One of the early restaurant casualties of the COVID-19 pandemic was the legendary Vesuvio Pizzeria out in the Junction neighbourhood of west Toronto. The story of Vesuvio is astonishing: a restaurant started by four brothers and a father that remained family owned for over six decades, even fighting the bizarre era of prohibition in the Junction area (for real, no establishment could serve alcohol on that stretch of Dundas Street West until the year 2000. Seriously!) By the sounds of it the Pugliese family had considered scaling back the business even before the pandemic and once that hit, the difficult decision to close down made the most sense.
It was a hell of a run, and Vesuvio will truly and forever be an original legend of Toronto pizza. However, soon after this closure, a few longtime employees of Vesuvio decided to start their own pizza joint to pay homage to the old classic spot. The place is indeed named Junior's both as a description of themselves (they were the "junior staff" of the longtime restaurant despite over a decade of working there) and as a tribute to the long time pizza chef of Vesuvio, nicknamed Junior.
Naturally, Junior's had been on my list for a long time and I was finally able to sample them on a recent Saturday inbetween working an Argos game and playing a baseball game (summer is my busy time, yo). The inside of the joint is rather sparse: some quirky decorations on the walls and not really anywhere to sit (it's a rather small establishment as well). To my surprise (and unlike the old Vesuvio) Junior's actually offers slices... but I was rather hungry and so elected to order an entire pie to myself.
One of my usual pizza "go to's" when given the opportunity, is a fairly simple one: bacon and goat cheese. It's a nice balance of tender saltiness and delicious creaminess. This is what you see above, and Junior's definitely gets it right. The bacon is maybe a tad undercooked (I'd prefer it crispier) but this is legitimate bacon (not crumble) and is plenty flavourful. Goat cheese is, of course, goat cheese... it needs to be a bigger part of anyone's life.
The best thing about this pizza is the diversity of textures. It's buttery soft and wonderful in the center, with some nice crunch in the crust. A tad on the chewier side, but never to the point of overstaying it's welcome in the mouth. This is a thin crust pie, unlike Vesuvio which was a bit thicker, but you can definitely taste some similarity to the departed legend, mostly in the cheese.
Frankly, I like this a little more than I did Vesuvio (which was very good!). This is a vibrant tomato sauce as well, with a hint of sweetness and most importantly, is a consistent presence throughout the pie. There's just terrific balance here: not too much or too little of anything and that buttery dough really blends pleasantly into every bite. It might not be the most filling pizza, due to its thinness, but aside from that this is just very tasty stuff.
Overall! Colour me impressed. This is fantastic stuff and I liked it pretty much instantly. Can't really find any faults in it, and while it didn't completely blow me away enough to earn one of my highest grades, this has to be at least a "B++" for me. Really, really good, and worth a visit.
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