THE PIZZA LOUNGE, South Fremantle
by JENNY D’ANGER:
A career in psychiatry had been on Ryan Bookless’ life plan, but walking past an empty shop in Swanbourne changed all that.
He opened his first Pizza Lounge in Swanbourne in 2001 and his second upmarket pizzeria on South Terrace, in South Fremantle several weeks ago, where things have really taken off.
The former Sandcastles Restaurant next to the South Beach Hotel has been transformed into a hip space, with huge bifold windows overlooking the street.
A gorgeous soft-golden, hoop pine ceiling curves gracefully down to form a wall at one end of the restaurant. One so soft and silky looking I wanted to stroke it.
A stack of logs against one wall are purely for effect (although there is a wood-fired pizza oven out the back) but they look great.
The low-slung, sculptural-timber chairs however are a case of form over function—they look fantastic but are so uncomfortable we moved to a more cramped table where seats were more suited to older and less flexible spines.
The first question when perusing the menu was do we choose a small one each (25cm) for $21 or a share a large (33cm) for $25.
The debate ended after I wandered over to a table that had ordered both: “Don’t order large for one,” was the firm verdict from a young woman heroically trying to manage singlehandedly.
A particularly fine serve of garlic bread ($6.50), moist and with enough garlic to keep vampires at bay, helped while we narrowed down our choice of toppings.
It’s made easy for vegos, with just three choices—vego, vego #1 and korma kurry. Sadly the calzone is only for omnivores.
We were very happy with our kurry (it should be illegal, shouldn’t it?): the curry base was a fantastic alternative to the usual tomato, and came with butternut pumpkin, mushrooms and Spanish onions, topped with cherry tomatoes and lashings of lovely, fresh rocket.
Our mates shared the meat lover, topped with cacciatore sausage, bacon and chicken.
We were full, but not so full we couldn’t eat dessert.
A berry crumble ($9) had D’Angerous Dave almost swooning at the sharpness and you really could discern the whisky over the deliciously rich chocolate of the whiskey chocolate pudding ($8).
The Pizza Lounge is a welcome addition to South Fremantle’s growing dining scene, and with a liquor licence in the offing I reckon locals will be flocking to it over the long hot summer to come.
SEE THE MENU AND MAKE A BOOKING HERE
The Pizza Lounge
396 South Tce, South Fremantle
Open Sun–Thur 12 noon to 9pm, Fri/Sat until 10pm