Don’t expect to see pasta on the menu at Tipo 00’s new venue. The focus here is pizza, snacks and secondi.

Figlia, which means ‘daughter’ in Italian, is slated to open in April. The dough-obsessed team of Luke Skidmore, Andreas Papadakis and Alberto Fava are still perfecting the base.

“We’re playing with recipes on the dough, we’re looking at using the whey from the cheese we make in-house in the dough itself to help fermentation. We want to make a naturally-fermented sourdough pizza,” says Skidmore.

“The whey makes it taste a bit lighter and slightly more tart, but the big thing for us is a naturally fermented dough is easily digestible and much lighter, so you can eat more and feel lighter when you leave.”

It also means you don’t have to limit yourself to just pizza, there’ll be room for snacks as well as heavier secondi such as meat or vegetable dishes cooked on the open fire grill.

“We want people to have a pizza in the sense of a secondi – have a couple of snacks and a pizza or a pizza and a secondi as opposed to a pizza each and then leave,” Skidmore says.

“The pizza toppings will be pretty classic and the snacks will be Italian-leaning, but with our classic modern take.”

Skidmore is adamant that pasta has no place on this menu. “There are only so many pastas you can eat,” he says. “The focus at Figlia is for pizza to be the main component.”

Unlike their small CBD venues, Tipo 00 and Osteria Ilaria, Figlia is a place to linger. There’s room for 70-80 people and will have a mix of bar and table seating. It will take bookings for larger groups and have space for walk-ins.
“You can come in for a few snacks, a glass of wine and hang out or stay for a pizza and a bottle of wine,” Skidmore says.

Figlia is just one half of the venue, the other is a deli. Grana will be a place to pick up cured-meats, house-made cheeses, panini and wine. “It’s all encompassed in one venue, Figlia is on one side and Grana is on the other. The venue will be separated by a large, custom-made fridge for wine, salumi and produce,” Skidmore says.

“Some of the cured meats will be done in-house and Lucy Whitlow will be making cheeses there (hence the whey in the pizza dough). There’ll also be produce, panini and wine for takeaway.”

The move from Melbourne’s CBD to Lygon Street not only allows for more space but lets the team put their modern Italian spin on a strip that is renowned for old school Italian dishes.

“I like the area as a place to go,” says Skidmore. “It’s becoming a very exciting area to dine and there are lots of good venues around there. I think it’s a great area to do something like this.”

Figlia and Grana will open at 331 Lygon Street in Brunswick East in early April. 

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