It was late on Wednesday morning when the line started spilling out onto George Street for Merivale’s new takeaway joint, Oti. The doors hadn’t even opened yet, but group executive chef Mike Eggert – a guy whose woodfired bread has become so popular it’s entered Sydney’s cultural lexicon – couldn’t believe the hype.
“It definitely wasn’t my first rodeo. I feel like I’ve been riding a horse my whole life. But yesterday I rode a bull for the first time,” he tells Broadsheet.
“We had 1300 portions between pizzas and sandwiches yesterday. We were expecting that to last all day and we sold out in three hours. But the whole team was buzzing. I never want to get to a stage in my career where I don’t love seeing a line. Because it means we’re doing something right.”
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SIGN UPTaking over the pocket-sized space held by retired master pastry chef Lorraine Godsmark until last year, Oti is keeping her powerhouse patisserie’s legacy alive – albeit in a different form.
“If you look at the quality of Sydney’s woodfired pizza scene, there’s not really many levers you can pull with pizza,” says Eggert. “The only angle for us was to really put some time and effort into the bread itself.”
He’s tapped Vincenzo Vincenzo Biondini and Sara Masi – the Italian maestros behind Merivale’s bread program – to make the Roman-style dough, which is certifiably “doughy, big, juicy, fluffy”, and something Eggert admits he could go on forever about.
“The other angle is the sauce. A secret red sauce, a secret white sauce. That’s the bit we can elevate.”
If you caught the latest season of Chef’s Table (a predictably moving tribute to pizza), the second episode profiling renegade Roman chef Gabriele Bonci is a pretty good indication of what you’ll find at Oti. A handsome lineup of door-stopping, focaccia-like slices punctuates the takeaway window, each one weighed down by a variety of cold-cuts, seasonal veg and cheeses. Believe us – these things require two hands to carry, and warrant the $15 price tag.
While there’s no physical menu, you’ll find the day’s offering posted on the shop’s Instagram stories. Eggert says there’ll always be a Margherita, a ham and pineapple, salami and peppers, a capricciosa and a green slice. “And then there are about 10 others we’re playing around with.”
The other half of the story is sandwiches, made with hand-stretched schiacciata bread – a thin-and-crispy cousin of focaccia, hailing from central Italy. Fillings will also rotate frequently, but when Broadsheet visited, we tried prosciutto with rocket and mozzarella, and mortadella with ricotta, stracciatella, black pepper and a green lick of green pesto. All cold-cuts are sliced to order.
It’s fair to expect hefty queues at Oti, but once you’re actually inside, you’ll be walking out with your slice or sanga in under two minutes. That’s if there’s anything left by the time you get there.
Oti
Shop /5, Palings Lane, Sydney
Hours:
Sun to Wed: 11am–8pm
Thurs to Sat: 11am–2am