New York’s thin crust, Chicago’s deep dish and Detroit’s cheesy corners are some of North America’s greatest takes on pizza — all uniquely delicious and a staple in their respective hubs.
But where does Toronto rank in the pizza game?
Fifteen local pizzerias are taking part in the first-ever Pizzalicious, a month-long festival aimed at bringing customers inside these mom-and-pop establishments. Participating locations have a variety of ongoing promotions and deals in celebration of the event.
One of those participants is CiCi’s Pizza & Wings, a bustling Parkdale eatery that has been operating in the neighbourhood for 30 years and currently pumps out 3,000 classic, thicker-crust style pies per week.
While attending the International Pizza Expo in Las Vegas last year, CiCi’s owner Diana Huynh realized other cities have mastered their own styles down to a science.
But she doesn’t think Toronto needs to do the same.
“We would need to have a more universal approach to pizza, which I don’t know if we’re down to agree on,” she said. “Everybody has their own ways of doing things, which is what makes the scene here so great.”
Emilee Francis, a Toronto-based food blogger and one of the creators of Pizzalicious, also boasted about the variety in the city’s lexicon of slices.
“People will take classic styles and put their own spins and flavours on it,” she said. “One of them is Middle Eastern-based while another is Windsor-style. We’re such a cultural place, so we don’t have a defined style — and that’s special.”
That Windsor-style pie comes via Ambassador Pizza Co., whose owners Gaetano Pugliese and Rene Chauvin are the only ones in Toronto doing it the southwestern Ontario way.
Assembling 2,500 pizzas each week — both fresh and frozen — on the corner of Bloor Street West and Delaware Avenue, Ambassador’s 80-year-old signature Galati cheese and shredded pepperoni brings the tastes of a city located four hours away to Torontonians.
They agree that Toronto lacks a defined image of the overall pizza scene compared to other markets, but they’re not too worried about it these days.
“It’s not to knock the city for originality or anything, I just don’t believe Toronto has its own style,” Pugliese said. “You come here for many different, great styles of pizza”
Credited with helping draw up the Pizzalicious program, he is proud of the efforts that customers have made to visit local pizza spots throughout October, and he’s hopeful that energy will persist into the colder months and beyond.
“When the economy’s down, people are going to eat pizza, and when the economy’s up, people are just going to eat more pizza,” he said. “I can’t think of another food product that is more globally recognized and beloved than pizza.”
Readers can check out which pizza places around Toronto are participating in Pizzalicious here.