin on XO, with balsamic vinegar and oregano).

Signature slice: Vegetarians aren’t forgotten here, with a stand-out Zucca featuring pumpkin puree, pine nuts, mozzarella, whipped ricotta, caramelised onion and hot honey.

159 Burke Road, Glen Iris, graziarestaurant.com.au

Madonna Electric

Pizzaiolo John Tummino wants diners to become as acquainted with the concept of Italo-Australian pizzas as they are with the term Italo-American. The creations at his Sydney Road pizzeria are close to the thin, crisp Roman style, but they’re also their own thing, inspired by the suburban Aussie pizza bars he loved growing up. The base is light and slightly chewy, made with Australian-grown “00” flour, fresh yeast, salt and a little olive oil before a three to four day fermentation process, then baked in an electric oven. Toppings include the “Absolute Peak Capricciosa” with triple-smoked ham, porcini and truffle oil and seasonal specials like the unorthodox “Summer” edition: mozzarella, grapes, pork sausage, gorgonzola and rosemary.

Signature slice: The Guanciale, Gran Sale (named in honour ofthe late Franco Cozzo, whose furniture kits out the pizzeria) with mozzarella, guanciale, cracked pepper and grana padano. “Simplicity at its best,” says Tummino.

833 Sydney Road, Brunswick, madonnaelectric.com.au

Deep End Pizza

This one’s not so new, but it gets across the line for its dedication to American pies of all (stars and) stripes. The Fitzroy pizza bar comes from chef and co-owner Paul Kasten, who’s from the US. At Deep End Pizza, he’s bringing three all-American pizza styles to Brunswick Street: cheesy Chicago-style deep-dish; crisp Detroit-style pan pies topped with the likes of ’nduja and hot honey or potato and guanciale; and thin-crust New York-style rounds with nine cheeses and truffle oil, say, or Wagyu brisket with mozzarella and comte. Flours are single-origin from NSW miller Provenance, and each style has its own dough and cooking process. Tip: if you’re riding solo, you can grab a slice of any style from the shop window.

Signature slice: Go with a crew and split the hefty deep-dish (a pie in the truest sense) stuffed with sausage, mushrooms, mozzarella, pecorino, black olives and red sauce.

412A Brunswick Street, Fitzroy, 03 8589 2983, deepend.pizza

Hotel Lombardo

Coburg’s Italo-American pizza bar takes inspiration from New York hotspots like Roberta’s and Via Carota. It’s a nostalgic, dive-y setting, with black-and-white photos of 1970s New York, retro stylings, a pool table and a disco ball overhead, but the menu includes new-school hybrids like vegan bechamel, miso and mushroom, or crisp-baked mortadella with pineapple, golden syrup and mozzarella alongside a customary margh and classic New York pepperoni. The base, though, is a little closer to Neapolitan, with a 72-hour-fermented Caputo dough, stretched, then fired in an electric deck oven to produce a classically floppy base and puffy, spotty crusts you can hold in one hand while you nurse a Guinness in the other.

Signature slice: Go the Patata, with a sweet onion-cream base and layers of potato and parmesan (and if you’re a meat-eater, add the guanciale for a salty hit)

11-13 Sydney Road, Coburg, hotellombardo.com.au

Pinsabella

Technically, this isn’t pizza. Pinsa, its Roman cousin, uses a blend of grains (wheat, soy and rice flour) with higher hydration and a longer fermentation. It’s also oblong-shaped (more like a pide), twice-baked (without toppings and then with) and ultra-light and crunchy (due to the air bubbles that form in the dough). In case you forget, chef Carmine Constantini is here to remind you, with a sign on his St Kilda shop declaring “Pinsa is not pizza”. His toppings are familiar though, with combos like boscaiola (mozzarella, ham and mushroom), a margherita, and carbonara. And we reckon we’ll be seeing a whole lot more pinsa in Melbourne soon.

Signature slice: Chilli fans should order the Diavola (meaning devil, named for its spicy notes) featuring mozzarella, hot salami and ’nduja.

100 St Kilda Road, St Kilda, pinsabella.com

The Gertrude Hotel

The hyper-coloured pub on the corner of Gertrude and Napier streets has had an extreme makeover, the David Bowie-esque lightning bolt replaced by a lick of classic cream thanks to new owners Iza Dawkins and chef Andy Lockyear. The interior has changed too, and with it, a new Italian menu leaning on parmas, pastas and pizzas. The latter (not Roman, nor Neapolitan) are made with Aussie 00 flour milled in NSW, proofed for 48 hours and hand-stretched, then blasted in a gas-powered oven to achieve a light, thin, chewy base with a crunchy crust carrying toppings like sopressa, stracciatella, fior di latte, chilli and honey, or lamb shoulder, goat’s cheese, fior di latte, onion, olives and rosemary.

Signature slice: There’s a quattro formaggio situation starring fior di latte, gorgonzola, smoked scarmoza and grana padano, plus caramelised onion and chives. “It’s sweet, salty and smokey,” says Lockyear.

148 Gertrude Street, Fitzroy, thegertrude.com.au

Others to try

• Ohana Pizza in McKinnon is using Australian flour, slowly proofed and baked fast and hot to form a blistered crust with toppings like roasted peppers, pancetta and feta; or smoked leg ham and pineapple.
• Kew’s Mister Bianco is one of the few places serving Sicily’s sfincione (a thick, focaccia-like pizza with an airy interior and crisp base), which come ferrying tomato, chilli and mozzarella, or caramelised onion, garlic and scamorza.
• In Brunswick East, the Tipo 00 team’s pizza offshoot, Figlia, is serving contemporary Italo-Australian pies built on a sourdough base and topped with wild boar sausage with habanero and endive, or tiger prawns with celeriac, pangrattato and cos.