Meet Lola’s Pizza, the little sister to cult Freo sandwich spot Peggy’s
“Peggy’s is meant to be something that’s nostalgic.”
The sandwich shop has become one of the must-hits for any visitors to Fremantle – in fact, it was almost embarrassing how often the Perth is OK! team would bump into each other there in its first few months of operation, desperate to get our hands on the (now sorely missed) Cubano, a cheeky sausage muffin or chicken schnitty.
The man behind the sandwiches? Harry Peasnell, a Melbourne transplant with a background in fine dining who has bought big into Fremantle’s renaissance.
When we chat to Harry, it’s a particularly lovely morning – the skies are blue, the air is crisp. It’s exactly the type of morning that we’d love to spend wandering around Freo, and we’re perched on Market Street enjoying the people watching as he explains the ethos behind Peggy’s – and her incoming little sister, Lola’s Pizza.
(Peggy’s is named after his first daughter, Lola’s namesake is her one year old little sister.)
“It’s easy to digest mentally, physically… It’s meant to be stuff that everyone knows, but the best version of it. And that’s the ethos that we’re trying to bring across to Lola’s – we do it in a small manner but we do it well and really focus on the product.”
Just a couple of doors down from Peggy’s, a former souvenir shop has been totally gutted – but its new façade feels as though its been there for decades, waiting for the perfect moment to be uncovered. Geometric steel-framed windows open up the space to the street, and vividly evoke Brian Klopper, whose work has defined Fremantle’s architectural vernacular.
Inside, the space is waiting for an impressive marble communal table, and for the wall’s rustic patinas to be gently unearthed. Like the unadulterated pleasure of a sausage muffin – it’s a kind of encapsulation of the ethos that good doesn’t necessarily have to be fancy.
“It’ll be super cosy in winter and it’s able to be opened up summer, because at the end of the day, people sit outside until 9, 10 o’clock at night in Perth.”
Similarly to Peggy’s, the Lola’s approach will see a succinct evening menu that focuses on an approachable pizza, merging the best of Australian suburbia and New York-style pies. If you’re thinking fluffy Neapolitan crusts – think again.
“We’re not trying to be an Italian pizzeria.”
“The pizza that I crave is almost ‘Australiana’… But with good dough, seasoned properly, really good ingredients, it’s pliable, you can eat it as a triangle and it doesn’t flop, you can eat it the next day as a guilty pleasure out of your fridge and you don’t have to heat it up in the microwave and eat it with a knife and fork.”
“The draft menu we’ve got at the moment has only got 10 pizzas on it, couple of snacks, two really cool salads, maybe one or two desserts, a small little booze list… Trying not to have menu filler items.”
While you can call up for takeaways, restaurant customers will be able to try select dine-in specials – including limited numbers of Detroit-style pies, made in specially imported cast iron Lloyd pans.
“We’ve only got 25 of the best ones you can get, and you can only use them once a night because you have to proof your dough in the tin.”
“[Dining in] you’ll be able to drink some really good booze, really simple booze but good, table pizza wine, pizza cocktails, we’ve got Shelter Brewing as our tap system, just trying to keep everything local.”
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“I feel like there’s such a big avenue for what I like and expect out of a pizza service – being able to call and know that you’re speaking to a human that’s involved with it, if there’s a problem you can actually speak to the people that are standing next to the oven.”
(They’re hoping to launch a delivery option in November.)
“I just want it to be fucking yum, that’s all it comes down to. I just want everything we do with all of our venues to just be fucking yum.”
“The world’s hard, everyone’s struggling, but a cold cup of beer and a pizza on a Friday night, waking up on Saturday morning and having a couple of slices left… Fucking awesome. It’s so good!”
Lola’s Pizza is scheduled to open at the end of September, and will be located at 41 Market Street, Fremantle.