TWO cousins with a passion for pizza are moving their lockdown business into a pub in a new venture.

Joe Whittaker and Peter Lancaster, from Smithills, run the successful Tesoro Pizza from a unit at the moment, delivering authentic Neapolitan pizza all over Bolton, but are now moving into The Finishers pub in Smithills.

The duo will run it as a pub alongside family friend James Dagnall as well as continue their pizza business from the premises and cannot wait to start.

Joe said: “We started in the first lockdown just for friends and family at first but then got going properly in November 2020.

“After we were furloughed from our jobs, we decided to set this up because pizzas were not good in Bolton usually, and after we started, it grew so popular we’d be fully booked two weeks in advance.”

The family has always been in the food industry, as both Joe and Peter’s mums ran a deli for many years in Newbrook Road, called Darlyf, which is still there now, run by a family friend.

Joe and Peter also worked at Darlyf, with Joe eventually leaving to work for the Professional Golf Association but quit last year as Tesoro Pizza became his priority.

Joe said: “We were trained by a popular pizza masterclass chef, Marco Fuso, who taught us to make things by hand.

“We import most of our ingredients from Italy.”

The cousins are now looking forward to their new venture at The Finishers pub.

Joe said: “They’ve been there for 20 years and we get the keys in January.

“Quite a lot of people know us well for delivering pizza and this was the next step for us that we are so excited about.

“We’ve already has so many messages of support and we hope to see everyone in the new premises as well.

“Nothing is frozen, and we just love the idea of doing everything from scratch. We wanted to bring this here and we are loving doing it.”

With a pizza oven built in Italy, Joe and Peter have gone all out to ensure their pizza stays authentic and fresh, even making the dough themselves.

Joe and Peter’s mums, Pauline Whittaker and Vivien Lancaster, will also make a return to the kitchens making breakfast every weekend at the new venue.

Find them on Instagram @tesoropizza