The story
La Porchetta was established in 1985 by Rocco Pantaleo and Felice Nania, when they bought a run-down pizza parlour called La Porchetta in Rathdowne Street, Carlton. Their first franchise restaurant opened in the Melbourne suburb of Reservoir, Victoria in 1990. Since 1990, over 80 La Porchettas have opened across Australia, by 2017 around 40 outlets existed. As of 2026, only roughly 33 stores remain across Australia and New Zealand.
In August 2014, Retail Food Group, which owns franchise chains Crust Pizza, Gloria Jean's coffeehouses, Donut King, Michel's Patisserie and Brumby's Bakeries, announced it would purchase La Porchetta's franchising system for $16.3 million. Three months later, RFG pulled out of the deal.
On the 11th of February, 2024 the first La Porchetta which was opened in Carlton closed down. The owners of the place said that "the family was moving on and pursuing new ventures". Some speculate that the reason why was due to the changing demographics in the area.
"La Porchetta" directly translates to "The Porchetta". Porchetta commonly refers to the Italian pork roast dish of the same name, however the word means actually means "small pig" or "little pork" in Italian.
The business has been accompanied by a mascot of a sterotypical 'Italian man', who has been named after La Porchetta founder, 'Rocky', which can be seen on the collar of the mascot.
From Wikipedia’s article on La Porchetta, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.4