Here’s what you want to do: ditch work early on a Friday, snake down the scenic Lawrence Hargrave Drive and stop when you get to the corner of Thirroul’s Raymond Road. You made a booking at Ciro’s when you earmarked your weekend (or night) away, stoked that it’s only an hour from Sydney. You wait while your table is found, ask for the golden house vermouth – on the rocks – and study the menu.

When I did just this, I was immediately taken with the sweet, homely decor – art scored secondhand, family photos Blu Tacked to the wall – and the heartfelt vibe. The staff were having fun, the service was smiley and efficient. The room was warmed by the blaze in a blue-tiled Ferrara Forni oven, found for a steal on Marketplace.

True to its small beachside-town home – which counts cocktail bar Frank’s Wild Years and standout fish’n’chipper Rosie’s in its mix – a meal here feels like a holiday.

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Our ordering was faultless, saved by the last-minute addition of the garlic bread. The charcoaled puffed-up beauty is a whopper, topped with a melty pool of butter (and meaty anchovies, should you wish). I took a bite, and actually laughed. “Stupid good,” I said with my mouth full.

Ciro’s is owned by four mates: Joel Mucci, Michael Zubrecky, Liam Forsythe and Marko Bozic. “We’re all second generation,” Mucci tells me of their respective Italian, Ukrainian, Slovakian and Croatian backgrounds. “We kind of use all those cultural influences for how it feels – that European hospitality.”

The group doesn’t have an extensive hospitality background, with everything they do guided by what they like and what they want to see in their area. And everyone brings something different. Mucci and Zubrecky were bakers, locking down the all-sourdough dough program. Bozic brings meaty experience from Whole Beast Butchery. Forsythe ditched his physio career in Sydney to work with his friends.

“[Liam’s gone] from physio to just running a 250-pizza Friday night pass,” says Mucci. “Mike just in the heat of the oven doing five, six pizzas in one load; Marco running front of house – they haven’t done that. It’s just cool to see what’s possible. In terms of creativity, we just bounce of each other.”

The Neapolitan pizzas are all winners: a flavour-packed margherita, a cheese jazzed up with garlicky honey, a bright green piselli pushing minty peas and pancetta. Shrooms Deluxe delivers sliced Swiss browns and a silky mushroom cream, held together by stretchy fior di latte and a smattering of parm; and there’s a fun take in the pan(cetta) and pineapple. Make sure you add the fermented chilli.

Zubrecky’s green thumb keeps a pantry stocked with house-made ferments of “weird and wacky things from his garden”; while head chef Keelan Orrock’s tidy collection of plates support the pizzas – zucchini alla scapece starring when we visited.

Hot ribbons of zucc straight off the chargrill are tossed in vinaigrette, then swirled into a bowl. Jewels of zested-up barberries, golden pine nuts and rough-chopped mint ride atop. My eyes bugged out at first bite, even better than the torn-up garlic bread. There’s a pasta too, and a Wagyu bresaola. And a cloud of tiramisu to finish.

It’s clear that the team is all-in. “We’re always here. That quality or passion or fragility, it all shows. Cos we’re actually here. We’re very lucky in that sense … there’s that bouncing around and having time off and just sharing the load, which we really prioritise.”

And there’s more to come: loaves of bread being developed, salumi hanging up to dry, wine fermenting. “Over in Europe they just do those things. We’re just trying to have fun, bring something to the area.”

Ciro’s
1 Raymond Road, Thirroul

Hours:
Mon 5pm–9pm
Wed to Sat 5pm–9pm

cirospizzathirroul.com
@ciros__pizza