New Melbourne restaurant 9MILE Pizza has officially taken over the kitchen at Baby Driver with a pop-up devoted entirely to Detroit-style slices.
The new Melbourne restaurant collaboration between 9MILE and the upstairs sibling of CBD whisky haunt Beneath Driver Lane marks the first venue in Melbourne’s city centre dedicated solely to the thick, rectangular pizza style born out of the American midwest. Each pie is baked in steel pans, producing an airy dough base with caramelised cheese edges that crisp up against the sides. The entire menu is a nod to Detroit’s most famous musical export, with every pizza named after an Eminem track.
Options span the restrained to the ridiculous. Without Me keeps things simple with a secret cheese blend, marinara, parmesan and basil. 9MILE Signature adds pepperoni with chilli honey, while Square Dance brings together sausage from Salumi Australia, rapini broccoli, pecorino and sriracha. Not Afraid goes the seafood route with prawn, fermented chilli sauce, garlic oil, rocket and lemon, and Lose Yourself piles on provolone, blue cheese, chilli honey and chives. For the truly committed, The Real Thick Shady stacks BBQ sauce, pancetta, pepperoni, sausage, smoked ham, red onion, olives and pickled jalapeño onto a single rectangular slab.
New Melbourne restaurant 9MILE
- Baby Driver, Level 1, Beneath Driver Lane, Melbourne CBD
- Open from 5pm (4pm on weekends)
- Also available at Silo No 9, Warehouse 4/1 Lennon St, West Melbourne — pick-up or via Uber Eats
Stay up to date with what’s happening in and around Melbourne here.
Beyond the pizza, the pop-up menu includes fried lasagne bites served with basil pesto and truffle mac and cheese bites with a house-made sauce. Every 9MILE base starts with premium Italian flour from Molino Dallagiovanna, chosen for the structure Detroit-style dough demands, paired with a signature cheese blend from Melbourne’s own That’s Amore Cheese.
Baby Driver’s cocktail list has been tailored to match. The 9Mile Last Word reworks the Detroit-born bartender’s classic, swapping chartreuse for genepy to create something more sessionable and citrus-forward, served over frozen Luxardo syrup. There’s also a riff on an iced Irish coffee made with Jameson Black Barrel, Mr Black espresso liqueur and fresh espresso poured over ice, topped with Hokkaido soft serve and grated coffee.
9MILE Pizza at Baby Driver
9MILE is a concept from The Talisman Group, a hospitality outfit headquartered in Queensland with venues across Brisbane and Melbourne. The pizza arm originated from the group’s existing Silo No 9 site in West Melbourne, where the full menu remains available for pick-up and delivery. The CBD pop-up at Baby Driver operates as a limited activation, so it’s worth getting in sooner rather than later. For anyone who wants to sample the entire range in one hit, the Ass Like That serves up a quarter of each pizza on a single pie.
For more information, head here.
