For the purists among you, there’s only fourteen pizza joints in Australia that will come close to rivalling the slices spurting forth from Naples – as decreed by the Associazone Verace Pizza – a nod which is as close as possible to being the physical embodiment of ~that’s amore~.

Sydney has been profoundly smug of the perpetually-teeming Gigi’s Pizzeria—one of the feted restaurants on the coveted list—for years, with locals gushing about the near-religious experience of gulping down charred dough – artfully smashed with molten mozzarella, cured meats and sprinkled with basil galore.

IT’S. BEAUTIFUL.

But last night, an event that seemed like fairly innocuous, blogger-luring fare – unveiling their new menu with free pizza – unexpectedly became newsworthy overnight, as Gigi’s announced their new vision: a 100% plant-based menu. Gigi’s owner Marco Matino told Good Food:

“The change came about from being aware of how much produce we go through plus all the information I’ve collected about animal agriculture on many different levels.”

Smanging a fully-vegan pizza joint in the heart of Newtown sounds like a perfectly reasonable—if not hugely profitable—idea to us; online, however, Gigi’s move has divided the becheeseus out of Sydney.

Citing the recent fire at chicken institution El Jannah, some wondered what kind of fresh hell Sydney has become in the last 24 hours.

First Gigi’s goes Vegan then El Jannah catches fire. What. is. going. on. — Melissa Brooks (@melissacbrooks) September 23, 2015

Which one of you is responsible for making Gigi’s vegan? Another reason we all deserve an asteroid. — Osman Faruqi (@oz_f) September 22, 2015

In an already shitty week this is massively suckful: Gigi’s goes vegan http://t.co/ps7UbpY7Wm — Tara Vern (@Tara_Vern) September 24, 2015

On Reddit, the move drew the ire of others:



And—personal favourite here—commenters on The Sydney Morning Herald‘s link on Facebook came out in full force. (Also, not pictured: “no cheese no buy”, “sounds hideous” and “I hate my life”.)



However, for every commenter not digging Gigi’s abandonment of cheeses and meats, there were dozens celebrating the arrival of a vegan-friendly restaurant popping up in Sydney. :’)





Soooo I guess this is what happens when the best Italian pizzeria in Sydney decides to ditch the animal products and… Posted by Andrea Buckman on Wednesday, 23 September 2015

For those stuck with the conundrum of wanting both pizza from Gigi’s and cheese, here’s a por que no los dos idea: hit up Gigi’s first, then head home and..



via Good Food.