Bande a Part

Isn’t pizza all grown up? In its awkward teenage stage it was thick and doughy with green capsicum and pineapple; now it’s transformed into a thin, sophisticated and worldly adult with fior di latte this and truffle that.

The owners of Pizza Meine Liebe in Northcote opened Bande à Part in 2009, a welcome addition to Melbourne’s exploding pizza scene. Named after a Jean-Luc Godard film, it’s a relaxed space with some quirky touches: a feature wall of stars, a hot pink ceiling section, little booths for couples, and black-and-white stills from its namesake movie.

The floor staff are suitably northside cool in appearance with cropped hair for the girls and long rock-star hair for the boys, but thankfully there’s no attitude to match.

There are dips and olives and a few pastas on offer, but people really come here for the long list of pizza with memorable names like ‘Ring of Fire’, ‘Smashing Pumpkin’ and ‘Florets & Spears’. The dough is a happy balance between thick and thin, crusty, with the lovely scent of garlic. There’s even a gluten-free option.

The ‘Sounds Greek to Me’ is bright green with diced silver beet and topped with slices of potato and haloumi. It’s a little subdued in flavour, but wedges of lemon help add some spark. The very symmetrical ‘Armando’s’ is a punchy, flavoursome combination of salami rounds, prawns and anchovies.

There are four salads on offer to break up the carb loading – the ‘Ms Pink’ salad is particularly fresh and lively with segments of juicy orange and beetroot. If you can’t get enough of the dough, then laugh in the face of Mr Atkins and order a dessert pizza. Kelly Eng