Get giant, foldable slices from $9.99, soft-serve floats and slushies at this red and white checked pizzeria in the old Freda’s site in Darlinghurst.
Chicago, New York and Detroit have all staked a claim on the Sydney pizza scene. But until recently, one piece of the pie was missing. Lesser known, yet equally delicious, is New Haven pizza: a thin, crispy “tomato pie”, that has just touched down in Darlinghurst.
Try it at Appizza, a New Haven-inspired pizza shop by A.P Bakery with Stefano De Caro, the chef-owner behind Surry Hills restaurant Cicerone Cucina Romana. The red and white checked pizzeria is now serving giant foldable slices and soft-serve floats from the former Freda’s site on the corner of Oxford Street and Flinders, with bright red tables flowing onto Taylor Square. Slices start at $9.99.
In the US state of Connecticut, New Haven is where many Italians settled at the turn of the 20th century, bringing across Neapolitan pizza-making techniques that evolved into what locals call “apizza” (pronounced “ah-beetz”). The style is thin, crispy and deeply charred, topped with crushed tomatoes, oregano and Pecorino Romano.
While apizza is typically cooked in a coal-fired brick oven, Appizza is baking theirs on a Swedish PizzaMaster electric deck oven. “You definitely don’t want that big, kinetic, burning heat like you would with a Neapolitan-style of pizza,” says A.P Bakery’s head baker, Dougal Muffet. “It’s a slower bake, which gives you a crispier, sturdier product that holds up well – which is important when you’re selling by the slice.”
“And also, they’re just very big pizzas,” says De Caro. A commercial electric oven is better suited to manage the whopping 22-inch rounds. “Two or three slices would pull up a normal human,” Muffet says.
A sign promoting “Australian Tomato Pies” points to the use of local ingredients on the menu. “For so many years, it was hard to make a good pizza in Australia using just local ingredients,” De Caro says. Not any more.
The long-fermented dough is made from a mix of Wholegrain Milling Co. flour from Gunnedah combined with A.P Bakery’s own stone-milled flour. Pepperoni and mortadella is sourced from LP’s Quality Meats in Marrickville, prosciutto and ’nduja from Pino’s Dolce Vita Fine Foods in Kogarah and the mozzarella is from Vanella, also in Marrickville.
“The only thing missing is really good tomatoes,” De Caro says. At the moment, the sauce is a blend of NSW tomatoes with those from Sardinia. “My goal is to get that to 100 per cent Australian, but at the moment it’s hard to get the amount we need. But we’ll get there.”
Simplicity is part of the style, and as such, there are only four slices on the menu: a classic tomato, a pepperoni one, cheese, and a salad version – topped with mesclun leaves, a liquorice-scented oil and Grana Padano, served with a lemon wedge. There’s an option to add extras such as cured meats, anchovies and stracciatella.
Save your crusts to drag through dips created by A.P Bakery co-owner Mat Lindsay, which include ranch, ’nduja tomato honey and green sauce.
A soft serve machine adds to the street party vibes, turning out seasonal flavours such as fior di latte and Davidson plum, served separately or swirled together. You can even try them atop a margarita to make a boozy ice-cream float.
There are slushies, too. A spicy, icy margarita is made from sweet-tart blood oranges with pickled jalapeños for heat. Chris Thomas from Tippled is behind the drinks list, which is infused with native ingredients, from a lemon myrtle negroni to a Sydney sling, spiked with Illawarra plum-infused gin.
Open Thu 4pm until late; Fri-Sun midday until late.
Appizza, 191–195 Oxford Street, Darlinghurst, apbakery.com.au.
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Erina Starkey – Erina is the Good Food App Editor for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age. Previously, Erina held a number of editing roles at delicious.com.au and writing roles at Broadsheet and Concrete Playground.
