Michele Bei was born in Perugia but moved to Rome, where he learnt how to make traditional Roman-style pizza. Now he’s bringing the city’s famous pinsa and pizza al taglio (pizza by the slice) to New Farm with 075 Pinsa Romana, which he opened with his partner, Aleks Miletic.
Pinsa is having a moment in Brisbane. It popped up on the menu at recently opened bar The Alligator Club and is served at Doughcraft, La Lupa and Scugnizzi. Before that, there was Paddington’s now-closed La Pinsa, the city’s first pinseria.
But arguably no one is making it quite like 075 Pinsa Romana. According to Bei and Miletic, their 800-kilogram Castelli oven – a handmade Roman pizza oven – is what sets them apart. “You don’t cook bread or croissants in there, just Roman-style pizza,” Bei says.
The oven was shipped by boat and crane-lifted to the front entrance. From there, it had to be forklifted through the door, which proved a challenge. “We had a forklift on the inside and one on the outside, and only had a couple of millimetres on either side to get the oven through the door – it was very tight,” Miletic says.
When Broadsheet visits, Bei is preparing his first pizza of the day. He spreads the bubbly, high-hydration dough onto a rectangular tray and smooths San Marzano tomato sugo over the base with his hands. He explains the dough uses a blend of flours, meaning there’s less wheat flour than a typical Neapolitan-style pizza. The result: a light, airy, crisp base that’s soft on the inside and is easier to digest.
For the oval-shaped pinsa, rosse (tomato base) options include a diavola with hot salami and olives, and a carnivora with ham, hot salami, pancetta and Italian sausage. From the bianche (white base) section, there’s a potato, pancetta and rosemary combination, and a four-cheese blend of mozzarella, grana, gorgonzola and smoked provola.
A large cabinet displays the pizza al taglio, with options such as amatriciana (San Marzano tomato, mozzarella, pancetta, red onion and grana) and salsiccia (Italian sausage, mushroom and mozzarella). There’s also suppli, deep-fried rice balls that are a popular Roman street snack and the city’s answer to arancini. You can BYO wine, provided you don’t mind drinking from a plastic cup – there’s no room for a glass dishwasher in the tiny space.
“We wanted to be super casual; we don’t want this to be a restaurant,” Miletic says. “We want this to be somewhere you can have a casual bite to eat, order a full-sized pizza if you want and either take it away or sit down.”
The interior is clean and simple, with burgundy tiles, white walls and a handful of seats inside and out. More decor will be added over time, but for now, a painting of Bei’s home town by a local artist hangs on the wall.
075 Pinsa Romana
3/75 Welsby Street, New Farm
0491 785 562
Hours:
Tue to Thu 11am–8pm
Fri & Sat: 11am–8.30pm
Sun 11am–3pm
075pinsaromana.com
@075pinsaromana
Dining and Cooking