Doing one thing and doing it well is the mantra of the team at Pinto Tiramisu. They’re all about (yes) everyone’s favourite Italian dessert at this new Fitzroy café, which in true Fitzroy form is found down a side street in a converted garage.
The menu is a singular vision, with fat stacks of savoiardi soaked in espresso layered between generous dollops of house-made mascarpone. And while there’s no prizes for guessing the classic tiramisu is quickly becoming a Fitzroy favourite, Pinto makes a compelling case for more experimental riffs, including a rule-breaking Earl Grey dulce and a peanut brownie number.
And the dream? When brothers Clancy and Finley Ivanac were both working on superyachts in the Mediterranean, they got in the habit of tasting and rating Italy’s tiramisu on their days off. Soon after, Finley shipped out to Treviso, the city in the northeast of Italy thought by some to be the birthplace of tiramisu, where he found a scoop that he described as the closest thing to a perfect 10.
“He sampled some of the best around the region and the highest rating he landed on was a 9.5 out of 10,” says Clancy. “So there was still room for improvement.”
And while knocking the Italian originators off the podium – not least from the other side of the world in a Fitzroy garage – is a bold proposition, it’s one that the family Ivanac are dead serious about. And the proof is in the pudding: when demand outgrew supply in the 18 months they spent operating out of their apartment kitchen and from their custom tiramisu tricycle at farmers’ markets, the team knew they needed a more permanent home.
“It was once we started doing farmers markets that it really started to pick up and we got really busy,” says Clancy. “We’ve even employed Mum full-time.”
Today, Pinto produces around 4,000 cups of tiramisu a week, with that number showing no signs of slowing down now that their shopfront is in full swing. What’s in the secret sauce, though? Bar the home-made mascarpone, savoiardi and top-quality espresso, Clancy says the success is found in the R&D – and countless hours of what he calls research on YouTube.
“It took a lot of YouTube. I loved watching Josh Weissman and Binging with Babish and stuff like that. That’s where I learned and where I got a lot of ideas.”
Pinto Tiramisu, 106 Leicester St, Fitzroy, open 9am-3pm Wed-Sun, pintotiramisu.com.au, @pinto.tiramisu