Does anyone else remember 49 cent pizza on Saint-Mathieu and de Maisoneuve? Many Fridays of my youth were spent taking the 165 bus down Cote des Neiges to cop the best deal on pizza in the city. For $2, you got two slices of the shadiest pizza and a drink. The food was questionable at best but the risk was part of the experience. It was one of the few places you can go eat fully knowing you’d probably get sick…and you were ok with that. There was a time where you could get a slice almost anywhere in Montreal until these slice shops slowly dried up. Recently, there has been a literal boom in by-the-slice shops, but not just ordinary pizza; New York-style pizza to be exact. I checked out the newest spot slinging slices, Pizza Toni.
Pizza
Does anyone else remember 49 cent pizza on St. Mathieu and de Maisonneuve? This has to be about 20 years ago (holy shit, I’m old). It was called 49 cent pizza, because, duh, a slice was 49 cents. You’d be able to buy two questionable slices of pizza and a canned drink for a twoonie and still get change. There was an influx of cheap, by-the-slice pizza shops that opened up through the early 2000s, however not 49 cents, inflation brought up those prices over a dollar a slice. Much of those places have closed up or the lone survivors are not as popular anymore. I recently visited a new player in the pizza game who’s trying to revitalize the scene and bring by-the-slice back into the spot light with a New York twist; Pizzeria La New-Yorkaise.
There are certain foods that I’ve said I can eat everyday and never get tired of. One of those things is pizza. Any kind of pizza. From artisanal thin crust Neapolitan pizza to classic Montreal “all dress'” grease-wheels (I’m looking at you Pendelli’s). Sometimes I like to go back and visit some of my favourite places joints. Recently I’ve been on a pizza kick – and by recently I mean the past 30 years. To celebrate my 30-somethingth birthday, I checked out a new pizza spot in Verdun that has people talking… and I’m listening – Restaurant Rita.