Toto’s Pizza on Lygon St is facing closure due to coronavirus lockdown
Former Prime Minister Bob Hawke, Nicolas Cage and AFL star Warwick Capper have all come through its doors. But a Lygon Street favourite is facing closure in weeks unless there’s a “miracle”.
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It’s fed prime ministers, Hollywood stars and hungry Melburnians for almost 60 years.
But Lygon Street icon Toto’s Pizza — famously named the first pizza house in Australia — is facing closure in weeks amid the gruelling coronavirus shutdown.
Its South Melbourne and Richmond stores also face shutting permanently.
Owner Zain Mazloum, who took over Toto’s from father Sami in February, said only a miracle could save the business which needed about $1 million to survive.
“It’s a disaster for us,’’ Mr Mazloum, 45, said.
“We actually need a miracle to reopen.
“We are trying our best at the moment to get money in to get back but we’re just waiting on answers.
“The next two to three weeks will be vital.
“It will be very sad. But there’s not much more we can do.
“We might come back in a different way to the market in the years to come. But that will be it for Toto’s in Lygon Street.”
Salvatore Della Bruna, whose family owned a pizzeria near Naples, founded Toto’s in 1961.
It helped establish Lygon Street as Melbourne’s Little Italy, with former prime minister Bob Hawke among regulars.
Actor Nicolas Cage, Kojak star Telly Savalas and AFL stars Warwick Capper and Mark “Jacko” Jackson have also visited.
Toto’s was inducted into the world pizza hall of fame in 2007.
Sami Mazloum, now aged 71, bought the business in 1983 before retiring this year.
Zain Mazloum, a father of four, said Toto’s three stores, which employ about a dozen family members and a similar number of external staff, closed on March 23.
They reopened for just a few days between lockdowns before having to close again.
Takeaway and delivery had not proved viable.
Mr Mazloum, who has worked at Toto’s since age 11, said he believed as many as half of Melbourne’s cafes and restaurants would never reopen unless coronavirus restrictions were eased more swiftly, branding the State Government’s recently-released road map “total destruction on my heart”.
“For the hospitality industry that was a knockout. That was a big KO to the head,’’ Mr Mazloum said.
“I know coronavirus is real. But we should be opened.
“My father is in tears. Dad is a remarkable guy — he is the pioneer of pizza in Victoria and Australia.
“We’ve been privileged to meet so many great people.
“There are people telling us they met at Toto’s in the 70’s and they got married and they bring their children and grandchildren. We get tourists from everywhere. It’s just sad.
“It was a beautiful family business one day and then taken away from us the next basically.
“We will see in the next two to three weeks if we can obtain the finances to open. We will try. But if nothing can be done it’s lights out for us.
“This has been so difficult. It’s like a nightmare. This is not Victoria.”
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