Chef and former owner of the now-closed Acme (and general all round nice guy) Mitch Orr has just opened CicciaBella with Icebergs’ Maurice Terzini at the old Da Orazia site on Hall Street, where dough is getting the deep-fried treatment. On Bondi Road, the Society Pizza crew have rebirthed the venue as Johnny Gio’s, an Italian via New York pizzeria. Over in the junction, Balmain institution Rosso Pomodoro brought their traditional Bologna-style pizza to the east earlier this year, setting up shop next to their other trat, Osteria Riva.

So perhaps, “want to grab some pizza tonight?” should be more accurately recoined as “New York slice or Neapolitan-style?”.

Eastern suburbs residents mourned the closure of Italo-noodle joint Acme back in June, but it wasn’t long before co-owner Mitch Orr was snapped up by Maurice Terzini. They’ve launched neighbourhood osteria, CicciaBella, where pizza and pasta are getting the Orr-treatment. But a pizzeria, this is not – rather, Terzini and Orr were keen to weave the pie into the regular menu.

“We want people to order pizza as part of their main meal, rather than one large pizza on its own,” Orr explains. “We want it all to be a part of each other.”

As such, CicciaBella have shrunken things down into pizzette, for sharing purposes. The smaller pizzas have a nice charry crust with good crunch, giving way to a fluffy centre. True to Orr’s hyper-seasonal, out-of-the-box style, they might come topped with spring greens and ricotta, or potato and lardo.

Orr says the dough is a work in progress, but he’s currently slow-fermenting it for 48 hours and also experimenting with a sourdough culture. But it’s the fritte that steals the show: hunks of dough laced with an intense garlic puree that get fried and then splashed on the charcoal grill to finish.

“It’s our version of garlic bread.”

We recommend using it to mop up the bone marrow with gremolata. And seeing as this is Orr, a couple of pasta dishes, like the braised rabbit and pistachio clinging to maltagliati, are a given.

Fans of Curlewis Street’s Society Pizza might have noticed it shut up its Bondi Rd shop in August. Owner Jonathan Faro has teamed with Veronica Moore to rework the venue as Johnny Gio’s, a 30-seat pizzeria sporting some NYC ‘tude.

“It’s a bit more crispy, and we’re really heavy on the flavour and toppings,” Moore tells the Wentworth Courier. “It’s got that bigger American attitude, so it’s not that classic Neapolitan pizza anymore, but still very Italian.”

Bases are crisper and firmer than Society’s chewier Neapolitan ones, cradling everything from burrata, tomato and oregano, to the signature Eff’n Boss: Italian sausage, capsicum and chilli offset by salted ricotta. Gluten free and vegan options are available.

Fans of a more traditional slice aren’t forgotten, with inner west favourites Rosso Pomodoro moving into the neighbourhood back in January. Ketti Laffi and Giancarlo Bazzocchi’s diner turned heads when it first opened in the backstreets of Balmain in 2005, sporting a rule board imposing bans on ordering half and half or ham and pineapple, and only endorsing Italian mozzarella.

“If you go to Italy, you will find places who do ham and pineapple now, but that’s not what we do,” Laffi tells the Wentworth Courier.

The couple had to re-educate locals who had been weaned on pan-cooked pizza made with yellow cheese.

“Some cheese with tomato on bread is always nice, but it is not pizza. For us, pizza is mozzarella. The mozzarella we use is a mix between buffalo mozzarella and fior di latte.”

Laffi’s partner Bazzocchi learned to sling dough near their hometown of Bologna in the north of Italy, where pizzas are larger in diameter.

“Our style of pizza is more northern style, so not very puffy, and cooked right through.”

True to their name, you’ll find plenty of tomato-based pizzas here, but it’s their bianco (white) with potato and sausage that shines: soft, yielding bases that are gloriously charred, ferrying chunks of Italian pork sausage and wafer-thin slices of potato, all scented with rosemary.

Unlike the Balmain diner, Rosso Pomodoro’s Bronte Rd branch is fully licenced, but wines are well-priced and you get to sample top Italian brews like Baladin in 750ml or litre formats.

Despite their strict Italian rule book, Laffi says it was important to offer vegan and gluten free pizzas.

“When you have a business, you have to keep up with what’s out there.”