The Thousands

People from the countryside are so damn lucky. If ‘going home’ means driving down a winding road to a cottage on a hill where delicious smells waft through the windows, you’ve got it made. But for us city types who long for such a retreat, the newly opened St Andrew’s Pizza Shop is about as close as we can hope to get. Only a 45-minute drive from Melbourne proper and opposite the St Andrew’s markets, the Pizza Shop is barely a week old but already bustles with the air of a much-loved local.

The venue is owned by Steve Simich, refined gent and all-round bon vivant, and Dan Zeidan, part owner of the Grace Darling Hotel and Strange Wolf Basement Bar, so you know it’s going to be good. What you don’t know is that it’s really, really good.

The boys hoof it behind the bar with their red tea towels thrown over one shoulder, grinning as they toss dough to the crackling sound of the record player. The pizzas are all made from locally sourced ingredients, which are fresh and creatively put together. The lemon curd and berry dessert pizza is particularly good. With a liquor licence still in the works, bring a beer-filled esky and raise a cold one to the lads. They’ve done good. Because unlike so many of the posturing city café’s and trendy gastro-pubs, the St. Andrew’s Pizza Shop is timeless, genuine, and truly beautiful.