Replicating an authentic Neapolitan pizzeria in Toronto isn’t easy. The focus is always on quality above quantity. It requires a massive, wood-burning oven, imported from Naples, with a highly trained pizzaiolo at the reins. Servers need to be meticulously educated. Which is why John Chetti and his partners, the owners of Queen Margherita Pizza, aren’t quite prepared to expand that brand just yet. What they are ready for is an attempt to change the face of delivery pizza in Toronto.
As the Globe reports, the team behind Queen Margherita is opening a new project, Full-Blooded Italian Pizza (F.B.I), set to open by early December. November, Chetti says, is a bad month to open anything: it’s the month of the dead, according to Italian tradition. Situated in Etobicoke, at Lakeshore and Burlington, F.B.I will serve a different take on the Neapolitan pizza.
Instead of a wood-burning oven, F.B.I will use a Pizza Master electric oven. It’s one of the few electric ovens that can sustain a temperature of 900 degrees Fahrenheit — around the same temperature at which Neapolitan pizzerias flash-bake their pizzas — but F.B.I pizzas will be cooked for longer, at a lower temperature, than a Queen Margherita pizza. It will also be thicker to hold up to the rigours of delivery.
Toppings and other ingredients, including the dough, will be familiar to Queen Margherita patrons. Many of the ingredients will be D.O.P., like the San Marzano tomato sauce and the prosciutto de parma. Fresh fior de latte mozzarella will sit atop the dough.
Chetti makes no bones about the fact that this is a slightly toned-down version of Neapolitan pizza, geared for high volume. The concept, he says, lends itself to a chain. He’s not thinking that far ahead just yet, though.
The restaurant’s space will house about 30-40 seats, and it will also serve porchetta ($8.00) and other sandwiches. But the focus is on takeout and delivery pizza ($9.95-$13.95, plus toppings), using fresh, high-quality ingredients. Naturally, Chetti expects it to be the best in town.
“The best takeout in the city right now is probably Pizza Nova, followed by Pizzaiolo,” he says. “We think that we can be the new face of takeout pizza.”
Full-Blooded Italian Pizza, 2336 Lake Shore Blvd. W, 416-251-0101