Well... it was bound to happen eventually. After writing hundreds of these reviews (seriously? Geez) it was inevitable I'd run into an old acquaintance who both knows my work and suspects my intentions might be more than just simply getting a pizza on some random Tuesday afternoon. I've been discovered! The work and the site has been compromised! It's all over everybody!
Jokes aside, I do like to be as honestly incognito as possible when venturing out to review places. Unlike say, BlogTo and their TikTok-y hooplah pizzazz when checking something out (though I imagine those meals are comped so... how much fun can I really poke at them). Seriously though, if I'm reviewing a place I prefer the pure authentic experience... like I'm any regular random schmoe walking in and hoping to be treated as you would treat any other patron. Seeing a place at its full power bestest-ever certainly has its positives but I'd rather see a place at its most natural.
This is all my way of saying... I got recognized! Awkward-ish at first, but also extremely cool. 2012-13 I worked at a now long gone spot (now a Cursed Location*TM) named Houston Bar and Grill at Yonge and Wellington. It was a sleek restaurant lounge with a DJ at 7pm on weeknights oftentimes, yet also extremely greasy... like fancy suit/business expense greasy. The kind of place you're really happy to be a dude, not a lady in a uniformly revealing black dress and unnecessary "work" heels.
The restaurant was slinging mostly expensive steaks and nachos, simple stuff done well... and meanwhile staff-wise we had an incredible team. A line cook who is now a sommelier, a server who is now a top notch brewer at notable Toronto craft breweries, or a front-of-house utility player who abandoned university and writing novels because he realized he loved pizza too much (no clue who that could be)... and a sous chef whose path once again collided with mine at Tulia Osteria.
Frankly I feel bad that it took me a moment to recall who he was (sorry man! it was your beard I swear) and he mentioned he's also a fan of these pizza reviews to boot. No pressure! Well good sir, this one is for you. I will still be honest about this pizza of course, I wouldn't feel credible to my niche craft if I weren't... (my pizza reviewing craft.... it's a craft damnit!). Let's begin.
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Tulia Osteria is a new Italian restaurant on Queen Street East close to Greenwood Avenue (and the excellent Dang Smoke and Lambo's). Tulia in fact has taken over the space that the famous Queen Margherita used to occupy, swapping one Italian restaurant for another.
A quick point on QM: I have no insight as to what happened but not too long ago they were riding high with three locations spread throughout Toronto... now the one near Jane and Annette (which isn't even the original one) is the only location left. A shame: their pizza is quite damn good and that Queen location in particular had perfect ambiance for a date night (not that people are exactly lining up to dat.... er lets get back on track here).
I was pleasantly pleased, upon walking inside Tulia, to see that they've kept most of the old QM vibe intact. It always had the feel of being in an old house with dim candle-like lighting, old portraits on the brick walls, tight intimate space without feeling confined. Very authentic, lived in and warmly welcoming.
It was the middle of a rainy afternoon and my order came during what I suspect was a small meeting between my old Houston Bar friend and possibly the general manager of the place. Upon retrieving my pie we caught up very briefly (I am still in the industry just not restaurants anymore) and off I went with my pizza, trying to play sly about whether I planned to review their product (I clearly am at this moment, obviously)
Yeah yeah yeah, I know I always get the spicy salami one...
This is their Vesuvio (it's been years now but still RIP to the legendary Junction spot): spicy soppressata, smoked mozzarella, pecorino cheese, some red chilies in there, garlic and tomato sauce. Also, points for presentation... I like the visual impression of those big slices of salami all converging into the center like that. Also also, unusual that this pizza is cut into six rather than the four you frequently see with other wood fired spots.
Sometimes on first bite you just know, and this is one of those cases. Forget the fact that the chef knows me (he only realized who I was when I showed up and the pizza was already cooked anyhow)... this is a damn good pizza. All the better.
There's a lot going on in the mouth: the spice, the softness of the dough and cheese... it'll be difficult to break each down one by one because they all work together so well in unison, it's going to be like appreciating a painting by examining it a quadrant at a time.
The smoked mozzarella is really the touch that stands out most to me. You get a lot of a smokey flavour in the aftertaste, the buttery melt of it is on point and the smoke compliments the spicier elements fantastically. Not a powerful smokey taste but enough to be a presence, and to be just different enough within the cheese to elevate from your standard high-quality buttery mozza. Combined with the dry flavour of the pecorino, there's so much depth to the top layer flavour of this pizza and that's only by its cheese.
The spice is also on point. These red chiles are quite tiny and tend to camouflage themselves atop the salami, leading to some surprise heat. More of a heat that fills your mouth evenly rather than a harsh sting on the tongue, and between the chilies and the hot salami you get a lot of it on every bite. It's tasty salami also: not super thinly cut nor fatty, without any crispy edges. Consistent bake and texture all the way through.
There's just so much goodness going on here, with the notable heat, smokiness and dryness of the cheeses, a good soft dough... it's just an exceptionally good pizza with layers and different flavours that all work so well together.
Finally, the tomato sauce. There's just enough of a presence (at least while fresh) that provides a nice thin saucy layer below the dominance of the notable cheeses. Flavour wise it's tricky to isolate the tomato from the various spices (the small chilies in particular) but it has a bit of earthy sweetness if I recall correctly. Not much of anything in terms of taste only because there isn't a lot of it and just so much else going on.
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Overall! As I've written before a lot of mid-upper tier wood fried pizzas tend to all sort of blend together in their generally strong quality. When you get the style right, the textures and cheeses are often going to be extremely similar. This is of course a good thing: a delicious pizza is a great thing after all. For my purposes as a reviewer? (And having reviewed dozens of these now?) It becomes tricky to differentiate them (especially as a grade).
Tulia Osteria rises notably above that cream because of the vibrance and clever combination of ingredients. Using a smoked mozzarella is a nice little extra touch and layer to enjoy, the additional spiciness of the pizza with the red chilis giving a bit more depth in its heat than a typical "spicy salami" does, while adding pecorino cheese to this really adds another dimension of cheesy dry saltiness.
There's plenty of all of this flavour depth evenly throughout the pizza, and with that I'm giving Tulia Osteria a strong "B++", close to the "A" level even. This was exceptionally good, but more importantly it was very memorable... and I can't really think of any particular weakness. Loses some punch on the reheat? A bit... there is some staleness and the sauce dries out which makes the pie a bit too cheese flavour heavy (which isn't an ideal thing or a terrible thing).
It only falls short of the "A" tier because it didn't completely blow my mind (it's a tough tier to crack) but this clever combination of thoughtful toppings and terrific foundation brings it awfully close. Tulia does its former tenant, Queen Margherita, extremely proud... perhaps even surpassing them. And I had some dates there, lemme tell ya! Hey... where y'all going............?
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