Pizza by the slice heats up in Sydney as Merivale and Michelin-starred chef open two new spots
Totti’s chef Mike Eggert is set to open Oti in Merivale’s Ivy precinct, while Ta Ta Ta Pizza opens in a backstreet in Bondi Junction.
With a new venue from a former fine-dining chef and another on the way from Merivale, Sydney’s pizza by the slice sector just got hotter.
Totti’s executive chef Mike Eggert is set to open Oti in Merivale’s Ivy precinct, while Shlomi Palensya, who worked in Michelin-starred restaurants in Europe, has opened Ta Ta Ta Pizza at Bondi Junction.
“I’ve worked in 25 different countries and pizza by the slice is big everywhere but here,” says Palensya, whose last gig was executive pastry chef at the Park Hyatt Sydney.
“I wanted to do something that embraces the skills I have with something the market needs.”
Palensya isn’t the first to ponder pizza by the slice for Sydney.
Indeed, Sydney had a good example of the genre until last year (RIP Frankie’s), but the category has been a bit hit and miss.
Operators generally go down the New York pizza slice route, or Roman-style. Ta Ta Ta opted for the latter, hailing Caesar when it comes to dough.
“Ours is Roman-style. The dough is made with a mix of spelt, rice flour, imported flour from Italy and some from [South Australia],” Palensya says. “The bottom is crispy and the top fluffy.”
Toppings on Ta Ta Ta’s slices (sold, in the Italian style, by weight) run from a simple margherita to zucchini flowers and things that don’t usually go on pizza.
“I’m even using a bit of molecular [cooking], making ‘pearls’ of balsamic,” Palensya says.
Ta Ta Ta, which partly takes its name from the “Ta” in takeaway, is located in a Bondi Junction back street, near the shopping centre carpark exit. They’ll even run your pre-orders to the car.
“The best food is in side lanes. And the dough we use travels better than thinner pizzas,” Palensya says.
Oti, which is a play on the name of sister restaurant Totti’s, will also deliver Roman-style pizza by the slice when it opens in April.
Helmed by Totti’s executive chef Mike Eggert, Oti will slide into the former home of Lorraine’s Patisserie, the site vacated at the end of 2022 following the retirement of Sydney pastry guru Lorraine Godsmark.
Ta Ta Ta Pizza: open Wed-Thu 11.30am-10pm; Fri-Sat 11.30am-11pm; Sun 5pm-11pm.
10 Gray Street, Bondi Junction, tatatapizza.com.au
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Scott Bolles writes the weekly Short Black column in Good Food.