“With animal agriculture being the leading cause of deforestation, ocean dead zones, species extinction, and global warming gases, we thought the best way to practise sustainability was to remove animal products from our menu. Flavour and quality do not have to be compromised if you choose to make more sustainable and ethical decisions for your business.”

Pizza marinara; funghi e radicchio pizza; and vegan tiramisu.

The outcry was loud and long: Sydney’smuch-loved Gigi Pizzeria was renouncing animal products and going vegan.

The disbelief was understandable, but as the standout menu (and relentless queue) proves, there is life after prosciutto and mozzarella. In fact, the Newtown institution has one of its pizze – the marinara, with its simple topping of tomatoes, garlic and oregano - accredited by the Associazione Verace Pizza Napoletana, a non-profit Italian organization committed to protecting true Neapolitan pizza around the world.

Dough is still hand-stretched and cooked with care in the wood-fired oven, and the colourful toppings range from pumpkin cream with spinach, roasted cherry tomatoes, thyme, and rosemary to local favourite Swiss brown mushrooms, radicchio, roasted walnuts, and surprisingly good dairy-free blue cheese. Sprout & Kernel’s nut cheeses and White Chapel Grove extra-virgin olive oil keep the flavours fresh and local.

“Yep, vegan pizza. We admit it: we were sceptical (at best), and yet this unassuming pizza joint knocked our judgemental socks right off.”

–Lauren Sams, goodfood.com.au