Before I Love Pizza had more than 20 stores across NSW and Queensland, it had one shop in Balgowlah.
Thiago and Roberta arrived in Australia from southern Brazil in 2007 and have lived around Manly ever since. Roberta was a chef; Thiago a project manager. In 2012, they decided to open their own pizza business.
They chose Balgowlah for its central location. The flavours drew on what they grew up with in southern Brazil, offering something a little different from what they were seeing locally.
“From the moment we opened, it was clear locals wanted something like this on their doorstep,” they said.
Several of the pizzas they created when I Love Pizza first opened are still on the menu today, including Chicken Catupiry, Portuguese, Churrasco and Five Cheese.
Five years later, I Love Pizza opened its second Northern Beaches store in Dee Why, followed by Mona Vale in 2020. Unfortunately, the timing meant its newest store was barely getting started before COVID turned the hospitality industry upside down.
With restrictions changing how restaurants could operate, I Love Pizza moved to contactless delivery as its only service option. The business says local customers helped keep all three stores going, continuing to order pizzas as everyone adjusted to pandemic uncertainty.
“What got us through that tricky period wasn’t a plan we had in place; it was the community,” I Love Pizza said.
“Locals kept ordering, kept supporting us and never stopped showing up even when everything else felt uncertain.”
Fourteen years after opening in Balgowlah, the business now has more than 20 stores across NSW and Queensland.
Here on the Northern Beaches, the original I Love Pizza is still in Balgowlah, alongside stores in Dee Why and Mona Vale, with more than 30 people currently employed across the three stores.
Its relationship with the Northern Beaches extends beyond pizza, with the business sponsoring local clubs including Seaforth FC and Harbord FC. They also support STB, an Australian-Brazilian exchange organisation, along with Brazilian community events on the Northern Beaches.
Through that growth, Thiago and Roberta still credit the Northern Beaches customers who backed the original Balgowlah store with helping I Love Pizza grow beyond the peninsula.
“From day one, the Northern Beaches community has been the reason I Love Pizza has grown at all,” they said.
As a thank-you, I Love Pizza is offering Manly Observer readers 40 per cent off pickup orders from its Balgowlah, Dee Why and Mona Vale stores from Monday to Thursday.
Use the code MANLYOBSERVER when ordering. The offer will run for two months from the publication of this article.
