The Yankees are invading Toronto pizzerias. (Not those Yankees. We don’t have to worry about them.) Two regional American styles have landed in Leslieville in recent days, causing a major stir among east-enders and owners of pizza-themed clothing alike.
Descendant Pizza (1168 Queen East, at Jones, 647-347-1168, facebook.com/descendantpizza) is finally open after months of anticipation for its Detroit-style pies. If you’re not familiar with the regional style: Dough is loaded into a heavily-oiled square pan to create a crust with an almost-fried texture. After being baked, it’s slathered with extra sauce for a signature “red top”. Owner Christopher Getchell, formerly of Pizzeria Libretto, serves it all up in a former Amaya location, transformed with industrial steel chairs and several (dozen) coats of spray paint.
Slightly further west (in terms of both Queen East and the midwestern United States) is Milky Way Ice Cream, who recently rebranded as Pizza Thick (1026 Queen East, at Pape, 416-778-1101, pizzathick.com). Since the beginning of April, they’ve been dishing out some formidable-looking deep-dish pies bearing many of the hallmarks of Chicago-style pizza: Toppings layered several inches deep, topped off with a crust of melted cheese. (They’re still scooping ice cream, don’t worry.)
With plenty of styles already represented in Toronto (Neapolitan, Roman, New York, gross 3 am drunk pizza), it’s nice to see the geographic horizons widen even further. (Now can we please get a Windsor-style pizza place, already?)
