Previous SlideNext Slide

At a certain point while eating at Ciro’s, a new wood-fired pizza restaurant in the south coast seaside suburb of Thirroul, the late afternoon sun fires its rays inside, forming a basil, garlic and parmigiano-scented inferno.

The sun’s heat, radiating through lace curtains halfway up two wide front windows facing a street corner, meets the internal warmth generated by Ciro’s mighty blue-and-white tiled wood-fired oven.

Its belly is glowing, searing slabs of garlic flat bread and blistering pizzas spread with parmigiano, fermented chilli and pork and fennel sausage, or potato and gorgonzola cream, or field and Swiss brown mushrooms with lemon, garlic and fior di latte.

All of the people making the pizzas in the open kitchen have a moustache and – if it’s not too off-putting to say so – they are wet. We are wet, patting perspiration off necks and foreheads as more people arrive. But, Ciro’s, which opened in September in the former Mamma Mia Pizzeria site and is co-owned and run by Michael Zubrecky, Joel Mucci, Liam Forsythe and Marko Bozic, is alive with impassioned diners.

It’s a community meeting spot, drawing young and old customers from up and down the coast, with every diner treated with service bordering on phenomenal.

Leading that charge is Darcy, another moustachioed staff member, whose genuine conversation and interest in our wellbeing includes him confiding that working here has changed his view of a career in hospitality.

He also has in-depth menu knowledge. The fermentation time of the dough (three days), the chilli and herbs from Zubrecky’s garden, the wine list including Benson & the Mooch wines made by Mucci and Benson Brown. And the oven’s temperature (above 300 degrees today).

Ciro’s, which evolved from Mucci and Zubrecky’s pop-up pizza work at various venues and breweries, has a one-page menu of pizzas, starters, sides, mains and dessert. Nothing remarkable there until you dig into them.

Starters include: beautifully charred, wood-fired garlic flat bread holding a hefty, pooling wodge of salted butter; a portly orb of buffalo mozzarella in gremolata; wagyu bresaola with pickled peppers; and wood-fired cauliflower with a mustard bechamel.

Then the pizzas. We order the piselli, which merges pancetta, peas, mint, fior di latte and parmigiano. Freckled with char, perfectly foldable, with a puffy crust giving a resounding chew, the zing of mint and peas with cheese and meat is top-notch stuff.

From the mains, created by head chef Keelan Orrock, it’s coral trout with verde, tomato, olives and hand-cut fries.

“A bit like the French Fries packet chips,” Darcy says of the generous mound of matchstick-like deep-fried potato beside the fish.

Served on greaseproof paper across a metal pizza dish, the coral trout, with its green salsa-smeared top, combines a crispy, lid-like triangle of herby crunch above lovely, perfectly cooked flesh.

From the salads, the stonefruit and hazelnut panzanella is a luscious wonder, as is the tiramisu, drunk on its own cocoa-dusted, espresso-soused, marscapone-laced ladyfinger goodness.

You can feel the pride in the food at Ciro’s, along with a sense of what its owners want it to be.

Mucci, whose late father, Michael Mucci, was a beloved Herald and Australian Financial Review illustrator and artist, grew up in nearby Stanwell Park, and says the restaurant has a homespun, family ethos.

“We’re close mates,” he says. “Mike and I work together, I grew up with Liam, same with Ben, myself and Marko. We did the pop-ups for fun, saw the traction and decided to go with it.”

Zubrecky says before starting the venture the co-owners discussed what everyone’s values were and what they wanted from Ciro’s.

“We all said the exact same thing,” he says. “We wanted our families and community to be welcome, we wanted to try and be affordable and we wanted to have, like, a really positive environment in the kitchen. No ego, no yelling and to make sure our staff are cared for and nurtured. And a good life-work balance.”

On all these counts, including the recommendation to order a glass of the excellently refreshing 2022 Benson & the Mooch rosé, with Mucci’s dad’s artwork on the label, they have succeeded.

There’s a sun awning going up soon but, as Mucci and Zubrecky suggest for cooling their own moustaches post-kitchen, Thirroul Beach is minutes away.

“We do a lot of night swims,” Zubrecky says.