Leo’s By The Slice

The Verdict

Leo’s By The Slice is a vintage-inspired slice shop where they’re (paper) plating up NY-style pizza at the front, with a party in the back.

In the name of research, Chef Nick Stanton embarked on a tour of slice shops in New York and Los Angeles. “The pizza game in Australia is very different, so I went over to the US and checked it out, mainly the layouts of how the pizza shops work over there and how they operate.”

Stanton says they’re keeping it traditional at Leo’s and sticking to the core rules of the slice. “I wanted to make the menu as simple as possible, creating textbook staple style pizzas. I didn’t want to overkill and overdo and keep adding all these things to the menu. We’re a slice shop so we want to focus on the core things and make that the best we can do. And maybe add a few things later on.”

You’ll find a total of eight pizzas on the menu, including a selection of vegan options. There’s the classics including the Margherita and the Pepperoni, to something a little different—the vegan Chinese Bolognese, a meat-free homage to the former Ramblr menu.

The Leo’s dough is naturally leavened, which means naturally risen. In terms of ingredients, Stanton’s put efforts into sourcing as many as possible from around Victoria, including shiitake mushrooms sourced from a shiitake farmer located in the Otways.

Image credit: Griffin Simm