“The team has mastered the art of making dough – not too thin, not too thick and easy to digest,” writes dining reviewer WENDY JOHNSON.

THE foundation of a glorious pizza is the dough. 

At the Department of Pizza, or DOP, which opened at Campbell shops mid-August, dough is king. The team has mastered the art of making dough – not too thin, not too thick and easy to digest.

DOP also worships quality tomato and olive bases and super-tasty toppings, many sourced locally (including rosemary from a mum’s garden). 

Located where the former bottle shop used to be, DOP is already pumping out pizzas at an amazing rate, especially for takeaway (couple of hundred on one Friday night). We visited to dine in and our taste buds fired up with two flatbreads – sea salt and rosemary ($12), followed by gorgonzola and roast walnut ($14).

The pizzas, created with love, are wood-fired, traditional and authentic. That includes the margherita ($18) with a flavour-bomb tomato sauce, fresh, aromatic basil, and yum fior di latte. How can something so simple taste so sensational?

Next up was the potato and prosciutto pizza, with the garlic olive oil base ($22). Ingredients included rosemary and more of that classic fior di latte. Divine. We got our kick of the day with the salami, mushroom and olive pizza on a tomato base ($22). The hot sopressa salami was mouth-wateringly delicious.

Desserts are sensational. Lemon is one of my all-time favourites and the limoncello cake was moist and to die for. We couldn’t resist the decadent tiramisu. Neither dessert looked refined, but we forgave that with the first bite. 

The blackboard wine list is inspiring and features labels that DOP members discovered while in Adelaide and Noosa (glasses $11 to $16; bottles $36 to $63). We enjoyed a beautiful Fiano and an inspiring Adelaide Hills Gentle Folk Vin de Sofa (bring it to life by chilling for a bit). This perfect blend of pinot noir and pinot gris is described by the folks at Gentle Folk as ‘loveable and slurpable’.

The décor at DOP is simple but smart. There’s a long bar to the left as you walk in, with a massive pizza oven at the back. Tiles are a crisp white and emerald green. A lovely feature is an original door from the old bottle shop, with its layers of paint stripped away to reveal gorgeous wood. Behind it sits the Mona Lisa.

Things are evolving and we can’t wait to go back to sit at the custom Tasmanian long table that was on its way when we visited – or perhaps perch in a possie outside in the sun.