Roman-style pie takes heat off the oven
Slabs are pre-baked and sold by the piece at room temperature
Down went Rainier Provisions in Gastown and up went Joe Pizza. There’s no rest for attractive corner spaces like this one.
Joe Pizza is another restaurant in the Kitchen Table Restaurant group’s growing boutique collection, and the frontman and chef for all of them (Pourhouse, Ask for Luigi, Pizza Farina) is J.C. Poirier. He does a good job everywhere; inevitable lineups at Ask for Luigi are endured for the thrill of his pastas.
I didn’t quite catch the thrill at Joe Pizza with its Roman style pizzas, though. I went on a Saturday evening and it certainly didn’t have an Ask for Luigi buzz. Granted, Joe is twice the size and it was a rainy night, but the few tables of diners didn’t add up to one.
Roman pizzas haven’t the allure of the round pizzas, hot out of a furnace. These are pre-baked in a large slab pan and cut up and sold by the piece (pizza al taglio), half slab or whole slab, commonly at room temperature. A piece runs about $8, and you can order a variety of them. A slab ($32 to $40) will feed a family of four. Trilussa Pizza and Pane and Sciue Italian Bakery Caffe have their Roman pizza versions, too.
At Joe Pizza, there are 10 pizzas colourfully displayed under counter glass. Poirier uses good ingredients: locally ground organic Anita’s flour, and Italian ingredients from La Grotto del Formaggio and Cioffi’s. The dough sits for a day to ferment as poolish (wet flour and water), a day for the prepped and portioned dough to build flavour in the fridge, and baked on the third day.
Poirier cooked at Lumiere under Rob Feenie, then at the short-lived Chow restaurant before he moved on to his current projects. But he’s proudest of having worked at Toqué! in Montreal.
“I think the chef (Normand Laprise) is the best in Canada,” says Poirier, “and if I were to talk about my restaurant past, Toqué! is the only one that matters.”
We ordered six pieces of pizza, figuring it would be about the size of one round pizza. Turns out a “slice” is two pieces, so we faced down 12 squares. We’d also ordered the two salads on the menu: a Caesar (with walnuts), and another with kale, cauliflower and chickpeas, both trucker sized and a good value at $6 each.
We were advised to go with room temperature and obeyed, repressing desires for hot pizza with cheese bubbling like fresh lava.
Upon delivery, we became an ad for gluttony. Other tables — a dad and young son and a couple of couples — were having one or two pieces of pie each. I figured I could take some home and put it to a hot oven test.
Served in metal pans were: The Miss Bianco (white sauce, taleggio, garlic, thyme); the Joe’s Margherita (bocconcini, tomato sauce, basil); The Queen Vegan (artichokes, cherry tomatoes, kale, tomato sauce); Fun Guy (white sauce, mushrooms provolone, arugula); Quebec Style (pepperoni, Parmesan, mozzarella, Lombardy peppers, oregano, tomato sauce); Mr. Chop (prosciutto cotto, pineapple, mozzarella, pickled jalapeno, basil, tomato sauce).
The toppings are fresh, bright and above par in quality. The crust was softer and had more of a focaccia crumb.
I like simplicity with fantastic ingredients doing the seducing, and enjoyed the Margherita and Miss Bianco best.
I would have liked all of them better were they hot, regardless of what the Romans would say. I’m just not in such a hurry to eat and run. Frankly, I’m a way bigger fan of Poirier’s Pizza Farina pies (over on Main Street) with the blistered gnarly crust.
At home, I fired up the toaster oven to see what a 400 Fahrenheit blast would do and it was much more to my liking, especially the Margherita and Miss Bianco with the cheese hot and melted.