HORROR MOVIE THEME OFFERS UNIQUE MENU
Thirteen Pies Pizza brings its own touch to historic Birks building
Businesses and non-profit organizations regularly open and move in Saskatoon. Today the Starphoenix talks to Blair Voth Miller, who moved Thirteen Pies Pizza + Bar to the Birks Building in downtown Saskatoon at the end of December 2023.
Blair, who has co-owned Thirteen Pies with Brad Miller and Cole Dobranski for the past five years, was thrilled to find the iconic space available that previously had housed Birks Jewellers for 92 years. Blair undertook a complete renovation to host a 75-seat restaurant with large kitchen for dine in and takeout service. It's been a perfect fit for Thirteen Pies Pizza, which was running out of space in the previous location.
Q Why did you open Thirteen Pies Pizza originally?
A I mean, who doesn't love pizza, right? We're just big fans of pizza and we would always try pizza when we would travel. All three of us partners often go on trips to try different foods and sort of find out what the food trends are in other cities. It was always on our radar to do pizza, but we wanted to do something really different from other pizza places in Saskatoon when we first opened. So that's why we chose to do Brooklyn style pizza.
Q What is Brooklyn style pizza? A Brooklyn style pizza is a pizza that you fold. Our pizza is really meant to be served as big pieces. And you fold the piece in half and eat it. That's what they serve a lot in New York. We've got a thing in our menu that kind of shows you how to do it. It's been designed by Stephanie Mah, a local graphic designer.
Q You have a unique pizza crust?
A Our crust is special because it is a sourdough crust. Cole actually drove to Medicine Hat to get this sourdough starter from a friend of his family. It's like a 40-year-old sourdough starter with a long history of bakers. We also get fresh ground spelt flour every week from The Night Oven, a local bakery that is a part of our sourdough starter. Our pizza crust is made with a 48-hour process because we have to feed the sourdough and then it's a 24-hour fermentation. It's the second day that we make all the crust. So all the pizza that is being served today, that crust started two days ago. This is a really special flavour. There's a lot of love in the crust, that's for sure.
Q Why move to a new location?
A Our lease was up at the original location and the people there wanted their space back. What was part of our decision, too, was that for a little while we've been looking for a space to do takeout and delivery. (With) the kitchen at the old space, we just couldn't keep up with the takeout side of the business because we couldn't add more ovens. There just wasn't physical space to add anything into that kitchen. This bigger Birks space was available. It's such a beautiful historical building in Saskatoon. There was no kitchen in there because it was a retail space before, but it allowed us to make the kitchen the size that we wanted and design the restaurant exactly the way we want it, which was really cool.
Q How do you feel about taking over the iconic Birks space?
A It's just a cool building and has a lot of character, and the Birks vault is still in the space. Customers can see it from anywhere in the restaurant. Right now we keep liquor in there. If you look in there, you'll see all the bottles lined up. People love that vault. It's such a good conversation starter.
I actually had so much fun designing this one because it's such an iconic space. We feel so honoured to take that space on. It gave us a space to do what we wanted to do. We had to change the vibe a little bit just to respect the character and age of the building, but it's really worked with our concept.
Q What is the vibe at Thirteen Pies Pizza?
A We have a horror movie themed menu. Our menu and our vibe is sort of a little bit loosely based on horror movies and creepy stuff. It's kind of part of our identity. Even with the name Thirteen Pies, 13 is an unlucky number. We have 13 pizzas on the menu and if you look at the menu names they're all sort of based on different movie names where we've changed the name of it to suit a pizza. The same with our drinks — they are all kind of based on that vibe.
Q What are some of your pizzas?
A The Hills have Eyes is a classic old horror movie. The Pies Have Eyes is our pepperoni pizza and our most popular pizza. One of our funniest pizzas is the Bridge City Butcher. Nobody knows what that is. It's actually not real, but I always say “oh, you haven't heard of that serial killer from Saskatoon?” But it's just the name of a pizza at our place.
It's definitely not your average ham and pineapple pizza place. The Mars Attacks has zucchini on it and roasted garlic and whipped ricotta and it's a basil pesto sauce. Another is the Hitchcock — there's lots of double meanings. The Hitchcock is Alfred Hitchcock — obviously an iconic horror movie writer — and it's our chicken pizza. And the Blade, I always think this one's kind of a fun name. The main character of Blade is a half human, half vampire, so he's half good, half bad. The Blade is a kale and bacon pizza, a little bit good for you, a little bit bad. So there's some fun meanings.
Q What else is on your menu?
A We have appetizers but I always tell people to make sure they add a dipping sauce. You can get dips like truffle honey or roasted garlic aioli that you can dip your pizza crust in and that just adds so much to the pizza experience. And then we have wings and olives. They are gluten free wings. And we also offer a gluten-free pizza crust. Then we also have salads, which are always nice to have as an accompaniment to your pizza. We have Caesar and Greek salads and a tomato salad, too.
Q Do you offer desserts?
A We make our desserts in house. We have a key lime pie, which is such a nice light dessert to eat after you slam lots of pizza and you're full, but you still want dessert. And we have a chocolate trifle with chocolate mousse. It's in a nice parfait glass with layers.
Q You serve cocktails and mocktails?
A We have some really great cocktails, and our bar staff is just awesome. They're just so passionate and love to create stuff. I feel like we are one of the spots to check out cocktails in town. We have lots of tiki style cocktails that are a little bit stronger in alcohol. We also have mocktails, which is a growing trend. If you come in and you're not wanting to drink alcohol we have several mocktails we can make that are just really beautiful. Usually we try to cater to people's specific flavours and taste. We will work with you to find a cocktail or mocktail that suits you.
Q You have two separate entrances?
A Our main door is on 21st Street East, that's where you come in if you're dining in. Our takeout and delivery pickup area is a separate door on 3rd Avenue and we have a little pickup window.
Have you recently started or moved a new business or non-profit organization in Saskatoon? We want to hear your story. Please email drice@postmedia.com.