Page 22 - foodservice - June 2018
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TRADE TALK
Above clockwise from left: The Maybe Frank dining room; Margherita Pizza; and co-owner Vince Lomdaro.
who can manage purchasing, rotating stock and the like.”
MAYBE FRANK
WITH VINCE LOMBARDO
“I haven’t ever met anyone that doesn’t like pizza. Some people absolutely love, love, love it, some love, love it and some love it. Worst case is that some people just like it, but I don’t think I have met anyone that doesn’t eat it.”
Vince Lombardo’s passion for pizza is unmistakable. Co-owner of Sydney’s Maybe Frank, he’s been in the pizza business for years. Indeed, with his family owning Italian restaurants for over 40 years, he has grown up with pizza in his blood and a discernible palate.
“I don’t directly make pizza, I leave it to the experts,” he reveals, “but I guess my strength would be identifying the difference between bad pizza, good pizza and amazing pizza.”
He put his skills to the test when he teamed up with business partner Stefano Cantino to launch Maybe Frank in Surry Hills in late 2015. The combination of traditional Italian food with modern cocktails has proven a success, and the operation has since expanded to include a Randwick location.
“There’s no other place you can get the quality of pizza matched with our world class cocktails,” Lombardo says.
“We have a great bar team that truly appreciates and understands the importance of our pizza at Maybe Frank and are great at making matching cocktails to compliment them.”
To create their classic-leaning menu, the Maybe Frank team creates its extensive range of its typically red base pizzas using high quality, type 00 flour and a Valoriani oven, imported from Italy. Sticking to the traditional style, there are no beef or chicken
toppings on offer. It is perhaps unsurprising that the most popular pizza with diners is the Margherita.
It’s Lombardo’s as well, which he likes to pair with a good sangiovese. “With fresh ingredients it really never gets old or tiresome. It’s also light so even if you’re not too hungry you can always have one because I have a pizza every other day. Margherita is also the best way of determining the quality of pizza when you go to any pizzeria.”
Other creations also loved by diners are ‘The Alba’ with fior di latte mozzarella, Italian sausage, truffle pecorino, rosemary, and cherry tomatoes, and the ‘Nutella Bomb’, a dessert calzone filled with Nutella.
And Lombardo’s tip for what’s trending in pizzas is “truffle, truffle, truffle! Any pizza with it sells very well. Buying ingredients that are in season, it’s crucial you never ever skimp on quality as it makes a huge difference.”


































































































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