Fiazza
86 Murray St., 613-562-2000, fiazza.ca
Open: Sunday to Thursday 11 a.m. to 10 p.m., Friday and Saturday 11 a.m. to midnight
Prices: Pizzas $7.95 to $12.95
Access: No steps to front entrance, wheelchair-accessible washroom
The pre-teen pizza connoisseur among us took his first few bites of a dead-simple, thin-crust, pepperoni-meets-cheese-meets-red sauce-meets-crust pie. “We’re coming back here again,” he said.
Pepperoni pizza at Fiazza
We five were at Fiazza, which opened a few months ago on Murray Street. The youngest of us was not alone in his praise. The pies in front of each of us made good first impressions, prompting a happy consensus about crisp, flavourful crusts and fresh ingredients.
Not bad at all, we thought, for an eatery that felt a bit like a Starbucks of pizza. Fiazza’s serves fast food proudly, with sufficient quality and upscale, trendy menu options to distinguish itself favourably from the plebeian pack.
Co-owner Luigi Meliambro told me his restaurant is modelled after eateries in California, adding that he considers his pizzas, because of their not-as-chewy crusts and wider range of ingredients, more New York than Neapolitan.
Customers line up to order and during a busy lunch hour, I’ve been more than dozen deep in the queue. Good thing it advanced quickly past the restaurant’s pizza assembly line — a staffer flattening dough balls and placing them on boards, a person topping each crust to order, someone tending to Fiazza’s natural gas, centrepiece oven, and a finisher who plates the pizza once its three-minute blast of 500-F heat is done.
After paying, you sit down in Fiazza’s woody, utilitarian interior or on its patio and chow down to the sound of soul- and acid-jazz.
Diners can build their pies from a panoply of items that frequently aim to please more discriminating eaters. “We strive to source all natural and preservative-free meats,” the Fiazza menu says, and its spicy sausage is from Luciano Foods on Preston Street. Mushrooms are local (from Le Coprin in the Outaouais) and organic. Gluten-free dough is available. Some cheeses are from Ontario and “vegan cheese” is also available.
But if starting from scratch is too onerous, you can simply order one of Fiazza’s dozen “signature” pizzas.
Among them, I was very pleased with the clear, varied meatiness of the carnivore pizza’s pepperoni, spicy sausage and crumbled bacon.
Carnivore pizza at Fiazza
The “magik mushroom” pizza (those Le Coprin button mushrooms, truffle oil and parmesan, chiefly) was a satisfying umami bomb.
Magik Mushroom pizza at Fiazza.
I liked the blue-cheese hit of the bella prosciutto pizza, along with the fact that its arugula and prosciutto were post-oven additions, simply wilted rather than cooked to a frazzle.
Bella Prosciutto pizza at Fiazza.
Ingredients aside, the pizzas were all better than average, with a good mix of crispy and chewier crusts. A few were soggier than I would have liked, making eating by hand a little trickier, and one was a bit too burnt here and there for its recipient. But for what Fiazza charges (between about $8 to $13 per pie), and the speed at which the pizzas arrive, minor flaws are easy to forgive.
Non-pizza options were minimal. A large serving of Caesar salad, packed with big pieces of lettuce, grated cheese and crumbled bacon, was above all unwieldy.
Caesar Salad at Fiazza
More concise and manageable was the made-ahead kale salad (quirkily labeled “kale ceviche” in its plastic container), flecked with red pepper, red onion and pumpkin seeds and dressed with lemon juice, maple syrup and balsamic.
Dessert options consisted of two vegan, nut- and gluten-free treats from Strawberry Blonde Bakery. The icing-filled, lemon ginger and oatmeal raisin cookies I tried hit their sweet notes hard.
Beverage choices were more varied and interesting. Apart from the usual, Harvey & Vern’s all-natural sodas, two Kichesippi beers on tap and two wines, also on tap, were available. The hippest among us can try the very au courant flavoured kombuchas (fermented, sweetened black or green teas).
Meliambro told me that his “fast casual” eatery is on its way to becoming less casual, with metal cutlery replacing the plastics and plates replacing the metal pizza trays.
He also said that after a few months in business, he’s considering how he might bring his concept to the suburbs.
If I were pitching pizza in Orléans, Kanata or Barrhaven, I’d be looking over my shoulder.
