Folks, this ain't child's play we're fooling around with on this one. This is no mere 'boy' pizza, no sir. Or... is it? "McMan" does translate as "son of Man" after all... oh no! Now I'm extremely confused... is this pizza macho or not?
Whomever McMan (or his/her son) is, there's a new pizza joint named after them just off the corner of Woodbine and Danforth in the east end of Toronto. I tend to check out the Value Village there on occasion and seeing an unfamiliar storefront across the street offering Detroit style pizza... no surprise that I made a mental note of investigating this further (most likely with my stomach). While I perhaps didn't pick the most optimal evening to finally act on this (it was windy and sleet was everywhere) I brought my wet boots (sorry) and appetite to this place, curious if their take on the distinct Detroit pie would stand out from the now several others I've sampled over the years.
Orange is the new orange? Apparently?
Seriously, not kidding about the orange.
Aside from seeming like an abstract Tropicana commercial, the layout and decor is quite inviting. The communal benches and the stools by the counter do give the space the vibe of a good spot to sit comfortably and share a pizza, perhaps while watching the local activity and life of this pocket of Danforth pass on by.
It is still a lot of orange though.
Oftentimes choosing which pizza I should try involves much deliberation (it's a hard life, I know). I want to sample something that's both unique and distinctive to that particular pizzeria, yet also one that has enough of the basic pizza elements so to properly evaluate them against all the others I've tried. This always reminds me of a former co-worker who, when talking about this (we worked together around the time I started my mad Pizza Quest) found it extremely illogical how I wouldn't just get a basic Margherita pie at every place, thus making all comparisons level and fair. He's not wrong... but also, that would be so damn boring... so I'll gladly take the occasional conceptual uncertainty over that.
Thus, why we have here McMan's "Mexican" style pizza: chorizo sausage, tomato sauce and mozzarella, pickled onions, pineapple, jalapeno and a coriander lime sour cream mix.
You might be thinking "this sounds an awful lot like stuff you'd find on a taco" and you'd be correct! That definitely appears to be the game they're going for here... and they kind of pull it off, actually. There are bites that have particularly "taco-esque" flavours: the faint pickled sweetness of the onions, the hint of lime citrus in the sour cream (plus the plentiful coriander), the seasoning and fattiness of the juicy chorizo... even the smell initially reminded me more of tacos than pizza.
A funky experiment sure, but does it actually work? The answer is... yeah! For the most part at least, as this pie does have a couple of weaknesses. The toppings are of a decent quality, nothing that's exceptional or truly vivid on the tongue... but far from cheap or generic either. Plus, the mozzarella has genuine cheese pull when still fresh... stretchy strands to the sky! Always a good sign of a quality mozzarella.
My biggest issue is the tomato sauce: it's a bit too much, both in quantity and flavour. I do like a saucy pizza, I've never been shy about this... but here the tomato sauce is a big presence and bringing a sharpness that with so much of it, tends to overpower the other flavours here. Especially with the sour cream on here as well... it's essentially smothering everything else on certain bites, the pineapple and the jalapeno being the biggest victims of that (very little presence, beyond the jalapenos bringing a tiny bit of bite).
While there might be an imbalance of flavours here, the texture has no such problem. I've noticed with a lot of these Detroit-style spots that the outer edge of their crusts tend to dry out quickly, resulting in a chewy and stale experience once cold or on the reheat. McMan manages to make that fantastic outer crunch a big part of their pizza, combining those crispy baked cheese edges with a marvelously soft and fresh dough within. It's a rather oily pie in that dough as well along the bottom (probably a good reason that texture holds so nicely) and that with all the loose sauce on top... napkins are a necessity.
Overall! While lacking some of the truly exceptional qualities of Toronto's very best deep dish, McMan does rise above all of the average-goodish ones that now populate the scene. Nailing the dough so thoughtfully and tastily is especially the key to that. It's a little below my level of "you gotta go out of your way to try this!" but McMan is most definitely a very welcome addition to the rather sparse high quality pizza options in this part of eastern Toronto.
I very much enjoyed it, plus it held up well on the reheat. A strong "B+"grade in my books, definitely worthy of a visit... though maybe not in a sleet storm (that's when you call delivery).
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