While you wait for your washing, dig into a toasted pizza sandwich with wood-fired flavour. You’ll also find St Ali coffee, hybrid matcha-misu and Tarts Anon tarts.
The only thing more unusual than the location of new eatery Sega is the pizza it serves.
Inside a functioning laundromat on Elgin Street in Carlton, the team behind nearby Italian restaurant Al Dente Enoteca are putting their own spin on a style of stuffed pizza found across Italy.
Chef and co-owner Andrea Vignali wasn’t on the hunt for another venue. But the idea came to him when he was at Soap Spot Laundrette doing washing for the restaurant and noticed a defunct glass-walled cafe space which was once briefly home to coffee shop Two Snakes.
“I went back to have another look and saw it about to be demolished … to put in vending machines,” says Vignali. “The next thing you know I’ve signed a lease on WhatsApp.”
‘No one really does it like this [in Melbourne].’
Chef Andrea Vignali
Structurally, little has changed. Sega has just freshened up the existing cafe space at the front of the laundromat, adding some new seating and splashes of pastel-green paint, which also colour the small but sunny courtyard beyond the washing machines.
While cafes in laundromats – functioning or former – aren’t novel in Melbourne, what’s cooking in this one has already caught the attention of Soap Spot’s clientele, largely residents of the surrounding apartment buildings. Sega deals in what the team has dubbed pizza chiusa (“closed” in Italian), inspired by the stuffed pizza farcita found across Italy. Instead of topping the pizza, the good stuff goes inside, creating something like a circular sandwich.
At Sega, they cut each pizza base like a bread roll, load it with your fillings of choice and toast it until golden and gooey.
Vignali has collaborated with South Melbourne’s Focacceria Pugliese on a custom pizza dough that’s par-cooked in a wood-fired oven. It’s delivered daily, ready to be filled before it finishes cooking in the sandwich press.
“When you eat it from the toaster, it has that wood-fired pizza taste,” says Vignali.
“No one really does it like this [in Melbourne].”
More classic options include ham and cheese, spicy salami with fior di latte and Vignali’s own chilli paste, and a four-cheese combo of provolone, mozzarella, stracciatella and brie. Others are more cheffy, like one with rare roast beef from Al Dente and horseradish.
It’s $22 for a full pizza, $15 for half, and $15 for toasties made with sourdough instead.
The offering also includes drinks, such as matcha lattes and St Ali coffee, as well as a green-tinged hybrid tiramisu that combines both products for maximum caffeination. Plus, Sega is the only place you can get Tarts Anon sweets outside the latter’s own locations, so you might find the pastry cabinet lined with anything from pecan slices to tiny rhubarb tarts.
“The first thing that came to mind when I saw this place was throwing a party in it,” says Vignali. That’s exactly what he’s doing for Sega’s official launch on Sunday, September 14, from 11am to 3pm. There’ll be DJ sets, free samples, and beers and spritzes.
Breakfast, lunch and dinner daily
63 Elgin Street, Carlton, instagram.com/sega_pizza_chiusa_melbourne
Three more venues in totally unexpected locations
Drive-through banh mi
The best banh mi shops often have queues out the door long before lunchtime. If that’s a turn-off, Banh Mi Vietnam – a drive-through in a wedding reception centre carpark – saves the day. Order through an intercom and wait in your car for ultra-crunchy tiger rolls full to the brim with lemongrass pork, barbecued chicken, cold cuts or ultra-crackly pork. Vietnamese iced coffee and smiley staff take the edge off any delays.
42 Hampstead Road, Maidstone, banhmivn.com
Japanese in a service station
The Japanese comfort dish of a soft omelette over seasoned rice is the star at Omurice House, a bright little eatery attached to a BP in the eastern suburbs. The style of omurice here is a thick omelette with ribbons of egg that collapse over rice when cut. Panko-crumbed chicken (or pork) and your choice of sauce complete the dish. Use the touch screen to select from classic Japanese curry, Malaysian or even Thai green curry sauce.
240a Mitcham Road, Mitcham, omuricehouse.bitebusiness.com
Colombian hot dogs in a car wash
A bright addition to busy Dandenong Road, street-food spot Costenisimo specialises in hot dogs, burgers and loaded fries given a Colombian spin. The burgers are meaty things with two smash patties, bacon and shredded chicken, while fries are showered in corn, cheese and garlicky mayo. Throw all preconceptions about hot dogs out the window: these are slathered in cheese and house sauce, with more meaty additions.
258 Dandenong Road, St Kilda East, costenisimo.com.au
With Emma Breheny
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