True New York-style, 18-inch pizzas are coming to Marrickville on November 3, when the team behind Bexley North pizzeria My Mother’s Cousin open MMC Slice Shoppe.

The family-friendly pizza parlour, set to seat around 70 people, will combine the nostalgia of a dine-in Pizza Hut with the charm of an old school New York pizza shop like Lombardi’s, with upholstered booths and glass dividers, pizza by-the-slice and house-made lemonade.

MMC Slice Shoppe will take over from Barzaari on Addison Road, the Middle Eastern restaurant which was sold to the MMC team and closed after almost 10 years of operation on September 6.

In a statement to social media on August 23, Barzaari chef-owner Darryl Martin said the sale marked the conclusion of “a lifelong dream … realised and achieved”.

“I’m incredibly happy to know the guys taking the space I’ve called home for almost 10 years are a perfect fit, and incredibly deserving of all the success in the world,” he said.

MMC co-founders Sal Senan, Huss Rachid and Amani Rachid have been planning Slice Shoppe since 2021: travelling to New York to take inspiration from some of the industry’s best, like L’Industrie Pizzeria in Brooklyn and Mama’s Too on the Upper West Side, and taking more than two years to develop a light, crispy, flavoursome base using long-ferment dough and high-quality Australian wheat.

“We really geeked out hard on this one,” Senan says.

Senan says Slice Shoppe will offer something entirely different from its popular Bexley North predecessor.

“I like to call My Mother’s Cousin a hybrid pizzeria. I feel like it’s not full New York, but it’s not full Neapolitan. It’s kind of our own style and our own interpretation of pizza,” he says.

“And this one, we’re going full New York style. We’re going to use electric ovens like they do over there. We’re doing 18-inch pizzas only, so one size. And we’ll have slices available, which I think is cool right now.”

Pizza by-the-slice has been slowly gaining popularity in Sydney, where it’s offered at venues such as City Oltra (Haymarket) and Ta Ta Ta’s (Bondi).

Senan says pizza by-the-slice adds an important element of affordability to the menu during the cost-of-living crisis, and could change the way people eat pizza in Sydney.

“In New York, pizza is a big part of the lunch culture. When you’re walking down the street you see people in suits, or school kids, uni students, grabbing a slice of pizza for lunch,” he says.

“But in Sydney, we either have full Neapolitan style or fast-food chains like Domino’s. There’s [not much] in the middle.”

The menu will be simple: about six or seven pizzas built on a foundation of quality produce (San Marzano tomatoes, otherwise predominantly Australian produce) and classic flavours (like Italian sausage, mushroom, and white cheese pizza). There’ll also be a Sicilian-style pizza thrown in, with a thicker, spongier base, and there’s talk of ice-cream sandwiches for dessert.

But, much like the dine-in pizza shops of our childhoods, MMC Slice Shoppe will be alcohol-free.

From the original MMC to their Self Raised bakeries in Carlton and Bexley North, the hospitality team have long championed building “city-style” venues in the suburbs. Slice Shoppe will be their first foray into Sydney’s inner west.

“We’re very proud of it, and we do think it’s going to be some of the best pizza in Sydney,” Senan says.