This Week In Pizza: Maestro's Gourmet Pizza

 

 

Off the bat, I think this place deserves an immediate point in regards to its name. "Maestro" is just one of those words that is fun and satisfying to say out loud. Try it yourself right now! Pretty good, right?

Maestro's Pizza have two locations (three if you count a St. Catharines outpost that may or may not still exist): one in Leslieville (across the street from a Value Village I visit from time to time) and one on Kingston Road just a block north of Queen Street. Back when I worked at Reid's Distillery and the Leslieville Maestro's had just opened, I recall a co-worker saying she'd had them in Ajax (a location which has now closed) relaying they were pretty decent. 

In the files of "Things Best Not Reviewed While Sad Drunk and Lonely" I tried Maestro's a couple of winters ago and I'm not even going to try and find the picture I took at the time (trust me it ain't worth it). At the time I recall being underwhelmed (if that's a word) but mostly distracted by the realization two girls I'd once dated lived within that same block of each other... oh booze, you rascal... (pardon me while I tug at my collar).

Regardless, over time I began to think Maestro's deserved a second (more sober) look... so that's what I did here. On a night that was -14(!) no less, I ventured out again to that Kingston Road spot and got the pizza you have seen above. 

It's definitely a takeout spot in terms of spacing, with a couple of tiny tables (with some newspapers) by the window. A bit of a shame they're semi-hidden away on a side street corner a block north of Queen as I could imagine in the summertime, with the crowds lined up for a concert at nearby History and a gigantic park also a hop skipped jump away... (at least Holi Taco is a killer option more in view of foot traffic).

The lady behind the counter was extremely kind and not at all annoyed with my last second topping change (heh sorry): they have a one topping walk-in special and initially I was going for their "meatball" option, but changed it to Canadian bacon juuust before it was too late. With the gift of retrospect, this was an exceptional call on my part... which I will explain momentarily. 

 

   

The moment is now! The bacon ends up being the best part of this entire pizza. It isn't so much of a peameal bacon (though there is a thick fattiness and specific familiar tenderness) but the "Canadian" part of the advertised name comes from its flavour: a very strong hint of maple all over this bacon. 

It's a pleasant addition of sweetness within the salty fat and really gives this pie a much needed flavour boost... because the rest? Very ordinary, although there isn't anything offensively wrong about it. In fact it's quite solid, but not without its flaws.

The crucial flaw being: where's the sauce? I mean, I like a slab of cheesy bacon bread as much as the next person (who wouldn't) but I can't even describe what this tomato sauce tastes like because... well can you see any in the photo above? Exactly. 

So what you're really getting here flavour-wise is gooey cheese texture and the maple sweetness of the bacon... and honestly I've had so many pizzas that can't even get a single thing right, that a pizza getting two things on the button? Entirely acceptable. Enjoyable, even. To Maestro's credit, neither the cheese or the bread tastes like your run-of-the-mill "we don't care" generic frozen dough or plasticy shredded cheese. The cheese here has enough of its natural oils that it doesn't go horribly stiff once it gets cold. Actually, if I may... I'd like to make a coincidental comparison: 

 

This is a bacon pizza from the Pizzaville here in the Beaches (they have a 1 Topping special for like 10 bucks, decent) from a couple weeks ago, and I think using this example properly illustrates the difference between a perfectly decent-ish pizza from a good-ish one. Here's Maestro's again:

Now don't get me wrong, I generally like Pizzaville... they're one of the stronger prominent pizza chains around (not high praise exactly, but I consider them reliably acceptable... they're arguably better than Pizza Nova at this point, though maybe the Beaches one just stinks). 

Maestro's is the better pizza because there is so much more depth to the flavours even beyond what you can already see: Pizzaville's cheese, for example, has a bland blocky thickness to it that becomes very noticeable very quickly since it's such a cheese-heavy pie, while it really has little taste to it. Maestro's likewise relies on heavy cheese, but there's more of a baked oiliness to that flavour that elevates it a quite bit. It's more of a stringy 'melt off the slice' type of cheese. 

The real secret weapon of Maestro's is this garlic dip. You can perhaps tell by the deeper colour that this is not your standard salad-dressing-like "sharp fleeting garlic meets creamy" like dip. Rather, you get that beautiful black garlic element: smooth and endlessly rich, that precious garlicky taste takes it's time dancing in your mouth... this was truly exceptional stuff (I of course notoriously adore garlic and this impressed even me). Goddamn, I would buy this in bulk if it were sold in stores. 

Overall! For a pizza joint that has two current confirmed locations, both in areas where I have varying degrees of emotional baggage... this has to have been the best result possible because this pizza is entirely good. 

It's far from a "go try this immediately" kind of place. If anything, I used my comparison with Pizzaville with considered intent because that's exactly the kind of pizza this is. Imagine a bready and cheesy pie, with a good topping but little sauce, that is a couple of notches above something very streamlined and average. That's Maestro's! 

I wouldn't pay like 20 bucks for a pizza here, but a cheap little walk-in special to share among friends? Excellent value there... plus that black garlic dip is genuinely killer. That dip alone gets an A-... the pizza itself is more of a "B-". This part of town is especially short on top quality pizza options (especially with the demise of Somun Superstar and Otherside) and so finding a good enough one within bike riding distance... I'll settle for it.