Cars, pizza, bevs. What more could you want? Photo: Supplied.
Remember when Braddon was all car shops and mechanics? Walking past all the cafes, restaurants, food trucks and bourgie boutiques, it seems like an age ago that Braddon was the catch-all suburb for anything with tyres.
Newly opened Pizzeria Officina – which translates to factory or workshop in Italian – harks back to this era with its deliberately casual pizza workshop.
Swapping wrenches for serving spoons, this casual venue is the newest from the local Goodlife group, which also owns Terra, Recess Coffee and Officina’s neighbour, Bar Outro.
The interior of the space draws on that 80s and 90s car culture with vintage posters and a big screen playing clips from the Sopranos, 80s automotive footage and famous pizza scenes.
Co-owner Anthony Ianelli said that first and foremost, he wanted to open a pizza shop because “pizza is delicious!”.
“But we also knew that the building is probably going to get knocked down maybe next year, so we thought ‘what can we do that doesn’t require a real flash fit out?’,” he said
“All we had to do was put in a pizza oven and an exhaust … and the tyres all over the shop are just leftover wheels that have been accumulating in my garage.”
The menu features classic and custom pizzas. Photo: Supplied.
Chef Picco was last seen slinging pizzas at the short-lived Bada Bing and she’ll be bringing her love of the pizza pie to the workshop behind a nondescript roller door.
The concise, casual menu will feature seven classic pizzas and seven custom creations made with a 48-hour fermented sourdough base. One such custom is a Mexican twist on ham and pineapple, featuring Terra’s pork al pastor, oaxaca cheese and jalapeño hot sauce.
Or go with a classic diavola: san marzano tomato, fior di latte, basil, hot sopressa, nduja, pickled chilli, hot honey and parmesan.
“Once we knew we wanted to do pizza we approached Picco. And it just so happened that Picco is into motorbikes as well, so she requested checkered flag tiles around her kitchen,” Anthony said.
“We all just landed on the same page: we all liked the racing theme and we just workshopped ideas for pizza at my place.”
Anthony wants to see everyone eating up their crusts, with a range of dipping sauces to make every doughy bite as delicious as the pointy end of the slice. Think garlic or jalapeño mayo and chilli oil to dip those crunchy crusts into.
Gluten free bases and vegan cheese are available too.
Desserts include a sweet pizza topped with dulce de leche, mascarpone, strawberries and hazelnuts, and a tiramisu that Anthony reckons is almost as good as Nonna’s (almost).
Dipping sauces provide extra flavour for your crusts. Photo: Supplied.
The space is deliberately casual: no table service, just delicious food. In my opinion pizza should be eaten with your hands, but if you want cutlery, grab it yourself.
“It’s cas, it’s cruisy,” Anthony said.
“Dine in, takeaway … If you want to stick around and have a drink you can, but if you just want to grab a pizza and go you can do that too.”
There will be a range of drinks to wash down the slices and the list has a similar vibe to other Goodlife venues: think natural wines, great beers and a range of cocktails from Bar Outro next door designed to pair with your pizza by group beverage director Hamish Piper. There will even be Lambrusco by the glass: cin cin!
Pizzeria Officina is at 4/9 Lonsdale Street, Braddon in between Bar Outro and Assembly Bar. It is open from Wednesday to Sunday from 5 pm and for lunch on weekends from noon. Follow Pizzeria Officina on Instagram.
