Everyone loves a
family restaurant and when there’s Italian passion and good food involved it’s a winner. And that is how the franchised restaurant chain La Porchetta began 25 years ago.
Take yourself back to a time when the majority of Melbourne’s Italian restaurants were in Lygon Street, Carlton. The suburb seemed the obvious place to run a BYO pizza business and Rocco (known as Rocky) Pantaleo and Felice Nania committed themselves and their savings to the purchase of a small run-down pizza parlour called La Porchetta, in Rathdowne Street. They introduced the idea of good food at good value prices and the business has now become a full blown Italian cuisine, fully licensed restaurant over four shop fronts, seating over 200 people, has generated a string of franchised outlets, and 25 years on is still dishing up home-style meals and takeaway. Read more.