At Tommy Panini, Baked Sandwiches Arrive Like Laundry: Fresh, Crisp, Folded

The panuozzo at the original Tommy Panini, in Brookvale, are passed through a window on the main road after being charred in a woodfired oven. The envelope-shaped Italian pizza-sandwich hybrids are served piping hot, stretchy with cheese and stuffed full of fresh ingredients. At the newest outpost, in Bondi, they’re just as hot – baked in an electric deck oven and intended to be the “best sandwich that people can get their hands on”.

That’s according to owner, chef and founder Tom Morrison. “Fresh dough, I mean, you can’t really beat it,” he tells Broadsheet. The dough is made in-house every morning, ready to power a tight menu or five or six “mostly Italian” sangas.

A melty mortadella serve is bolstered by fior di latte, a garlicky house pesto, rocket and pistachio praline. While a vego offering ditches the Italo pantry for falafel, which are cut with pickles and revved up with harissa labneh and green tahini.

“We sell a lot of the spicy vodka cotoletta: spicy vodka sauce, chicken schnitzel, pickled chillies, provolone cheese. It flies out the door,” he says. “We do a chicken cotoletta as well, which is similar to a classic chicken sandwich, but an Italian take on it, with Calabrian chilli mayo, zucchini pickles, fresh rocket, shaved parmesan on top and a sundried tomato tapenade that we make ourselves.”

Soon after opening, Brookvale was selling out daily. The team started taking pre-orders, then they’d sell out too. “We actually got too busy, I had to close because the staff weren’t ready for it, and the space wasn’t big enough. Unfortunately, we had to close over summer and rethink the whole business. We do a crazy amount of sandwiches, which is great. We found a venue in Bondi and I figured it was the perfect spot for another one.”

For an indication of the panuozzo’s power: Bondi weekends are selling out already, too.

“I was eating a lot, but I realised I couldn’t fit into my clothes anymore,” Morrison laughs. “But the staff love them, eat them every day. I pretty much owe most of this to my staff, really. They’ve helped me create this product, from the get-go.”

Tommy Panini’s facade is painted to look like a New York laundromat, setting the tone for the nighttime switch-out: Pizza Laundry, which Morrison co-owns with Kyle D’adam (ex- Old Mate’s, Mr Wong). Five days a week, from 5pm, there’s room for 25 to dine in, across indoor and outdoor seating. Joining the usual pies is a super-limited run of sesame-crusted grandma squares. “The pizzas we’re doing are a hybrid between New York and Italian style, thin and crispy.” Plus, it’s BYO.

“It’s actually just a bit of fun – I’ve always thought laundry and pizza had a few similarities: being fresh, then crisp and folded. And that’s where we got our slogan from. And this is a small stepping stone into a big adventure – eventually I want to have a shop that actually has a working laundromat in it, and then a secret door at the back to a cool speakeasy pizza bar at the back. New York vibes.”

Tommy Panini Bondi
141 Glenayr Avenue, Bondi Beach

Hours:
Wed to Sun 11am–3pm; 5pm–9pm (Pizza Laundry)

tommypanini.com
@tommypanini