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Melbourne Street is about to have a new pizza address, and it comes from people who already know what they’re doing.
Falcone is the latest venture from the family behind Tonino Deli and Side Hustle Pizza, bringing wood-fired Neapolitan pizza to North Adelaide in a compact space built around a traditional oven and a clear point of view.
“We’d been thinking for a long time about coming closer to the city and doing what we love most, wood-fired pizza,” shares the Falcone team.
“Melbourne Street, and North Adelaide in general, is one of the best pockets in the city in our eyes, so it felt like the perfect fit.”
The Falcone offering is tight. Blistered, soft-centred pizzas, buttery breads, classic tiramisu and Italian soft drinks. Nothing more than it needs to be.
The venue will primarily be takeaway, with a handful of outdoor seats, but the large front window invites customers to watch the theatre. Dough stretched by hand, pizzas dressed and slid into the oven in full view, and every pie overseen by Side Hustle pizza pros Nick and Leo.
“We wanted to create a place where people can actually see the process — the dough, the fire, the oven — and taste the difference that real wood-firing makes,” the team says. “Falcone is all about transparency, simplicity and flavour.”
Image: Stelios Triantafillides, Sky Stories Media
All pizzas at Falcone will be cooked over wood, delivering the gentle, irresistible char and elasticity that define proper Neapolitan style. Flavours will rotate regularly, giving regulars a reason to return, while the fundamentals stay consistent and carefully executed as they should. The team stays tight-lipped on most details, but they tease a signature, The Falcone – roasted garlic butter cooked in the wood-fired oven, topped with prawns – which does more than enough to awaken the palate.
“It’s a standout and we think people will love it,” they say.”The menu will be largely similar to Side Hustle, with a few Falcone-specific touches.”
The interior has been curated by Anna-Lisa Barone, also behind Tonino’s instantly recognisable fit-out – the one that catches eyes down King William Road for its curated aesthetics and that cool, quiet Italo-sprezzatura confidence. Falcone follows the same visual language. It’s warm and welcoming, but cool and assured, inspired by trips abroad.
“The inspiration for the space itself came from our team’s most recent trip to Europe, lots of small, cool venues that do one thing and do it really well. That simplicity and confidence definitely carries through to the fit-out,” they share.
Led by Nick, a uni student-turned multi-business owner who started slinging pizzas from his backyard at 19 and accidentally found himself rising to pizza fame, cool and confident is a given.
Falcone is also a full-circle moment for Nick. It lives on Melbourne Street, the same strip where his first real break came when local business Saintgarde invited him to set up a pizza station for a neighbourhood block party. The exposure led to four more catering bookings in 2021, helping Side Hustle move from backyard operation to business.
Years – and thousands of doughs – later, he’s back on the same street, this time with a permanent oven and – in true Italian spirit – a family operation behind him. The namesake, Falcone, is Nonna’s surname.
“Falcone is a continuation of our journey,” Falcone say. “What started as making pizzas in a garage has grown into something really special, but the heart stays the same — family, quality ingredients, and proper wood-fired pizza done the right way.”
In a city with no shortage of pizza, Falcone isn’t trying to reinvent the wheel, it simply aims to do the basics extremely well. And backed by two successful Italo-inspired hostpots already, Falcone will no doubt satisfy the pizza fiends and convert the sceptics with its charming wood-fired fare.
Falcone is slated to open late Jan to early Feb
Falcone
When: Coming soon
Where: 58 Melbourne street, Adelaide
@falcone_pizza
Dining and Cooking