Adelaide’s new generation of pizzerias put a new spin on Italian traditions

They cook in wood-fired ovens and use traditional techniques but a new generation of Adelaide pizza makers are putting their own stamp on Italy’s great food export.

• The Advertiser’s delicious100 — South Australia’s best restaurants

THEY cook in wood-fired ovens and use traditional techniques but a new generation of Adelaide pizza makers are putting their own stamp on Italy’s great food export.

Five pizzerias, each with its own style, have made the inaugural The Advertiser delicious 100 list of the state’s top restaurants.

They include Pizza Meccanica in Bowden, where graphic designer and car enthusiast Stelio Birbas has converted an old warehouse into a dining space alongside his prized red Chev pick-up truck.

Stelio Birbas at Pizza Meccanica in Bowden. Picture: Naomi Jellicoe

In the heart of the city, chef Andy Nowell and a bunch of like-minded co-owners keep the pizzas flowing and the dad-rock tunes pumping at Sunny’s, while a few blocks away Pizza e Mozzarella Bar feeds office workers from its twin ovens in a more conventional setting.

A short drive south in McLaren Vale, Pizzateca’s “head dough boy” Tony Mitolo sends out his pies with help from dad Vito in a fairytale setting in the shade of a giant gum tree.

Meanwhile, at Uraidla in the Adelaide Hills, winemaker Taras Ochota and buddy Charlie Lawrence have converted an old church into Lost in a Forest where the pizzas include the “Banh Mi” topped with pork and the other fillings normally found in a Vietnamese roll.

Stelio first became fascinated with pizza making when he installed a wood oven in his backyard “just for the aesthetics”.

After researching the traditional techniques, he was hooked and went to Melbourne to complete a course.

He says Pizza Meccanica has now taken over “a fair bit” from his design work.

The appeal of these pizzas, he says, is in the base. “The dough is very light,” he says. “It ferments for 48 hours so it has its own taste and characteristics. It is very light so the average person can eat a pizza and not feel like they have eaten a cow.”