BIG 3 is one of those pizza places I probably discovered on one of BlogTo's typical hype articles. "NEW RESTAURANT IS SOOOOO POPULAR YOU HAVE TO ORDER YOUR FOOD SIXTEEN YEARS AHEAD OF TIME! WHOAAA!!!"
Indeed, there was an article back in 2021 that gave this very notion about Big 3. And yet... they've never really come up in discussions I've had with fellow pizza lovers, nor has Big 3 been recommended to me on any online forum I inflict-oops-I-mean-share my work upon.
They've been on my list for a while regardless, because I'm the Pokemon of pizza reviewers (gotta try em all!). After a rather disappointing job interview one recent Tuesday, I slowly made my way from Midtown Toronto back into my old neighbourhood of Yonge and Bloor, eager for some pizza.
This isn't an area I visit at all anymore, not since I moved out on my own well over a decade ago, despite obvious nostalgia (my old high school is also nearby). Much of it has become unrecognizable to me even in that relatively short time... towering modern condos replacing little places and spots I can still recall vividly in the fading recesses of my mind. Yonge street is especially this way, but Church Street still retains some kernels of the places I remember. As I was about to enter Big 3, which is a few doors down from the 519 community center... I suddenly realized the location of Big 3 Pizza is precisely where a really great sandwich shop/deli named The Garage (I think?) used to be... a place I haven't thought about in well over twenty years.
It's located inside an old brick house, where you walk up a short set of curved steps and the ordering area must've been a living room many decades ago. As such, it's a tight space with minimal seating... but fortunately it was a rarely pleasant and sunny November afternoon and the place wasn't exactly packed either. One aspect that caught my eye, and I'd noticed this online when checking out their menu, is that they also sell frozen versions of some of their particular pies. This is becoming fairly common now: Libretto, General Assembly and Piano Piano all do the same thing... but Big 3 is the first Detroit style pizzeria I've seen doing this (and they provide fairly specific cooking instructions as well).
Since I don't often carry around an oven with me... I went for something fresh: a pizza cleverly named "Take Me To Church" featuring mushrooms, sopressata, ricotta dollops, mozzarella, truffle oil and globs of tomato sauce on top (their website seems to have the wrong photo for this one).
Toronto has quite a few Detroit style pizzerias now. None have even come close to matching Descendant, but Slowhand in Leslieville is truly worth a visit... and others like 8Mile certainly do the style reasonable justice. Aside from the semi-gross and expensive Oswald's, Toronto's take on the Detroit style tends to hit a solid baseline.
BIG 3 falls right along that baseline. There are some elements I really like, and others that underwhelm. The mozzarella cheese? Very meh and generic, like store bought shredded fare. The tomato sauce on top? Hearty and flavourful, like it belongs in a delicious lasagna. The sopressata? Fairly okay, not much of a spice or flavour presence. The ricotta dollops? Invaluable... the truffle taste seems centralized within them and it really elevates what would otherwise be a very repetitive, mediocre pizza into an interesting one. The mushrooms are mushrooms, nothing special or terrible.
How about the texture? Is it enjoyable to eat? Overall... yes! Once again, the mozzarella really holds it back... it's just bland and once cold gets in the way of everything else. But despite that, they get the textures of a good Detroit style pie right: that thin crispiness on the edges, wonderful soft doughiness in the center. Good on the reheat as well: didn't go stale or lose a whole lot. Aside from the truffly ricotta (a strong presence sure but I would've liked just a little more of it) there's a good balance and distribution of the toppings (especially counting the tomato sauce as a topping, which is probably my favourite aspect of this pizza).
Overall. There isn't a whole lot more to say beyond: there are a few things they do very well, and a few that fall into generic territory. I do wonder if they have a prepared base for certain pizzas (frozen or otherwise) and then add required toppings as necessary, since it would explain the very forgettable cheese and salami. When you sell your pizzas frozen as well... I tend to put two and two together.
Even if that is the case... well I don't recommend Big 3 as a "must try" but they're good enough to earn a lower end "B" from me, because like I said this had more tasty elements going for it than not. It's a weird one because if everything worked, it'd be pretty terrific... but its like they cheaped out on particular things and so it's a fairly uneven experience.
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