Left Field Brewery is a spot I have a significantly soft spot in my heart for. What's not to like? Their backstory is awesome, their first location is up the street from where I play softball (the little taproom there is great), they're baseball themed, their branding is stylish and most importantly their beers are consistently fantastic!
If this were a review just about their beers (and I were currently drinking such things) this article would be glowing so much you'd need shades. Alas this is a pizza program (er, article) and so we have to stick to the merits of only pizza-related things, damnit. As refreshing as their non-alcoholic cherry spritzer was...
It was a wet stormy Wednesday night and I was at the Liberty Village location of LF with some old dear friends for their trivia night (which Left Field does in a somewhat unconventional way). Seeing pizza on the menu... well I think you can guess what happened next... you're reading it right now!
I'm consistently drawn to the combination of sweet and spicy, thus making Left Field's "Hot and Honey" pizza the most appealing among their rather limited (four) pizza options. Not as limited are their selection of dips, with over a dozen concoctions ranging from Buttermilk Ranch, Sriracha Ketchup, Onion Dip and Eephus BBQ Sauce (to name a few). While I'm also consistently attracted to garlic sauces in all varieties... their "beer and cheddar" dip sounded far too intriguing to pass on.
Typically a cheesy beer dip would be associated more as an accompaniment for a big salty pretzel rather than a pizza slice, but my rationale was "hey, pizza also consists mostly of bread too, right?" Plus... I really just wanted to try this dip.
I'll say that I didn't get so much of the beer flavour beyond an undercurrent of wheaty breadiness in the taste and texture, which made the consistency of the dip a bit looser than some of your thicker, gloopier cheese sauces. The cheddar presence was also on the subtler side: less of an immediate luminescent sharpness and more a grounded, slightly malty (perhaps from the beer) cheesiness. Pretty interesting... and quite effective as a dip for the crusts.
Not a pizza that's going to win a whole lot of beauty contests, especially under the yellow lighting of Left Field Brewery's upstairs. Also: are pizza beauty contests actually a thing? Please let this be so... I could totally be a judge for such an event, for real! My credentials are obvious!
This "Hot and Honey" is a pretty straight-forward creation: tomato pizza sauce, mozzarella, Calabrese salami, a drizzle of honey, bomba sauce and grana padano cheese. The pizza came to the table extremely hot, which can definitely distort one's impression of how spicy a pizza actually is when actual heat is sizzling the insides of your defenseless mouth.
As a pizza, this is an extremely saucy one. If Zula in The Junction was the one most overloaded with cheese, Left Field is the one way too supercharged with tomato sauce. It oozes out! Normally I like a pizza with a good amount of sauce (the steadfast advocate for deep dish that I am) but this is a bit too much even for me. It is a solid sauce though: not too sweet, with a general heartiness that reminds me of a good homemade spaghetti.
Adding to the sloppiness of the pie is that honey drizzle, which truly is a fantastic touch on a pizza like this. Honey sweetness has a certain lightness to it... like a gentle kiss on the cheek its pleasant and brief. The only issue is when you drizzle honey on something extremely hot, like a pizza fresh from an oven... the honey tends to expand and seep into the closest creaks and cracks (such as in-between the slices). Basically... honey makes pizza very sticky! Still worth it though.
This pizza actually reminded me a lot of Domino's, which in these parts normally would be an insult akin to telling your significant other they do indeed look fat in that outfit. In this case though it's more of a similarity in composition: you've got a bit of a cornmeal dusting on the bottom (like Domino's), the heavy amount of sauce is also similar as is the overall level it's been baked to. The main difference is that Left Field makes a far superior pizza in every way: the heavy sauce actually has a presence beyond "red tomato-like filler", the slices don't dry up and lose all flavour once cold, plus the salami on this is enjoyable with a lingering taste as well.
The slight sprinkling of parmesan is a pleasant touch although not all that noticeable considering how most of the flavour is dominated by all that sauce. I'm certain the bomba is also mixed into the tomato sauce, which does give the pie a particular oily and spicy zing on most bites. This might not be an ideal choice if your day has already been shrouded by bouts of heartburn.
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(I didn't take my usual exterior shot of the place because it was raining so damn much I just wanted to escape back to the shelter of the Exhibition GO Station as quickly as possible!)
Overall. I think Left Field makes an entirely respectable pizza. Definitely enjoyable, holds up once it (mercifully) cools off, while the ingredients are of a pretty solid quality. That said, I wouldn't be in a rush to have another one whenever I happen to visit the brewery again in Liberty Village. Far from a disappointment but likewise far from a "you really gotta try this" level. Nothing particularly unique or creative to it, just a pretty okay-to-fine bar style pizza.
For me I'd place it squarely in the "B-" range, probably on the outside of the Top 100 in Toronto. Perfectly suited to share with some buddies and beers (like that Eephus Ale... oh do I miss it) over a ballgame on the big screen, but the pizza itself won't at all be the memorable part.
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