Matteo Ernandes arrived in Sydney in 2014, and he’s been building towards owning his own pizzeria ever since. He earned his pizza stripes by the woodfired ovens of Sydney pizza classics like Matteo in Double Bay and Da Orazio in Bondi. Then he took the reins at the great – but sadly closed – Avoja, by Lumi and Lode Pies chef-owner Federico Zanellato.

Oh, and he grew up in his family’s pizzeria on the remote Sicilian island of Lampedusa. Maybe tomatoes don’t fall too far from the vine. He was born to do this.

“My father was a pizza chef, so pizza has been in my life since before I was born,” Ernandes tells Broadsheet. “I worked in the pizzeria, being taught by my dad, until I got to the point where I was able to work on my own.”

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After rubbing shoulders with Sydney’s pizza royalty, Ernandes is hoping to join it with Regina (which means “queen” in Italian), in Redfern’s new Wunderlich Lane. He’s joined by his old boss Zanellato, who’s brought along his wife and Lumi co-owner Michela Boncagni (who runs the floor), and chef Karl Firla (Restaurant Leo, Oscillate Wildly).

“It feels like a dream to have my own restaurant,” he says. “Whenever I get tired, I remember the sacrifices I made for this investment, and it gives me an extra kick of energy.”

Regina has a confidently demure appearance. It’s cream and emerald throughout, from the half-tiled walls to the chequerboard floors. Consider sitting at the counter. You’ll have front-row seats to the open pizza kitchen, where you can watch the team expertly manoeuvre – and dodge – their pizza peels and turning paddles to work on the pies in the woodfired oven.

That oven is a Fazzone, the only one in Sydney. Pasquale Fazzone’s ovens are renowned for their low ceilings and volcanic stones. This design gives them near-peerless heat retention and distribution, ensuring even cooking across the pizza, from the beginning to the end of service. The Fazzone at Regina, covered in jade-coloured tiles, is a beauty. And you’d hope so – it cost more than €20,000 (approximately $34,500).

On an average Saturday night, that oven will bash out about 250 pizzas – ranging from classics like margheritas and diavolas, to those with more esoteric toppings like the Fellini: Comté, spicy honey, fior di latte and corn. (Get that one, it’s great.)

But the most surprising thing about Regina isn’t the excellent woodfired pizzas, it’s the other two styles. Make sure to get a padellino or a pizza fritta. Ideally, get both.

The deep-dish padellino pizzas are small, round and pan-baked in a Moretti deck oven. Topped with white bolognaise or duck ragu, they’re disarmingly light and airy. Then there’s the fried pizzas. Don’t think of them like panzerotti or deep-fried Neapolitan pizza montanara. These don’t taste fried at all – the bases are given a shallow pan-fry before getting a second cook in the oven. They are somehow both criminally crisp and impossibly fluffy. Order one. There’s nothing like this pizza fritta on the Sydney scene right now.

Pizza traditionalists and adventurers alike will find lots to love about Regina. Here’s hoping its reign is just getting started.

Regina La Pizzeria
2 Baptist Street, Redfern
0416 172 280

Hours:
Mon to Fri 5pm–9.30pm
Sat & Sun midday–2.30pm, 5pm–9.30pm

reginalapizzeria.com
@reginalapizzeria