Not to be confused with 'Slowhand' in the east end, SlowSouth (yes the second 'S' is capitalized but it's still all one word) is another new-ish pizza slice joint on the stretch of Dundas Street West between Dufferin and Lansdowne.
According to their website, the two partners are from Trentino-South Tyrol and Calabria respectively... two regions of Italy I definitely had to Google Map to discover they are on opposite ends of the country (apologizes to my Italian friends). It is curious since the place is named Slow"South" and yet one of those regions is the furthest north of the country (Calabria is down south on the Mediterranean, above Sicily)... but my squad of unpaid interns inform me that the Tyrol area crosses borders and extends north into the western part of Austria. So indeed, the 'south' description applies to both. Come for the pizza reviews... stay to witness my flimsy knowledge of European geography grow!
That covers the 'South' portion, but 'Slow?' That requires less checking of Google Ma--I mean the up-to-date world atlas I keep nearby me at all times. Essentially: they take their time preparing the pies. The dough is hand prepared and cold processed for 72 hours, a fact the website mentions more than once. Indeed, the "About Us" page dedicates the good majority of their photographs to showing its preparation.
I wandered into SlowSouth still peckish after my excellent slice from Acute just a few blocks west, and was immediately tempted to try one of the available arancinis they keep behind the counter beside the pizza slices (very clever). No, I didn't get one... and yes, I should've.
Instead, my lonely purchase was this spicy pepperoni slice you see above: cheese, pepperoni, jalapenos. Very straightforward. Like Acute, they have a nice large window (with a counter and stools)... a perfect spot for watching the world of Dundas West drift by.
This isn't the most distinctive pizza I've ever encountered... by virtue of its general solidness I'd almost call it boring. Almost, because its also a few notches above such an insult disguised as a compliment. Its an extremely cheesy slice (the photo perhaps suggests as such) and that element does absorb most of the tomato sauce flavour you might get. Similar to the pie at arcade bar Get Well, actually... only not quite that extreme (very good pizza but akin to eating a block of gooey mozzarella).
It's a wood fired pie and so you get some nice char to the edges. You also get that natural floppiness, but not any of that frustrating droopiness even when as fresh as this. It's not quite as thin as your typical wood fired either: there's a bit more density than you would expect. Still a good fold-slice if that's your thing (particularly the first few bites) but not an essential measure.
Good mozzarella, nice tasty pepperoni cups. Not really a greasy or oily slice at all, despite the pork and heavy cheese that dominate the taste. Perhaps by this (and the significant amount of jalapenos)... this slice could be a bit of a visit to Heartburn City. Watch those burps.
No offense to their considerable dough prep, but the crust or foundation didn't stand out to me. Merely good, quite good even, but nothing exceptionally memorable. Hey... after 150+ pizzas in this town... I'm a tough one man crowd. This notion indeed encapsulates my precise thoughts on this pie: fairly above average in every way, a pleasant slice to eat, yet oddly difficult to recall in further detail. Even my notes in the moment couldn't find much else to romanticize or destroy.
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Overall! SlowSouth makes a good pizza. They're kind of on the fringe, to me anyway, whether I'd recommend going to try them. If you happen to be walking by, definitely. Traveling across town and making an afternoon destination of it? Not quite. A couple levels below the many excellent pizzas Toronto now offers, but nevertheless the fact a place even at this 'well above respectable' level can be so short of an increasingly deep list of elite Toronto pizza, is a testament to how much that level has risen in the past decade. This is the Golden Age in both quantity, variety and quality.
I think any neighbourhood in Toronto (like the Beaches, whose pizza scene continues to be very lacking) would be more than pleased to have a place at SlowSouth's level firing off strong quality slices at very solid pricepoints. They're in limbo between a "B/B+" to me. Damn, that waved off arancini could've been the tiebreaker. Curses!
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