Little Naples Pizza among the many new Ivanhoe, Northcote restaurants openings

Could this world-class pizzeria be on Kanye’s to eat-list? Here’s why Ivanhoe is booming with new foodie hot spots.

Two-time World Pizza Champion Andrea Cozzolino has opened Little Naples; a new pizzeria in Ivanhoe. Picture: David Caird

Forget Kanye, there’s a better reason to visit Ivanhoe these days.

The sleepy inner-northern suburb and its neighbour Northcote are having a food renaissance, with swarms of new or established restaurants opening or moving into the area soon.

Little Naples Pizzeria, by Andrea Cozzolino and William Tsakmakidis, has been spinning its traditional pies before Christmas and now sells up to 1000 a week.

“There are so many good places opening around here,” Cozzolino said.
“People are realising that they don’t need to go into the city to have a good experience or food.”

The Naples-born chef has been working with dough for two decades, running his own Italian restaurants and now in manufacturing, ironically, making gluten free products.

“My mum is (coeliac). So to come from Naples and be gluten-free ... it’s just not right: we eat gluten for breakfast, lunch and dinner,” he said.

While none of Little Naples’ 20-odd pizza flavours are gluten free (but can be made so on request), each are named after a person close to Cozzolino

Little Naples co-owners Will Kidis and Andrea Cozzolino. Picture: David Caird

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“Celeste, my wife, loves mushrooms so we named our mushroom pizza after her,” he said.

Joining Little Naples in the neighbourhood is All Are Welcome bakery.

Boris Portnoy opened his third outpost in Ivanhoe East, also last December.

Meanwhile, 1800 Lasagne has revealed it is opening two new venues in Northcote this year.

1800 La-Sanga joins the gourmet sandwich trend, slapping its famous lasagne hunks between two ciabatta slices for its lunchtime signature.

Further along High St, owner Joey Kellock will open Italian-inspired bar Dopolavoro in spring.

Little Naples Pizzeria, 219 Upper Heidelberg Rd, Ivanhoe, littlenaples.pizza