In November 2019 I took a quick trip to Toronto for work, to attend a weekend conference. Of course you know I had to try some pizza while there. At the top of my list was Descendant Pizza for its Detroit-style pies, but I also got a rec for Superpoint from pizza consultant Anthony Falco, who goes to Toronto quite a bit to work with General Assembly (which was also on my list, as was Maker Pizza, Big Trouble, and North of Brooklyn—but I only had 2 days and only two opportunities to slip out for non-conference meals.)
Superpoint was the closest/easiest option to hit during a lunch break period (about 8 minutes by car), so I hopped in a Lyft and booked it up there.
To be fair, Superpoint seems to get more press for its dinner service, which features pizza in 14- and 18-inch sizes, pastas, and apps, and whose beverage program focuses on biodynamic wines.
At lunch, the tiny dining room in the rear of the space is closed, but take-out pizza is available by the slice in the front, which is separated from the back by a set of doors and which works quite well as a no-frills slice shop.
The pizza was quite good. And the slices are HUGE. Basically 1.6 times a typical NY-style slice thanks to the fact that they slice into fifths(!?!!! never seen that before!) rather than eighths. (When you buy a slice, they offer to cut it in half. Take them up on it, because a whole one-fifth slice really isn’t the proper form factor and doesn’t have as much structural integrity as an eighth slice.)
Overall a really nice slice.
When I visited, there was only one slice left in the whole joint, with a couple by-the-slice pies in the oven with an ETA that was longer than I thought I could handle (I was quoted 15 minutes, which, for NY-style pizza, what?). So I grabbed the one lonely eggplant slice left on the tray—I normally don’t love eggplant as a topping, but I couldn’t not order it. It was actually a great slice, though—and I ended up sharing half of it with a patron who was bummed there were no slices up at the moment. Based on the quality I’d just sampled—good crust, nice flavor, excellent balance—I’d decided to wait it out for the plain slices and figured this was a win-win: share some pizza and spread joy in the world and save room for a different slice to try.
The plain cheese was great, though a little floppy in the fifth-slice configuration. It was with this slice that I noted the need to double-cut.
The pizzeria at the top of my Let’s Go list when I visited Toronto in November (for a work conference) was Descendant Pizza. I’ve been following its chef-owner, Chris Getchell, on Instagram for years—since before he opened the place—and always vowed to drop in if I made it up there.
When @Pizzatography saw from my IG stories that I was in town, he DM’d and asked if I was free for dinner and wanted to grab pizza with him. I said, “yes,” and “YES OF COURSE,” and, “I’ll meet you at Descendant.”
I joined JT and his girlfriend, S., there and shared a couple pizzas: the “Truff-ghi” (cheese blend, mushrooms, caramelized onions, double-smoked bacon [which we omitted], white truffle sauce, lemon zest, thyme) and a plain pie. The plain was the standout for me. It had a fantastic, light, airy, crisp crust; oozy cheese; and flavorful tomato dollops. Though I’ve grown to love square pies in the last several years, I still reflexively flinch when I think about their GUT-BOMB potential. No such problem here. The only disappointing things about my visit were that Getchell wasn’t in the night I was there and that I had to leave JT & S earlier than I wanted to in order to attend a post-conference reception. We had initially made plans to hit some other stops after Descendant, but I was already running late to the event.
It’s a shame I didn’t have more time in Toronto because JT and some conference folks earlier in the day made a good case for trying the various popular Toronto-grown places—arguing that spots like Maker Pizza (with its larger-than-life chef-owner Matty Matheson) and Big Trouble (with its unique pies—raspberry jam and butter!?) represented Hogtown’s* pizza culture better than a pizza style from Motor City USA. That leaves another trip for visits to those as well as General Assembly and North of Brooklyn (both of which had assists from NYC pizza consultants—Anthony Falco and Frank Pinello, respectively).
Until next time, folks, hasta la pizza. 😊🍕✌🏻
*This is apparently one of Toronto’s better-known nicknames. Footnoting it here for the rest of you Yanks who, like me, didn’t know that until today.