Patina Pizza brings career full circle for Anthony Greco
It’s safe to say Anthony Greco is a pizza nerd.
Salt and moisture percentages in dough, how it all reacts in the oven; should pepperoni be dry-cured or wet-cured?
New York-, Philadelphia- and Detroit-style pizza. Dough thickness and how it cooks in a wood-fired versus electric oven.
Even using the right mixer to avoid warming the dough too much and causing the yeast to “over bloom” — Greco talks about each of these like most people converse about the weather.
They’re all considerations for the chef, who runs Patina Pizza, the current food division of Niagara Oast House Brewers in Niagara-onthe-Lake that’s attracting pie fans from all over the region.
But no one is more surprised than Greco, himself, to be a walking textbook of all things pizza. After all, this is a guy who formally trained in fine dining, mentored by some of the people who defined early Niagara wine country cuisine.
White-linen establishments were where Greco found footing in the culinary world, working on ventures with Mark Picone, the original chef at Vineland Estates, and Tony de Luca, who put his imprint on the farm-to-table movement in the early aughts at Trius Winery’s precursor, Hillebrand.
And fine dining would be the career path the classically trained chef would continue forging on his own when he helmed the kitchen for six years at the now-defunct Zest Kitchen in Fonthill.
“I never really want to think too far ahead but I never thought, through all that training, that it would bring me back to one of the most basic, humble foods,” Greco said before a dinner rush one recent Thursday night at Oast.
Still, if he really thinks about it, it’s not a stretch that he’s turning out 16-inch, handmade “Nuovo Americana” pies at this stage of seniority in his career, with the help of chefs Chris Lawson and Rafael Quintana every Thursday through Monday.
Greco’s introduction to professional kitchens was at The Venice Pizza and Pasta Bar in Welland — Niagara’s Pizza City — when he was 14.
The Venice happened to serve wood-fired, Roman-style pizza. Greco didn’t think about it too much at the time. Growing up in Welland, he was spoiled with good pizza, and if you’ve ever talked pizza with a Wellander, you know it can be a heated topic, dividing allies and uniting enemies.
So for that reason, we decided during this interview to keep his favourite Welland pizzeria off the record.
But back at the Venice, “We just made the pizzas, right?” Greco recalled. “Then as I got older and started to realize what style that fell into — they just called it pizza — you really start to dive in and realize what it is.”
At Patina, it’s the product of months of research and development starting in May 2021 when Greco was the newly appointed pitmaster of Oast’s Brushfire Smoke BBQ.
The thought was barbecue would carry the food program through patio season and pizza through the rest of the year when carb cravings run high.
“We just thought it was a natural fit, beer and pizza,” Greco said. “It helps with the shoulder months in Niagara-on-the-Lake and it gives the kitchen staff the luxury of working in essentially two different restaurants.”
The research, though, took Greco and crew to different pizzerias, taste-testing pies and determining what they loved and what they would do differently.
As with any project of Greco’s, he put his head down and worked quietly, rigorously.
In the end, they settled on serving a riff of New York pizza alongside Oast pints.
Given their location and the takeout nature of pizza, they had to ensure the product travelled well, which New York-style, with its thinner crust, doesn’t always do. But it also had to be ingredient-driven, which Greco explained has become less of a focus in American pizza.
“We took more of the Italian approach where be we broke down the ingredients as a whole,” he said. “We really started to dive in, like the oil we’re putting in the dough. Where’s that coming from? Who’s the producer? Can I get it? And then we started to dive into the dough.
“Every single ingredient from top to bottom was a lot of testing, a lot of sampling, a lot of making sure that it really fit the mould of what we thought it should fit.”
And so Patina Pizza was born, the name a nod to the layers of flavours in every pie but also “that growing, changing, uniqueness about it.”
Patina launched both a pepperoni and cheese pizza in February — a few months late thanks to a delay getting the oven that gives all the right answers to the questions Greco ponders about dough, moisture, salt and heat.
Since then, eight more pizzas have been added to the menu, including a tray version inspired by Detroit; the Anna Maria, an ode to a cheeseless staple Greco’s grandmother made with anchovies and oregano; and even one topped with contentious pineapple, though Greco smokes his first.
As he, Lawson and Quintana prepare to rekindle Brushfire Smoke on Victoria Day weekend and idle their electric pizza ovens for the summer, Greco isn’t turning his back entirely on his fine-dining roots.
He still does the occasional service with Mark Picone at Picone’s Culinary Studio in Vineland. And “we can really dress up barbecue and dive into a four-course or fivecourse tasting menu,” he said about Brushfire Smoke.
“I don’t think we’re losing finedining. I just don’t think it’s the same as it was. I think people’s spending habits are different. Cost of goods, to be able to operate those restaurants, it’s not as sustainable as it used to be,” he said.
Pizza is a canvas that has allowed him to be creative in a way he couldn’t be in fine dining, however, and that’s what made him that pizza nerd he is today.
“I think when you have a menu that has a plethora of different things, you get lost in all of it and you’re constantly looking for sources of how you can pull different things into a menu, and proteins and everything,” Greco said. “This focuses it. ‘This is your canvas, now what do you do with it?’ Perfection, I think, is a little bit easier with pizza than it is with fine dining. This is just our hands and letting the ingredients speak for themselves.”
We can expect a cranky start to the day. However, if we’re willing to focus more on solutions rather than problems, we can avoid unnecessary drama. It’s a good day for planning and getting organized, as well as making improvements or updates to projects already in the works.
We’ll find that we feel the most focused and motivated during the earlier part of the day. As we approach the evening, the pace of the day significantly slows down, which will also slow us down.
It will be the perfect time to take advantage of stress-relieving tools and activities.
ARIES (March 21 to April 19)
Watch out and don’t overbook yourself today. Not everything is a good use of your time and energy.
TAURUS (April 20 to May 20)
Why wait and put off something that you can get done right now? Seize the moment.
GEMINI (May 21 to June 20)
You could be on the defensive about what others might be saying about you. If you take a step back, you’ll see that you might be reading too much into it.
CANCER (June 21 to July 22)
Be mindful of being too closeminded or preachy today. Try to see things from another perspective. LEO
(July 23 to Aug. 22)
Avoid being too impulsive with a work or financial decision. Make sure what you want really aligns with your values.
VIRGO (Aug. 23 to Sept. 22)
It might feel like someone is trying to goad you into an argument or get you involved with something you shouldn’t. Walk away. Don’t make it your problem.
LIBRA (Sept. 23 to Oct. 22)
Your bed is calling you, but there’s tons to do. Prioritize what’s most important so you can get some rest.
SCORPIO (Oct. 23 to Nov. 21)
Try not to let your ego get in the way today. Teamwork or compromise will be a more effective way to get things done.
SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22 to Dec. 21)
Between work and your personal life, there’s a lot on your shoulders. Better time management or a more efficient daily routine can help.
CAPRICORN (Dec. 22 to Jan. 19)
You’re way too busy. Try to take some time off and put some fun back onto your schedule.
AQUARIUS (Jan. 20 to Feb. 18)
Try to be savvy about how you manage your money today. If you can avoid unnecessary spending, then stash your cash away.
PISCES (Feb. 19 to March 20)
If someone’s behaviour upsets you, don’t pretend that it isn’t an issue. Tell them exactly what’s on your mind.
FOR TODAY’S BIRTHDAY
You’re a doer. You don’t like to waste time. You’re usually the person who’s up and making things happen. However, you don’t make decisions without thinking them through first. You’re resourceful. You know how to put together a plan.
If an obstacle gets in your way, you already have several other options at the ready to get where you want to go.
You don’t back down from a fight, and you always stick by your principles. With your passion, you can change the world. This year, luck and opportunity will have a way of finding you when you least expect it.
BIRTHDATE OF:
Lana Condor, actress/producer; Sabrina Carpenter, singer/actress; Blac Chyna, model/socialite; Madison Lintz, actress.