Sunnyside Sliced opens in Newstead
That’s why this Gasworks spot, imported from the Melbourne suburbs and (partially) inspired by New York, deserves your attention.
It was a story that didn’t really mean anything. Or nothingpizza maybe.
A Newstead resident visited Sunnyside Sliced, took long-distance video of the menu board and balked at the $80 pizza price. TikTok had a link.
The clue was in the name, of course. This is a New York-style slice shop built to sell pizza by the slice. And if it’s New York style, that means a whole pizza is a beast if you’re considering buying one; It is 2.5 times the size of a typical Neapolitan style pizza.
Yes, prices on all pizzas have gone up in Newstead – a $20 premium for the White Truffle pizza being the most notable indexation over the original Mentone store in south-east Melbourne. But most are cheaper in Newstead, and going back to slices, they tend to be the same price or cheaper than those further south.
“I’m trying to be a business where your 17-year-old working at Woolworths can buy a slice on the way home twice a week and not second-guess the price,” Cengiz says. “That’s why I went for $7 for a cheese slice and a pepperoni slice, because I want my brand to be for everyone.”
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Cengiz and the TikToker (who, to be fair, probably never intended for his tenure to end) HE viral) was ultimately successful, but it inflicted unnecessary morale on the debut, which had been three years in the making after the original Mentone restaurant opened in 2021.
When you ask Cengiz about the origins of Sunnyside Sliced, you may encounter a false start or two, as he tracks it down after a while. He says the Mentone restaurant originally intended to pay homage to Brooklyn food, but instead paid homage to his family’s pizza history.
Cengiz’s background at the time was in finance, but he had grown up working at his father’s pizza shop, Ali’s Pizza, in Cranbourne, deep in Melbourne’s south-east – “In 1991, customers didn’t know what an olive was,” he says with a laugh – and during a stint in New York, he had fallen head over heels in love with the West Village’s iconic slice shop, Joe’s Pizza.
“It was Manhattan at midnight on a Wednesday, and it was full of people having a good time,” he says. “For me, it was wabi-sabi, perfectly imperfect.”
Mentone is designed for dine-in as well as takeout. Newstead, which opened at the end of January, is much more than a simple counter operation inside Gasworks Plaza. However, the offer of the two is almost the same; It revolves around pizza served by the slice.
The menu splits the difference between New York-inspired round and pan pizza.
Round slices include Sunnyside Cheese (a blend of different Italian mozzarellas and aged parmesan, finished with basil), Pepperoni Classic (provolone and pepperoni), Hella Honey (provolone, chorizo, jalapeno, Bippi hot honey), and Red Truffle (tartufo cheese, mushrooms, black truffle paste).
Pan pizza is prepared in custom-made rectangular pans sourced from the United States. Both leavened and baked longer, the result is a thick, airy crust with a crisp, olive oil-fried base.
Toppings include New Mexico (Naples tomatoes, provolone, chorizo, red peppers, onions, jalapeno), Pickle Vodka (three cheeses, vodka sauce and shallots, finished with dill pickle sauce from Mat’s Hot Shop), and White Truffle (tartufo cheese, mushrooms, caramelized onions, black truffle paste).
There’s also a trio of sub sandwiches and a pair of appetizers, but Mentone’s pasta dishes haven’t made the journey north.
Cengiz uses Caputo semolina flour imported from Italy in his pizza and ferments his dough for two days in a temperature-controlled glass room, separate from the baking process. At the front is the three-deck Moretti Forni pizza oven with refractory brick cooking surface for whole pizzas and the three-deck Moretti Forni conveyor oven for slices.
There’s a stainless steel counter at the front and a nice menu on top, and that’s it. Much of the store’s personality is expressed through its adorable branding, courtesy of Pete Johnson of CIP Creative.
All TikTok posts aside, Cengiz says the response in Newstead has been positive, with the store’s first week matching its best week in relatively sleepy Mentone.
“I honestly couldn’t tell you how much money Mentone is making right now,” he says. “But that’s why I’m doubling down on the brand and expansion.
“It’s a very different beast, 73 square meters compared to 200 square metres. But I’m already learning a lot and meeting new people. You can see it opens new doors.”
Open every day between 11:00-21:00
Gasworks Plaza, 76 Skyring Terrace, Newstead
Matt Shea is Food and Culture Editor at the Brisbane Times. He is a former editor and editor-in-chief at Broadsheet Brisbane and has written for Escape, Qantas Magazine, Guardian, Jetstar Magazine and SilverKris, among others.
