Italian restaurants La Porchetta in Taylors Lakes, Negroni 888 in Essendon destroyed by suspicious fires

Police are hunting two men seen pouring an accelerant on an Italian restaurant minutes before it went up in flames — one of two venues destroyed by fire in Melbourne’s north overnight.

La Porchetta restaurant at Taylors Lakes severely damaged in a suspicious fire. Picture: Andrew Henshaw

Police are hunting two men seen pouring an accelerant on an Italian restaurant minutes before it was set ablaze on Wednesday morning.

It was one of two Italian restaurants in Melbourne’s north razed by fire and both are being treated as suspicious.

Emergency services were first called to a fire at La Porchetta on the Melton Highway in Taylors Lakes about 2.45am.

The front of the restaurant sustained extensive damage in the fire.

No one was inside the restaurant or injured in the blaze.

Police cordoned off the area and arson chemists were on Wednesday morning assessing the scene.

A second Italian restaurant — Negroni 888 on Mount Alexander Rd in Essendon — was then torched in a separate suspicious fire which broke out just a few minutes later.

That fire was deemed under control by Fire Rescue Victoria at 3.30am.

It was also significantly damaged.

The La Porchetta restaurant was one of two Italian restaurants damaged in suspicious fires Picture: Andrew Henshaw

Emergency services were alerted to the blaze about 2.45am Wednesday. Picture: Andrew Henshaw

A group of men gather outside the La Porchetta restaurant on Wednesday. Picture: Andrew Henshaw

Detective Senior Constable Rhiannon Downs, speaking outside La Porchetta on Wednesday, said detectives would examine any potential links between the two fires.

Senior Constable Downs said two men, one holding a yellow jerry can, exited a grey four-door sedan in the rear car park before fleeing just three minutes later.

Any potential connections to organised crime or the spate of restaurant and tobacco store fires will be looked at.

“It appears they may have poured some accelerant over the front of the restaurant and lit it up before leaving the scene,” she said.

“That will form part of our investigation but it’s too early to link these two jobs… (but) we can’t rule it out.

“We’ll look at everything, we’ll look at the links that the two (restaurants) may have, if any at all.”

The owners of the family-run La Porchetta business were left shattered as they assessed the damage on Wednesday morning.

The owners told police they were unaware of any potential motives for the blaze.

“They’re devastated at the loss of their business … hopefully (we) find who’s done this to their business but they’re absolutely devastated,” Sen-Constable Downs added.

“Obviously businesses don’t just light themselves on fire, so it will form part of our investigation as to what the motive is behind this.

“From what I know of the local area this is a favourite for the families and communities in this area.

“I think it’s atrocious (behaviour), the impact it’s going to have on this family and community far outweighs any monetary damage that they’ve done here.”