Sydney Food Truck Happy as Larry Opens CBD Pizza Cafe
A permanently parked Italian eatery from The Grounds of Alexandria's Adam Choker, Bondi Hardware's Chris Lu and head pizzaiolo Anthony Severino.
Pizza-on-wheels food truck Happy as Larry has found a permanent park in Sydney's CBD. The team will now be slinging their wood-fired favourites from their new flagship shop in the MetCentre. The casual Italian eatery is a laidback lunch affair with a main bar feature made from sheets of recycled shipping container — a thoughtful nod to the brand's food truck roots.
The team behind this venture includes Happy as Larry co-owners/childhood friends Anthony Severino (head pizzaiolo), Chris Lu (Bondi Hardware) and Adam Choker (The Grounds of Alexandria), the latter of whom also co-own Flower Child Chatswood and recently opened a Warringah outpost.
The made-to-order cafe menu, is focused on pizzas and pastas. Severino spent the last few months perfecting his own dough recipe and, as with the truck, his pizzas pay homage to the Neapolitan classic while being noticeably lighter, crispier and topped with non-traditional ingredients — there's the lobster ($26), topped with black truffle pate, oyster mushroom and sea salt, or the lasagne ($18), topped with ricotta, beef and pork ragu. Traditional pies also make the cut, like the margherita ($15) and diavola ($18), while their ever-popular (though blasphemous to Italians) speck and pineapple ($17) stands loud and proud. For mains, the Tasmanian crispy skin salmon on squid ink lasagna comes with chilli jam and cauliflower puree ($24).
For the city crowd, they're also serving up a pretty standard yet tasty-sounding brekkie menu, featuring house-baked granola, acai bowls and eggs benny. The real morning draw will be for the coffee — sourced from The Grounds — and the pastries, which are made daily in-house and include their beloved Nutella doughnuts. They're also offering up shakes, smoothies and homemade sodas, with an alcohol license not far away.
While the truck will no longer be rolling around town, it is still available for private functions and epic house parties.
Happy as Larry is now open at the MetCentre, Shop MG14, 23 Jamison, Sydney. Open for breakfast and lunch, Monday through Friday from 7am to 4pm and delivery from 10am-9pm.