Irymple couple Carmel and Joe Scarfo will be opening the town’s newest shopfront on Monday.
Our Pizza Kitchen has been set up in the old Sunbeam Foods/IPC building on the corner of Koorlong Avenue and Fifteenth Street.
Located behind the familiar heritage-listed arched frontage on Koorlong Avenue, the pair have become the first occupants of Irymple’s newest shopping precinct.
“It’s pre-made food,” Ms Scarfo said. “It’s easy for people to finish work, come and get something and it’s a five-minute meal.
“We’ve never really had the shop front, so that’s another good thing.”
Their wholesale pizza and pasta supply business was created in January 2020.
It was being run from the home kitchen of Carmel’s mother Elvira Cua, but the space quickly became unsuitable for the volume of orders they received.
“We used to do about 30 lasagnas in about one pot, now we’ve got double the stoves, double of everything, more space, more room,” Ms Cua said.
The venture initially saw the couple delivering meals to homes, before word spread, and they started supplying businesses.
Prior to opening this new shopfront, Our Pizza Kitchen’s goods have been sold at three AMPOL service stations in the Mildura area, and they’ve also supplied food to Brother Chris and Uncle Monkeys.
They’ll soon have more to do, as Fishers IGA has agreed to stock their items in stores throughout town.
“That’s why we’ve come obviously into a bigger place,” Ms Scarfo said.
Carmel’s sister-in-law Natalie Cua said she hopes their presence in the precinct will bring the historic area back to life.
“This has been quite dull in the past 10 years,” she said. “You drive by and you don’t recognise it now with all of these shops, it’s bringing more attention and people, and hopefully we can bring more people to lease these shops, and bring Irymple this way.”
